MAVIS STAPLES AND MARTIN LUTHER KING BOTH HAD THEIR EYES ON THE SAME PRIZE

The song itself is just a screamer, a rollicking blend of souped up deep south soul combined with a dazzling display of bottleneck guitar playing by veteran eccentric roots artist RY COODER. African all vocal group LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO supply the backing vocals, and Cooder's much less famous and little known brother JOACHIM COODER is quite simply awesome playing drums on the MAVIS STAPLES song EYES ON THE PRIZE, the second track off the one time STAPLE SINGERS' member's comeback album WE'LL NEVER TURN BACK in 2007. Certainly the struggle for civil rights in the United States for african americans in the 1960`s which the STAPLE SINGERS took centre stage for was still an inspiration for Mavis Staples 40 years later when she recorded this song. The video clip that comes with this is what you would call a disturbing mini-documentary of how black people were being treated by white suprematists in the United States, it shows police brutality at its most repugnant, it shows them being kicked like farm animals, being herded into police paddy wagons and cramped jail cells like they were being shipped to Auschwitz to be gassed, it shows them being pelted with water from a fire hose on the street and it shows a car load of KKK-er's with the burning crosses, which like everything else in the video clip is recycled real footage going back to the 1960`s, gut wrenching imagery all round. Despite all the atrocities, EYES ON THE PRIZE was meant to be a song that paid tribute to all those who fought to end racial vilification of black people in america all those years ago, and ultimately, the famous I HAVE A DREAM speech by MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. in 1963 on the steps of the LINCOLN MEMORIAL in Washington D.C, will forever be seen as the defining moment of the american civil rights movement. Lyrically, this song is Mavis Staples' personal tribute to MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.