20 Feet From Stardom
mannybolone
Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
I caught a screening of this last night and it's pretty damn great. I think a lot of Strutters will appreciate it on any number of levels.
After the screening, Judith Hill, the Waters and Merry Clayton came out to perform and Clayton, especially, has such a massive presence and performance skills. I suspect there'll be some NY screening of this where Darlene Love may perform.
The most intriguing story, to me, is that of Claudia Lennear (the supposed inspiration for the Rolling Stones' "Brown Sugar" and one of the Ikettes), who is prominently featured in the film but is one of the few examples of a singer who left the game and apparently, stayed gone.
In contrast, Lisa Fischer has a pretty amazing story that seems absent any real kind of bitterness or disappointment.
And I didn't realize the Waters were hired to make bird sounds for Avatar.
I have to imagine they MUST have gone after Clydie King for an interview but while she's mentioned once, she's not in the film.
Anyways, go see this.
Comments
The story of Gimme Shelter is in this movie?
Because I'd read Darlene's autobiography, I kinda knew her side of the story, so she was just a highlight in a sea of many. Great flick overall. The closest this movie comes to a bitter side story is Claudia Lennear, and even then she maintains her composure just enough to come out with her dignity intact. The flick treats its' subjects right.
Question: does that sound like the Blossoms on Sam Cooke's "Chain Gang" to you? I always thought, and still think, that that was an all-male chorus. If that was Darlene Love, Fanita James and Jean King singing backup, NO WONDER they got a lot of work. It's one thing being able to sound "black" and "white," as Darlene has said, but to sound "female" and "male" too? ;-)
Listening to Chain Gang now.
"Well don't you know"
Lisa Fischer can circles around everyone.
While I knew the 60s stories fairly well, I didn't know the 70s, 80s+ stories.
The basic premise, or question, was Why do some people become famous others don't?
Springsteen was actual insightful, and Sting was not annoying. Gratefully Bono*, for once, was absent.
*Both Sonny and the other one.
According to the interwebs, Blossoms sang back up on Everyone Loves To Cha Cha Cha.
While to you and me it appeared that the film makers were suggesting that the Blossoms sang on Chain Gang, to non-record nerds it only looked like it was saying Sam Cooke.
Even in the back of Darlene Love's autobiography (which came out in the nineties), her list of credits included "Chain Gang."
"Everybody Loves To Cha Cha Cha" makes more sense.
Now I gotta find out which Buck Owens tracks they sang on. My vote goes to "Big In Vegas."
Might be that they sang it with him on a tv show or something and story got twisted.
Pickwick, your the man to create the entire Blossoms/Darlene Love sessionography.