20 Feet from Stardom Page #2

Can you turn off the radio?

There...

I mean, how could you not have music on,

Morgan, in the Merry Clayton car?

- I know, right?

- That's just...

That's not even logical to me.

See, it's much better

for us to add the music later.

I know it, but I'm just saying,

Morgan, how could you...

How could you logically not

have a diva have her music on?

I don't get that.

Merry Clayton was always

the lead background singer,

but she was always a little

set apart from that group.

Well, I am a sister

Who can sing

I am a sister who can sing

Oh, but if I die

And my soul be lost

Nobody's fault but mine

I started going

to summer school with Merry,

and she'd start singing down

the street, and I'd go like,

"This girl is amazing. "

Nobody's fault but mine

Said nobody's fault

Nobody's fault but mine

I said that no one's fault

- If I die...

- She had no, uh,

no hidden agendas about it.

She just, "That's what I do. "

Oh, if I die

And my soul be lost, yeah

Nobody's fault

But mine

Nobody's fault

Ray Charles.

He was the only artist

that my father would

allow us to go and see,

and I'd stand at the end of the

stage with my hand under my chin.

I'd say, "Mm-hmm, I could do this.

I'm gonna be a Raelette one day. "

I willed myself to be a Raelette.

Now here are the Raelettes

to help us from this portion on.

Mm!

So I was sitting

at home one day,

and I got a call from Billy Preston.

"This Bill, what are you doing?"

"Putting some clothes away. "

"You gotta drop it and you

have to come and sing for Ray. "

Oh

When you see me in misery

Come on, baby

See about me now

No, it don't matter

And, of course, you know,

I was totally full of myself by then.

I knew the whole spectrum of what you

were supposed to do as a singer.

See the girl

with the red dress on

She can filly dog all night long

But I didn't know anything

about being an entertainer.

- Hey

- Hey

- Ho

- Ho

- Hey, ho

- Hey, ho

Oh, it's all right

You know it's all right, baby

He said,

"Yes, you're a lead singer,

but you're singing with

three other ladies, Sister Merry.

So we're gonna teach you

how to sing

- with three other people. "

- You know it's all right

It's all right

He's the minister.

The Raelettes are the choir.

He brings that same church format

to playing popular music.

Yet he's singing about sex.

- Shake that thing

- Shake that thing

- Hey, baby

- Shake that thing

Can you imagine

"What'd I Say" that I said already,

without kind of an answer to that?

Mmm

Oooh

Uhh... uhh...

- Shake that thing

- Shake it, baby

- Shake that thing

- Shake that thing

He did a song called

"Together Again. "

Oh, Lord, I could not

find the second part.

I couldn't hear it.

I did not hit the note,

he took his finger

and banged out my note

on the piano,

and 5,000 people

were in the audience,

five... huge show in

Madison Square Garden somewhere.

Bang, bang, bang, bang.

He banged out this note.

After that, I remembered everything.

I was not gonna be made

to look like a fool.

- Baby, let's go home

- Yeah, let's go home

- Baby, let's go home

- Go home, baby

- Baby, let's go home

- Oh!

A lot of background

singers are just background singers.

They don't wanna do all the drama that

accompanies trying to be a solo artist.

Actually, very interesting, if you're

talking about background singers,

because Lisa made recordings

as a solo artist

and she's a brilliant entertainer.

She's really funny.

Sings her butt off.

Could sing alone all day long,

but doesn't particularly want to.

Hola.

I don't wanna go to school.

I remember when my mom

took me to kindergarten.

I told the teacher, it's like,

"I wrote a song," right?

"I wanna sing it for the class. "

She's like, "Oh, yay, good. "

I just wouldn't stop.

She had to stop me.

Now she's like, "That was fun. "

Being with Lisa

is really inspiring,

because she's a monster musician.

She just doesn't really talk about it.

I mean, she's as good as it gets.

Everyone knew

who Lisa Fischer was.

She was the talk of the town

at the time.

It was strange for me to actually see

her standing next to two other singers.

It was weird for me.

She's an incredible artist that

stands in front of that room,

in front of everyone, and demands their

attention in a really graceful way.

I love melodies.

I'm... I'm in love with the...

the sound vibration and...

and what it does with other people.

It's familiar, but it's so special

and you're just so happy

when you get there.

And you try to stay there

for as long as you can.

She's the

empress of that world,

and, you know, it might not

look like she's ego'd out,

but it takes a lot of ego to decide

you're gonna take that position.

'Cause there's a lot of background

singers out there, and she's held...

She's held that fort

down for a long time.

For me,

singing is about a sharing.

It's never a competition.

But there's this other energy sometimes

that I see going on that just

makes me insane, you know.

Gee, who can I call to introduce me

to so and so and such and such,

but it just... I don't know,

something about that feels slimy to me.

I don't know why.

Yeah

To me, there's no more heavenly

instrument than the voice.

You can be a great player and you can

play things that really move people,

but the voice is the one thing

that we all are born with.

I mean, there's so many great singers

who are such a massive presence

on so many rock records, people that we

don't necessarily know their names,

but that had a huge impact.

I remember, um, yeah, there

was a Phil Spector special on.

Um, maybe '65-ish.

Every evening

when the sun goes down

- Whoo

- Hold it. Cut.

And Darlene Love and The

Blossoms were doing this song

that Phil was playing piano on.

Every morning

when the sun goes down

- Whoo

- Whoo

I lay my head

on the pillow down

And I was like 16 maybe.

It just went, like, pow!

That's what you're gonna do.

- Here we go.

- Hey.

- Hi, Darlene.

- Robert.

How about, uh, "Christmas. "

- Christmas

- Snow coming down

- Christmas

- I'm watching it fall

Christmas

Phil Spector

was the one that started

with the Wall of Sound.

He wanted everybody to know

it was a Phil Spector session,

not a Darlene Love session

or a Crystals session.

It was a Phil Spector session.

They're ringing a song

- Christmas

- What a happy sound

They sound so young. Well, they are.

I was 18. I am now 70.

The Spector records...

and it's funny, 'cause

though that was a sound

we tried to capture ourselves

for many, many years.

And did not, because we didn't realize

it was the sound of youth,

of very young people.

And here Darlene

not only had

the incredible personality,

but she was a vocal powerhouse.

She captures...

Whatever it is, she captures

that particular sound, you know.

Amazing, isn't it?

I was talented

and didn't know it.

When we went in to do

"He's a Rebel" I knew it was gonna be

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