20 Feet From Stardom

Winning this year’s Academy award for Best Documentary, 20 Feet From Stardom is a lively crusade that celebrates the backing singers who shaped contemporary music. Featuring stalwarts like Lisa Fischer, Merry Clayton, Darlene Love and Tata Vega, as well as adoring testaments from artists like Stevie Wonder and Bruce Springsteen, the interviews shed light on the vagaries of the music industry. Director Morgan Neville focuses on the women’s individual struggles with bruised ego and hampered ambition, while delving into the cultural reasons black women and soul music have been used to elevate white male musicians.

There are some stunning moments, such as Lisa Fischer’s ghostly improvisations on Sting’s ‘Hounds Of Winter’, Mick Jagger reminiscing about ‘Gimme Shelter’ and Merry Clayton’s shiver-inducing performance of the now iconic line “Rape! Murder! It’s just a shot away.”

As the frontmen attest to the invaluable talent of the backing singers, the question lingers – why aren’t these women famous solo artists? Here the documentary stumbles slightly, as the director fails to tease apart the difference between backing singers and women who did make it, such as Aretha Franklin or Rita Coolidge. However, as musical history lesson, 20 Feet From Stardom is entertaining, and will likely change the way many of us listen to classic records. More subtly, the film asks us to examine our “fame-centric” view of success. These women have helped create many of music’s classic moments, yet their achievements are seen as near-misses because they weren’t centre stage. Surely this attitude is our failing, not theirs.