Over and out…
ID5545799 asks the final question:
Would you still rather be an old man’s sweetheart than a young man’s fool?
tomcasagranda asks:
Candi, I love your sessions with Rick Hall: what was it like recording down in Muscle Shoals at FAME studios ? You must have been around some great session men like Duane Allman and Eddie Hinton
Guardian contributor Yeah, I was. Duane has a Jesus-people kind of look, flower children sort of thing, he can in with no shirt on and flowers round his neck. No shoes, hair all the way down. He sat in lotus style in the middle of the floor, with a Coke bottle on his thumb playing the guitar. He blew us away, I was in awe: who was this person? And Rick was so traditional: "If you don't get that hippie out of here..." He would stay outside sun-worshipping, looking up at the sun playing his guitar. I said you should sign him now; Rick didn't care, he couldn't deal with it. It was great being around all those people, it was wonderful.
"I think Beyonce gives her soul to women"
hollymusic has a great question:
If she could get an old school songwriter - and a new writer to write her a song each . Who would they be?
Guardian contributor I think Beyonce would be the new songwriter. And the old-school: George Jackson. He wrote a lot of my best songs. Put them together, you'd get some great combinations.
I think Beyonce gives her soul to women. I like the way she expresses herself, it's a hurt-filled kind of independence - she's going through pain, but she can make it without you; I'm hooked on you, but I don't have to be. I can make it on my own, but I don't want to. She's a great songwriter.
brantgrebner asks what’s in a name:
Can you explain the background to your name please?
Is it your stage name?
If so, why is there an “I” in your first name but no “I” in your surname?
Guardian contributor Canzetta is on my birth certificate. Mavis Staples called me Candi, that's who started it. We were teenagers together, and she said that's just too long! She had that bubbly personality, she's always up. She said I'm just gonna call you Candi, cause you sweet. Call her Candi! I was just 15.
BarkingMad would like to know:
Which of the many versions of “You Got The Love” is your favourite?
Guardian contributor Maybe the first remix, with the guitar thing - Frankie Knuckles' song [that the Source sampled]. It's so sad he passed away, it doesn't seem like he's gone. And I never got a chance to meet him.
bazza345 asks:
Hello Candi, Ill sing a love song for you is imho one of your loveliest songs,so underrated, what is your favourite! Love and xxxs barry
Guardian contributor I've got so many, I'm so prejudiced. But I'll say: Young Hearts Run Free.
"My faith is my foundation"
clareyesno asks:
Is it true that Elvis loved your version of In The Ghetto? How do you pick the songs you want to cover and how do you put your own stamp on them?
Guardian contributor They had slicker ways back then - now it's blatant. They don't care any more. Cheating is cheating - it's just easier to cheat now. And easier to get found out too. I don't think cheating will ever stop. You gotta hang onto them, hang in there! Some girls are so nasty!
My faith is my foundation, it's very important. It keeps me steadfast, keeps me centered. Keeps me focused. It's my solid rock. I try to choose good music in secular music, I wouldn't go way leftfield, I want to keep it family-based and have kids having to leave the room. I want people from 9 to 90 to come to my concerts, so I keep my lyrics clean, and that has a lot to do with my faith.
Someone asked me why I don't sing Mr and Mrs Untrue any more - it's because I don't encourage adultery, thanks to my faith.
That song In The Ghetto - my ex-husband was in the studio, and I was just sitting there reading a magazine. He was in the middle of recording In The Ghetto, and [songwriter] Mack Davis said why doesn't Candi sing it? A woman hasn't ever sung it before. It's about women, feelings and emotions of them. I said you gotta tell Clarence, I'm not going to tell him! He didn't mind it at all, in fact he liked it. Clarence didn't like Patches, his big hit record - even though that record got out in 7 days, in the street in 7 days, and it went gold. So he probably didn't like In The Ghetto either. I did it with the same band, changed the key, and they all went back to their session. Just did it, no practice. We pulled that one out, and he just carried on his session.
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DallyWest wonders:
I have one song on my playlist that is my go-to carefree song - the one that makes me the most zen individual on a stressful commute or the most free spirit on pavement. Young Hearts Run Free is powerful to anyone that hears it. What were your very first thoughts or feelings when Crawford presented you with the song?
Guardian contributor David gave me that song, and I knew it was a hit. My god, it was the most beautiful song I'd ever heard. He wrote the lyrics around what I was going through at the time. I was going through a bad relationship, trying to get out, it was very abusive and hurtful. I was afraid, fearful of this person, that kept threatening my life. "If you leave me, I'll kill you, I'll have your kids and mother killed." The whole fear tactic: I'm going to scare you to death; I'm going to hold onto you one way or another.
I would tell David about it as we went along, and he wanted to write a song. He knew I would bring a song home if he knew I was in the middle of it. I could sell it. So that's why he wrote that song. It was a really tough time.
It's a bittersweet song - you're dancing away your troubles when you hear it. It's got a dance beat, but really heavy lyrics.
KriegersClones asks:
When did you first realise I had the love you need to see you through?
Guardian contributor I got a lot of love to see you through! That song came out in 86 in Chicago, and it's grown so big since then. I really didn't think anything would happen, didn't think much about the lyrics. I didn't pay them any attention, it was just a song for a film. I was writing and producing and doing TV, and this was a small song compared with some I was doing. It wasn't a big thing to me. And after it came over and became such a big hit, I started to revisit it - what was so wonderful about it?
And I started to read into it the things that other people were feeling about it. Hope, it's all we have, without it we wouldn't survive, and that's a song that's filled with hope. It's a great song, the lyrics are strong.
George Haffenden would like to know:
Do you think it’s fair to say that you’re more popular in the UK and Europe than you are in the States? If so, what do you think of that, and why is it that the case?
Guardian contributor Right now I am, in terms of secular music. Those 25 years of being in the Christian music scene, people in the US think I'm doing pure gospel. I'm in the class of "gospel singer". Every Honest Jons or EMI record didn't come out back at home, they don't know I'm doing this stuff. His Hands, they never got that, unless they got online and imported it. The gap is so wide in America, we're trying to close it, between gospel and the mainstream. I know it'll come around, but it might take a minute to come around. I really don't mind - I live there, work here.
Donwarthog asks:
My question is actually about your past when you recorded at Rick Halls’ Fame Studios.I believe you had over 15 big hits in those days, yet your songs seem to be very difficult to find.Why do you not appear on The Fame Studios Story 1961-1973, and why is “I’m just a prisoner” out of print?
Guardian contributor It's out now - it's called Evidence. A double CD was released last year, it's got everything I've ever done, plus some new stuff - some new things in the can you've never heard before.
They offered them to me in demo versions, and some I knew I could bring home, and some weren't my style. I tried to pick the songs that mean something to me, that's personal, that I could feel. I have to feel them, I'm a soul singer. If I can't feel it, why offer it to you, because you can't feel it either.
I started singing secular music in 69 - Stand By Your Man, In The Ghetto, How Can I Put Out The Fire, that kind of songs. But I'm forever doing new material - it's hard to do all those songs in one show! If you want to hear them let me know before I do a tour so I can put them in. I went to Japan, they started emailing us with requests, and some were songs I hadn't done for decades - I had to go back in the studio to relearn them. In Australia, I did my regular show, and they didn't recognise anything!
We had an era when DJs were mostly men... women's lib had not come to be. We were in a jail, in a sense. We could only sing songs about: "men, please don't leave me!" The male DJs would play the big pleading songs, "you can do anything you want to do to me, just take me back." Men love to hear that - if you got too liberated they wouldn't play your record. Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive broke that mould, and then me with Young Hearts Run Free- suddenly women were buying more and more records.
After I went on sabbatical for 25 years, and did my TV show at Christian TV shows - I went back and listened to those songs and I was appalled. You have got to be joking: I was singing those blood sweat and tears songs, about how I would die if he didn't come back to me. Ha! I am not dying if you leave me - it's good riddance. But that was the era we lived in, we had to conform. The producers were totally behind it - "we can't do that, it's too liberal. We won't get no airplay." So you had to do those songs.
"I tease Gloria Gaynor, I say that was supposed to me my song..."
allannersessian wonders:
What song do you hear and think “I wish I had recorded that”?
Guardian contributor All the hit records! I tease Gloria Gaynor, I say that was supposed to me my song... I love that song. The Right Woman by Aretha Franklin too. Gladys Knight, Midnight Train to Georgia. BB King, The Thrill Is Gone - I love it.
And Pharrell, Happy, I wish that song. Happy? I got happy! That song makes you want to jump up and dance.
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EllieVioletBramley asks:
Is there anybody around and making music now who you would like to duet with?
Guardian contributor I wanted to ask Sam Smith at the Mobos - it was on my mind, let's put it that way. THere's a soulful connection. He would give his interpretation, as we as me, and I'd think we'd gel pretty well. But Jessie J is so fantastic... her voice is so up there, I don't know if we would gel, I would have to stay on the low ground while she takes the high ground. And Nicole Scherzinger, she's a beautiful singer. I admire good singing, good music. I saw her on a show in Atlanta one night, I think it was the X Factor, and she blew it away. I was in bed, and I sat up and said girl, if you don't stop this... what is this?? This chick can blow! It was crazy.
Kicking things off, dimesnnickels asks:
Are there any current UK singers you really admire or enjoy listening to?
Guardian contributor Adele, Sam Smith, Pixie Lott - my Pixie! Pixie came over when we did the Jazz Cafe, and she wanted to sing with me, and she did a great job - she can dance, instead of saying throw your hands up in the air, she can throw her foot up in the air! I was so proud of her.
Sam Smith has a soulful voice - I recognise other soulful voice, I could just listen and listen to him. Adele, we were having a barbecue when I was first introduced to Adele. And all the kids around the area in Atlanta were listening to her. So I've been an Adele fan ever since. She's an artist, first of all - artists are different, they create as they go, they paint pictures. She's made her own way - she's not cookie cutter, she's Adele.
Post your questions for Candi Staton
To many people, Candi Staton is known purely for You Got The Love, a song whose durability is almost ridiculous. Originally recorded as an 80s funk jam for the soundtrack to a documentary about the world’s fattest man, it was mashed up with Frankie Knuckles’ Your Love in 1991 to create a rave classic, then remixed in 1997 as bombastic breakbeat, before eventually being thunderously covered by Florence and the Machine. Staton demonstrated its ongoing popularity with a barnstorming performance at this year’s Mobo awards, with rapper Little Simz weaving through the track.
But her career is so much more rich than just one song. She began in the 1950s singing country-soul tracks full of heartbreak – indeed, one producer made her sing herself hoarse to get the required level of emotional pain. Her version of In the Ghetto was praised by Elvis, while the likes of Too Hurt To Cry rank among the greatest ballads of the era. She moved into disco and gospel, with the regret-soaked Young Hearts Run Free proving her first major hit, and has continued to record until the present day: His Hands featured collaborations with Lambchop and Will Oldham, while her new LP Life Happens is released on 27 October.
To celebrate the release day, Candi is joining us to answer your questions from 10.30am GMT onwards. Whether its the life lessons learned across five marriages, or the creative ups and downs of 60 years of music-making, there’s a huge amount to delve into – post your questions in the comments below, and she’ll endeavour to answer as many as possible.
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I guess so, yeah. I would. End of story!
Thanks for all the questions! I did the best I could. I love you!