When Do We Get Paid

Description

David Byrne's Luaka Bop label announces a reissue of the sole album by the Staples Jr. Singers, When Do We Get Paid, originally released in 1975. Curiously, they share the album title with a short film by Daniel Fox.It is an incredibly rare recording, only a handful of copies of the original record have survived over the past 40 years. At the time of its release, the Staples Jr. Singers were just teenagers, and they sold the copies they pressed themselves at concerts and on their lawn to neighbors. All of their soul-tinged gospel songs carried subtle and timely social messages that responded to what they saw in the South: the struggles of the Black community, the aftermath of desegregation, civil rights."Life wasn't easy back then," said singer and surviving older brother Edward Brown, 63. "You know, it was tough."