20 Feet from Stardom Page #4

is that he let us be ourselves.

In England, they were like,

"Go for it.

Give us all you have. "

That... it was the reason for

the innovation of rock and roll.

Oooh

Ooh-hoo

- Ooh

- Whoo!

He gave us free rein,

and everybody's face

would light up, you know.

Whoo!

Ooh

And somebody would

start singing something,

or someone would

start playing something

and everybody just...

Until we die

Well, we're learning to live together

And then when I got to A&M, I was coming

down the stairs from Lou's office.

Joe was coming on the lot from

that front gate and he said,

"There she bloody is. "

He said, "I want you to

work on all of my records. "

Learning to live together

At any moment, you would see

James Taylor

coming down the hallway,

or you'd see Carole coming out,

saying, "Come sing with me. "

Till we die

Let me in, honey, to my other home.

Whoo!

What a great studio.

Boy, did we have some

times in this studio.

So it was like very late at

night and I was very,

you know, a little pregnant.

Had curlers and the whole thing

in my hair,

getting ready to go to bed.

And we got a call

"Merry, there's a group of guys

in town called Rolling...

The Rolling somebodies

and they're from England,

and they need somebody

that will sing with them. "

They picked me up

with silk pajamas on,

a mink coat, and a

Chanel scarf on my head.

We said, "It'd be wonderful if

a woman sang this part about,

that I'd written about rape,

murder and all this.

It was in the middle of the

night and we thought,

"Well, we would love to

have a woman sing this part. "

I didn't know her from Adam.

Then she turned up

in her curlers.

She was in bed

and she got outta bed.

And, you know, it was

a kind of raunchy part to sing.

I said, "What?

Rape, murder?

It's just a shot away?"

I started to sing: "it's just a shot

away, just a shot away" with Mick.

She sings the lyrics right along me,

and with a lot of personality,

which is what was needed.

Don't you worry

War, children

It's just a shot away

It's just a shot away

What I liked was that she could sing.

She was able to be Merry.

She didn't have to bring it down.

He said, "You wanna do another one?"

I said, "Sure, I'll do another one. "

I mean, she just did it,

like, couple of times, you know.

So I said to myself,

"Mm-hmm, I'm gonna do another

and I'm gonna blow them

outta this room. "

I went in again and I did that pass

on the part that says,

Rape, murder

Just a shot away

So I had to go up another octave.

Rape, murder

It's just a shot away

It's just a shot away

Rape, murder, yeah

It's just a shot away

It's just a shot away

- Rape, murder

- Whoo!

It's just a shot away

It's a just shot away

Yeah, yeah

You know, you do these things

at sort of two in the morning,

and then you come in the next day

and you go, "Bloody hell, that's good. "

Yeah. I don't hear

a hand clap.

Everybody just tells me,

"You have to bring everything down. "

So when the rock and roll

world came and said,

"No, we want you to sing,"

it saved us.

It saved us. Saved our lives.

Lisa, let's practice that.

Lisa, let's do that.

Let's just...

just do the coda.

So Vinnie, from the coda.

Just the coda.

Mercury falling

I rise from my bed

Collect my thoughts together

But have to hold my head

- Seems that she's gone

- Gone

Leaving me too soon

During "The Hounds of Winter,"

I just indicated to Lisa

that she should, you know,

vocalize and do something

to evoke the spirit

of loneliness.

And out comes this voice,

you know, amazing,

extraordinary, ghostly voice.

So every time she's

performed that with me,

I've asked her to do that.

Lisa, give... you can

give me more than that.

Really? OK.

Give me something to play with.

Let me reel you in.

And I'm also intensely

proud of my band.

My greatest pleasure is to stand back

and let them do what they can do.

And they kick into this song

called "Hounds of Winter,"

and they go to this out vamp.

And Sting was cool

enough to say, "All right, go.

Put a spotlight on her

and just turn her loose. "

Lisa Fischer.

That's a powerhouse

voice, you know, and...

I think of her as a star.

She's a star.

She puts her whole

self into it and then

there's just something totally

transcendent that happens.

You're a little feather,

- and somebody just said...

- and you just go.

You just go and you never fall.

You never hit your head.

You just kinda land.

That's what it feels like to me.

The human voice is

the most pure expression

coming from your own being.

There's nothing between your soul

and your ability and your body and them.

It's not being camouflaged by a trumpet

or a saxophone or guitar.

It's pure, and that's why

they're so sensitive about it,

because they're putting it out there.

Everything's a mess.

Sorry.

Uh... everything's a mess.

It's just a mess.

Uh, these are old gold albums

I haven't put up yet. Um...

That's something from Tina Turner's tour

that was a gift from her.

This is, um, an old poster

of Luther Vandross that I love.

I met him right after that tour.

When I auditioned for him,

I walk into the room

and he's sitting around the

piano and there's this, um,

container with some

fried chicken in it.

I had to giggle.

I was just like, "Yeah!"

- And the eagle

- And the eagle

- And the eagle flies

- Oh...

And he goes...

And the eagle flies

"Sing this for me. "

And I would sing something to him.

He's like, "OK, now can you

give that to me with more air?"

And that was like, "More air?"

I was like, "OK."

'Cause, you know, nobody was talking

about those subtleties, you know.

A lot of his approach

was breath and air.

Sometimes the finesse of a note,

like... No turning back

Like, the way you got

off a note... Back

- One, two...

- And there's a rose

I sounded just like that yesterday

when I was understudying the note.

He really did.

You know what I'm saying?

I was up there.

- He was up there.

- It was me and John Glenn.

After we were done singing,

he says, "Well, " he says,

"if you can dance,

you've got this gig. "

And I was like, "Yay!"

And then I was like, "Uh-oh. "

Wait a minute.

Oh, I've got two left feet.

Lisa.

Are you ready now?

Hoo You sound nice

- Say it twice

- Hoo, hoo

Are you ready?

Won't you tell me, doll?

- Yeah

- Tell me and then tell me again

- Hoo, hoo

- Now do it...

He knew how

to pull each gift together

and make this beautiful...

piece of jewelry.

- All the way

- All

You know, when I

was a kid buying records

by The Shirelles, by Aretha Franklin,

by Dionne Warwick,

one of the first things

that appealed to me

were the background vocals,

and that remained with me.

Luther was a background singer

and a jingle singer in New York.

Back in those days,

Luther was very heavy

and wore three-piece suits,

sweating like a pig,

singing like an angel.

Luther Vandross,

when I first met Luther Vandross,

I went down to Philadelphia,

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