Forget the old canard about paying for your Saturday night sins by attending church on Sunday morning. The post-war explosion of recorded music was fuelled by artists transforming gospel music into earthly, earthy pop. Ray Charles built his carnal 1959 breakthrough hit “What’d I Say” on the call and response of a gospel choir, Little Walter changed “This Train”’s call for salvation into an ode to “My Babe,” Sam Cooke turned testimony into sensual pleading. By the time Aretha Franklin ruled the pop and R&B charts in the late 1960s, the open dialogue between gospel, soul, and pop meant even Paul Simon and Paul McCartney were writing songs that were effectively secular spirituals.
The music chronicled on The Time for Peace Is Now, the second volume of Luaka Bop’s World Spirituality Classics series (the first was 2017’s The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda), dates from just after this era, when a mention of Jesus didn’t preclude a single’s appearance on the charts. The Edwin Hawkins Singers blazed this path by taking the jubilant “Oh Happy Day” to No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1969, but the touchstone for much of The Time for Peace Is Now is the Staple Singers. Recording artists since the late 1950s, the Staple Singers became hitmakers once they signed to Stax, the home of deep Southern soul. “Respect Yourself” and “I’ll Take You There” were smash hits in 1971 and 1972, climbing the pop charts by camouflaging their messages of self-betterment and deliverance underneath funky grooves.
Each of the lesser-known acts on The Time for Peace Is Now adopts this aesthetic for their own purpose. They may be singing about Jesus, but the message is soft-pedaled within pleas for peace, love, and understanding, and the churchy origins are obscured by an emphasis on groove and feel. Since the artists on The Time for Peace Is Now recorded for tiny regional labels and never received national attention while they were active, the compilation represents larger trends within gospel and soul; these singers weren’t on the vanguard, they were riding a wave. They recorded when local studios and pressing plants were plentiful, as were professional musicians eager to make a quick buck at a session, so they were able to cut tracks that felt complete.
Nothing on The Time for Peace Is Now seems like outsider art. There isn’t a household name among these 13 artists, but many of the musicians worked regularly on the gospel circuit during the 1970s, when all these recordings were made. The Triumphs gained enough of an audience to play at the inauguration of Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley, the Floyd Family Singers opened for Rev. James Cleveland at Madison Square Garden and cut an LP for Savoy, while the Gospel I.Q.’s are said to have recorded for OKeh. Due to bad breaks or distaste for the music industry, these artists receded from view, leaving their recordings to be unearthed by collectors and experts such as Greg Belson, who compiled this set for Luaka Bop.
Belson selected singles and album tracks that illustrate how deeply intertwined these working musicians were with the prevailing funky, soulful sounds of the time. Much of this has to do with the uncredited supporting bands, who evoke the sultry southern grooves emanating from Memphis and Muscle Shoals in the late ’60s and early ’70s. Occasionally, the production gets a little slicker and the rhythms a little heavier, as on the four-on-the-floor disco of “That’s a Sign of the Times” by the Floyd Family Singers. “That’s a Sign of the Times” dates from 1980, making it probably the latest cut here, but it sounds like it could be a few years older—an assessment that can be leveled against any song here. As much as the music on The Time for Peace Is Now sounds like a ’70s period piece, individual trends aren’t always easily identifiable. The Staples Singers are a pervasive influence—“We Got a Race to Run” is by the Staples Jr. Singers, who named themselves in homage to their heroes—and there are echoes of Curtis Mayfield and Gamble & Huff’s Philadelphia International evident in the compilation’s silky guitar runs and velvety vocal harmonies. Occasionally, a song even suggests something outside of soul: The lanky rhythms and swirling organ of “Peace in the Land” by the Gospel I.Q.’s are cousins to the British pub rock bashed out by Nick Lowe and Graham Parker.
The concentration on rhythm and vibe means The Time for Peace Is Now doesn’t feel like gospel music in the traditional sense: the chord changes often are elegant, the harmonies are never as raucous as a church service, and the songs seem to aspire to the crossover achieved by the Edwin Hawkins Singers and the Staple Singers. The spiritual message isn’t overt; it’s tucked away within lyrics that otherwise serve as affirmations and inspirations—sentiments that sought healing in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement, assassinations, and the Vietnam War. From a distance, it can sound like soulful pop music, but a closer listen reveals that’s not true. Set aside the celestial lyrics: the songs and production are not quite polished, the musical ideas just slightly too common to stand out. What distinguishes the recordings on The Time for Peace Is Now is how the passion of the singers is tempered by the professionalism of their supporting players. Everybody involved was attempting to appeal to a broad audience: They were converting doubters into believers by playing gospel that could masquerade as pop.
