"I'll Take You There" (The Staple Singers)

"I'll Take You There" from the 1972 album Be Altitude by The Staple Singers is the definitive answer to the question, "Can gospel get funky?"

Al Bell, the executive vice president of Stax Records throughout the early 70s and the band's producer, wrote the song in 1971 as a cathartic exercise after experiencing a number of tragedies in his life.  He not only had weathered the plane crash death of Stax artist Otis Redding in 1967, but he also had three younger brothers die in quick succession.

In footage from a 2012 event held by The University of Arkansas, titled "An Evening with Al Bell," Bell comments that he had struggled with grief and trying to understand death following the 1971 murder of his brother, Louis.  It was at Louis's wake, while spending a quiet moment alone in his father's backyard, that Bell suddenly had the words of the song come to him:

I know a place

Ain't nobody crying

Ain't nobody worried

Ain't no smiling faces

Lying to the races.

I'll take you there.

Days later, the words stuck with him, and he knew the Staples were the ones to deliver to the world this message of spirituality and hope, which had seemed to come from beyond.

Backing the family on the track are members of the one-and-only Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, a.k.a. "The Swampers": Barry Beckett (keyboards), Roger Hawkins (drums), Jimmy Johnson (guitar), Eddie Hinton (guitar), and—the man behind that famous bassline—David Hood (bass), whom Mavis Staples name checks during the song's breakdown.

(As a side note: the song's subtle, soulful horn section actually was arranged and recorded separately in Detroit by notable R&B arranger Johnny Allen, who also worked with a number of other Stax/Volt artists.)

Interestingly enough, although the song is credited solely to Bell, it is largely based on the ska/reggae song "The Liquidator" (1969) by UK-based record producer Harry Johnson (better known as "Harry J") and his recording studio's house band, The Harry J All-stars.  In fact, the intro of "I'll Take You There" is a note-for-note replaying of "The Liquidator."

According to David Hood in a 2014 interview with No Treble magazine, Bell actually brought The Swampers a copy of "The Liquidator" during the recording sessions for Be Altitude, telling the musicians that he wanted something with the same feel.  

So it's no coincidence that the songs sound alike.

Nevertheless, I wouldn't trade Mavis Staples's moving invitation to the Promised Land atop that funk-reggae groove for anything.