July IO. 2013
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North. Portland
JU ¡.aw ry, J u a n n
East County
Beaverton
nm ana Lisa hscner in "20 Feet from Stardom" (Tremolo Productions
Relegated
B ackground
Unsung heroes
from the greatest
music of our time
by
D arleen O rtega
At the start of "20 Feet from Stardom,"
which opened in Portland on Friday, the
camera pans over vintage album covers and
photographs, with dots applied to the faces
of the lead singers to emphasize the faces of
the unknown singers backing them. As ac­
companiment, Lou Reed sings "Walk on the
Wild Side," with its notorious lyric, "and the
colored girls sing/doo-da-doo, da-doo, doo
doo doo doo..."- and indeed - most of those
backing vocalists are African-American
women.
As this inspiring and subtly subversive
documentary reveals, you know the voices
of these women; it is frequently the lines they
sang (and originated) with which you sing
along when you hear some of the biggest hits
of the last 50 years. Director Morgan Neville
aims to retrain your ears, and eyes, to hear
and appreciate these remarkable vocalists,
and to reflect on, and to question, the con­
trast between their obscurity and the fame of
those credited for making that music great.
Much of the first part of the film is devoted
to introducing you to these singers. Darlene
Love, whose voice you'll recognize from any
number of hits dating back to the 1960s, is
credited with being an important driver of a
shift from a more vanilla sound, with white
women doing generic backing vocals, to a
more lively and soulful, call-and-response
style with roots in the black church. Indeed,
most of these singers got their start in Gospel
choirs and many were preacher's daughters.
cran.
Several members of the Waters famil)
who have accompanied everything fron
Michael Jackson's "Thriller" to The Lioi
King, recreate some of their signature contri
butions. Merry Clayton describes beinj
summoned to a recording studio in the middli
Film shines light on singers
between obscurity and fame
The documentary takes time to savor the
artistry of the singers, with clips from past
performances and interviews deconstructing
and reminiscing about their creative pro­
cess. Their voices are versatile and rich and
varied, and one of the film's deep pleasures
is just listening to them sing and explain their
of the night, very pregnant and her hair ii
curlers, to sing with a British group unknowi
to her. She found the lyrics curious, bu
caught their vibe, added her own amazinj
spin, and produced the iconic "Rape! Mur
continued
on page 13