20 Feet from Stardom

20 Feet from Stardom

In the “20 feet from Stardom”, there is a moment that determines how the story unfolds, and it showcases those little known background musicians who have been behind our humming of tunes for years.

The director of this film, Morgan Neville is criticized by Merry Clayton who happens to be a character in his movie. He asks her why she turned off the music in her car. “You cannot get her to turn down her music when she’s enjoying herself!” says a very stubborn Clayton.

Clearly, this is a lady who is not to be ignored and, lucky for us, Neville takes Clayton’s words to heart. The music is on and then some throughout this smartly put together documentary that celebrates the glorious harmonies achieved in the days before the pitch-tweaking of Auto-Tune yanked the very humanity out of the process.

Clayton was born with an inherent talent that could not be replicated by any machine or solo artist. The same goes for Darlene Love (who changes all her numbers into hits), Claudia Lennear (whose number does not exist anywhere because she has since moved away), Lisa Fischer (a very tiny yet explosive musician), Tata Vega (one of its kind), and Judith Hill (the newest phenomenon in town). Just 29 years old, Hill made a poor decision when she signed on as a contestant on “The Voice” which dismissed her without much promise.

Occasionally there are cameo appearances of male musicians like Luther Vandross whose early career saw him singing back-up for David Bowie during the period when British rockers needed blacks’ voices so as to sound more soulful.

However, black American women whose fathers officiated at worship services seem to have taken over this craft. They evolved their craft within church choral groups where performers were encouraged to blend rather than hog attention. From call and response gospel style singing featured in footage of their performances on What I’d Say released by Ray Charles, to He’s a Rebel done by girl groups, followed by Donna Summers’ Bad Girl and finally thriller composed for Michael Jackson.

But as uplifting as the music is, the film most benefits from the participants’ abundant gifts as storytellers. What they come up with are hilarious and very honest reflections on life as backup singers of some of the industry’s giants. Neville also got a number of incredible celebrities to talk about how these unknown people improved their performance in his movies including Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Bette Midler, Sting and Mick Jagger whose stage-ready appearance contrasts sharply with the natural unpolished nature of lesser-known characters in this film.

For once however these women get a chance to live through fame which has not brought them much monetary gain.

Love is likely best recognized as house vocalist for the super producer Phil Spector, inventor of the renowned Wall of Sound. Without her ghosting on some recordings that were allegedly done by The Crystals and others, this aural edifice would have crumbled. She however ensured that she remained under his thumb contractually making her not to become a main draw. After being miserable, she took to being a maid for some time before finally finding her place in the sun which for her was being inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010.

Even more fascinating are those who attempted to break out on their own, only to stumble due to circumstances beyond their control more than anything else.

For instance, when Lennear provided background vocals on Ike & Tina Turner’s “River Deep Mountain High,” it changed everything she soon became an Ikette, had a repertory role on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh In and posed nude for Playboy magazine as one of Hugh Hefner’s black bunnies. Now a Spanish teacher, she is shocked by what people nowadays consider provocative about it until Neville reminds her about doing that famous spread in Playboy many years ago. This sultry siren had the right stuff to turn Jagger’s head but in spite of its title “Phew!” (1973) which made waves among critics then failed on record charts.

She suffered the indignity of having Avery lip sync all their songs off-camera in The Color Purple (1985) while Vega only appeared as an Oscar nominee (this fact was not mentioned in 20 Feet). Meanwhile, through most of the ’70s and ’80s her solo albums hardly registered at retail outlets either. Nevertheless, this busy backup singer who has worked with Michael Jackson, Elton John, Madonna & Chaka Khan is content with how things turned out because if she had gotten bigger success she probably would have OD’d like so many of her friends.

According to the some famous people who’ve been lucky enough to utilize her services, listening to Fischer is like in a different realm altogether. Just ask Sting (“She’s a star,” he proclaims) or Jagger. Nonetheless, she wants to make sure that nobody forgets why it took so long for her follow-up effort and from the way she carries herself it appears that she has no desire for attention of any kind. However, since 1989 Fischer can say that she has been on tour with The Stones every time they have gone out.

Her detail-filled anecdote about the late-night call she received to record “Gimme Shelter” in a studio is almost as chilling as her performance. She turned up knocked up in curlers and a Chanel scarf over silk pajamas covered by a mink coat. “And then they gave me all these fucking words about rape and murder.” But Clayton did what was needed then went above and beyond. Rather than saying this aloud, Clayton states that her thought at asking for another take was: “I’m gonna blow them out of this room.”

That scene often elicits applause from audiences inside movie theaters; when Neville plays an isolated portion of her four-decade-old track back for an amazed-again Jagger, however, Clayton really blows the roof off of this fabulous documentary.

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