Chords for Candi Staton Sings Mama (November 1995)

_ _ _ _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ Welcome back.
We're celebrating Thanksgiving [Bb] with some wonderful divas.
And as we celebrate the gospel this day, please welcome the golden voice of Miss Candy Stey. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ [F] _ _
_ _ [Bb] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
[A] _ I [Bb] thought you'd like to know _ [Eb] all those she pays [Bb] before. _
_ [Gm] _ Pray I [Bb] would make it home _ [C] alright.
_ [F] _ _
_ _ [Bb] Believe in God that [D] he _ [Eb] would someday save my soul.
_ [C] Well he did.
_ And I [F] thought you'd like to [Bb] know, _ _ [Eb] _ _
[F] _ _ [Bb] thought you'd like to know _ _ [Eb] all those prayers he prays for [Bb] me. _
_ _ [Gm] Never a one once fell to [G] the ground. _ _ _
[F] _ _ [Bb] I know _ sometimes it looked like I [Eb] was a million miles from grace.
He answered [Cm] your prayers.
_ _ [F] Thought you'd like [Bb] to know. _ _ _ _
_ _ [Eb] Mama, _ [F] I want you to know [Bb] I love you. _ _ _
_ Please [Cm] forgive me for [F] all the times I broke [Bb] your heart. _ _ _ _
_ [Eb] Every tear you cried for [F] me, threw [Gm] me close out of being [Eb] free. _
_ _ _ _ I [Cm] want to thank you.
_ [F] And I thought you'd like [Bb] to know, _ _ [Gm] _ _ [F] _ _ [Bb] thought you'd like to know I wish [Eb] I could live my life [Bb] again.
_ [Gm] If I could, _ I would surely make [F] amends. _
_ _ _ _ _ [Bb] But if I can help [D] my brother _ [Eb] a new life to discover,
_ then I [Cm] will. _
_ _ [F] And I thought you'd like to [Bb] know. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [Eb] Mama, _ [F] I want you to know [Bb] I love you.
_ _ [Gm] _ _ _ [Eb] Please forgive me for [F] all the times I broke [Bb] your heart.
_ _ _ _ _ [Eb] Every tear you cried for [F] me, _ threw me [Gm] close out of being [Eb] free. _ _ _ _ _
_ [Cm] _ _ _ And [F] I thought you'd like _ to [Bb] know. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [Eb] I thought you'd like _ [Bb] to know. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [N] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ I mean, we were all sitting here, Candy, just thinking about the many mothers these days that are crying and praying for their children.
What made you write that song?
My mother was a prayer warrior.
My daddy was a drunk.
He would drink and he would gamble.
And it was like a war always going on in our home.
And Mama would take me to church, Daddy would take me to gamble with him,
because he'd rub my leg and he'd shoot the dice, and you know, and I was good luck for him.
And it was always that tug of war.
And Mama would pray.
She would sit there with the Word of God,
and she would say, I don't care, girl, what you see people do.
She said, you go by this Word right here.
She said, everything shines, it's not gold.
And you know, when I started singing the blues back in the early 70s, she hated it.
She did not want me to sing the blues.
She said, I didn't raise you like that.
And she prayed for me and she died.
She passed away in 1979.
Before she could see me sing and know the Lord like I do now.
She didn't see my ministry, what I'm doing now.
But she refused to die.
_ She lay there on that bed and refused to die
until she got an answer from God that I was going to be alright.
I was doing an album in New York and I called her and said, Mama, you want me to come home?
She said, oh no, baby.
She said, you stay right there.
You do just what you do.
_ She said, I done fixed it with Jesus.
_ _ _ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
_ _ _ _ That's the way it [G] goes.
That's the way it goes.
But you know, we bring you a message that she's alright.
She sees your ministry now.
And Beverly was sitting over there.
There's a whole lot of Beverly's up here today folks.
And Beverly was like, yes, yes, you [D] sound familiar to me.
_ _ My mom, I lost my mom in 87.
But she had a chance to see my ministry and always encouraged me to stand on the Word of God.
And no matter what, you know, obey God rather than man.
And the reason why she would say that is because many times she figured that her sickness _ that took place in her body
was caused because she did not obey God.
And because man said God did not call a woman to preach and _ stopped her ministry.
And so she just held back.
And sickness attacked her body and that's what took her away from here.
But I just look down now and she didn't have a chance to see where God has brought me thus far.
I saw you with the song.
It was like it was your song.
You know, Beverly said something that's really an Achilles heel for me.
And that is the fact that_
I know what you're going to say.
Do you want to say?
_ _ Go say it.
No, no, no, no, you already know.
_ _ _ Because so many, I know so many women in the ministry and some women I know that have died before their time.
They're suffering with all kinds of sickness and disease because of the pressure and the oppression.
And they're holding it inside.
Don't just hold back on the call, but the pressure and the persecution you get in your own home,
that you get in the church, and that you get from other people and from other women.
Is that what happened to you when you said, I mean, did you just say I want to preach?
No, I was in the world.
My mother died when I was 10.
So I've been on my own since I was 10.
And unlike Candy and Beverly, I used to think that I was going to do what I was going to do because I didn't have a mother.
And I thought that children that had mothers didn't get molested.
I was molested and raped and lived with relatives, slept with my clothes on, violated time and time again.
So as a little girl, I thought this was happening to me because I didn't have a mother.
If I would have had a mother, this would not have happened.
And then when I listened and I began to talk to girls as I grew up, you know what I mean,
they had mothers and they still were having problems.
And so something, I believe that put a seed inside of me that wanted me to work with children.
I was pregnant when I was 16.
I had my son.
He's here today.
He's here in the audience today looking good.
_ _ And I kept going to school, went back to night school, got my diploma and everything,
went back to the high school on Who's Who in their Hall of Fame.
But God is good.
I wanted to work with children.
And I think I had a message that I wanted to bring hope and insight.
I had a poem, I always live by, good, better, best, never let it rest until you're good is better and you're better is best.
So I talk to young girls, I talk to young people all the time because I don't want them to adopt this victim mentality.
Because of what happens to you isn't you.
You can rise up, Lord lift me up where I belong.
Exactly.
I never felt like that was God or that was the lot that I was dealt with.
But once the cards I was dealt with, then I had to do something with it.
It all sounds familiar to you, doesn't it, as women, because you're all talking about a ministry.
Don't you feel you're all evangelists?
Has it been difficult for you in your homes?
Because you mentioned in your family.
People try to stop you from doing what you do?
Well, not me.
Well, we know you couldn't stop you, Candy.
_ _ Everybody was so glad to see me saved. _ _ _ _
See, we don't have time to tell you about the drugs and the liquor and the husband. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
But once you got saved and then you wanted to preach, did somebody say, well, Candy, maybe you shouldn't do that?
Well, yeah, there's always that, well, you better stick to singing. _
Sing the song and don't even talk.
You know, I was that was dealt with.
I dealt with that a lot.
Just we got you here to sing.
Don't even talk.
Because see, when I start talking about the Lord, I get excited and then I start preaching and then I would take the service.
Yes, you do.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ But that's how I church.
Yeah, it _ _ was when we were young because I was so glad to be, you know, I'm so free for all those years.
I didn't have to wake up in the morning with a drink in my hand and I could just be free.
And I just knew I had a relationship, not religion, a relationship with Jesus.
And that's what we're having with you all.
We're having a wonderful relationship.
The Divas of God on this Thanksgiving.
We'll be right back.
_ _ [Dm] _ _ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _ [Dm] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [N] _