20 Feet from Stardom Page #5

David Bowie...

David Bowie invited me down,

1973, to hear...

He was recording

"Young Americans. "

And I had one record out

and he cut a couple of my songs,

and so I was tremendously excited

and I took the bus

to Philadelphia.

And I went in the studio and I met David

and I met the band.

And Luther Vandross

was one of the backup singers

in David... David Bowie's

Young Americans band.

My God, I can trot on that.

Time, giving it

- Giving it

- Keeping it back

That's cool. That's cool.

OK, next one.

Gotta do it this way

to get it... One, two...

Well, it was...

It was just fabulous, you know.

And it was David Bowie's

soul record, in that sense,

and he called on those voices that were

rooted in the church to bring that in,

because they bring a world

with them, a world with them.

All night

All night

She wants the young American

Young American

Young American

She wants

the young American

I believe that, you know,

the role of the backup singer

evolves as music evolves.

Music was becoming more

complicated and richer

and more interesting

in the '70s,

and so the backgrounds

became more sophisticated.

It just became more than vocals.

It was the music.

All night

All night

She wants a young American

Young American

And you

find yourself singing

what the background singers sang,

as much as what the lead singer sang.

Mama's got cramps

and look at my hands shake

I heard the news today

Oh, boy

I got a suite

and you got defeat

Ain't there a woman

I can sock on the jaw?

Ain't there a man

who can say no more?

Ain't there a child I can

hold without judging?

Ain't there a pen that will

write before they die?

Ain't you proud that

you've still got faces?

Ain't there one damn song

that can make me

Break down and cry?

- All night

- All night

You know, when you

think about the history of pop music

and all the memorable hooks

that people sing along with,

they're singing with us

most of the time,

because that's what we do on records.

We come in and sing the hooks.

Wah-wah

You give me a wah-wah

That show was

just something that was cosmic.

If you were there to experience it,

it will be something

you'll take to the grave.

Wah-wah

Claudia Lennear

had that exposure,

and then the next big moment came

for her with, um, The Rolling Stones.

And Claudia Lennear, she was

like the really hot one of the...

of the Ikettes, you know.

She was a really great dancer,

very hot, beautiful girl.

There were a few young

ladies in the background world

who were trying to get to the

leading men as quickly as possible.

You know, Mick and I

had a very special relationship,

and we used to have so much fun.

We used to have so much fun,

just doing silly things,

dressing in each other's clothes.

Just crazy, wacky stuff.

You know,

Mick has his bad boy image

and David had his androgynous look,

but first and foremost,

they were just all really sweet.

Well, anyway, she must have

enjoyed those times,

because she looked like she was.

I don't need no wah-wah

- Wah-wah

- And I know how sweet life can be

At that particular time, there

was so much going on in the world,

with the Civil Rights Movement

and the war.

Though there was

so much politically going on,

you know, you're pretty

insulated from it a lot of times

and you only really find it out

when you get out there

on the road,

the places that you stay,

the people that you talk to.

You're able to see the actual

politics and the culture,

you know, what's going on

in the culture.

It was weird. It was happy, musically,

but it was a sad time.

One, two, three.

Turn it up.

I think Clydie King

called me for that session.

She said, "There's this guy.

His name is Lynyrd Skynyrd. "

I said, "Really?" She said,

"Yes, and he wants to do this song

called 'Sweet Home A... '

I said, "Alabama?

Honey, nobody wants to sing

anything about Alabama. "

I certainly didn't wanna sing

anything about Alabama.

Well, I heard Mr. Young

sing about her

Well, I heard

ole Neil put her down

Well, I hope Neil Young

will remember

A southern man

don't need him around

It was a moment

when this idea of black power

had a lot to do with people

defining themselves

based on their own ideas,

as opposed to white overseer's view

of how one should behave.

We don't give a f***

about whether or not

white people are offended.

We're gonna do our thing.

Sweet home Alabama

My husband was 19

years older than I was.

He said, "Oh, you need to sing

'Sweet Home Alabama. "'

I said, "Well, why?" He says,

"You'll understand later in life. "

He said, "Right now, you don't

understand, Merry. You're young.

You don't... you don't

really understand. "

In Birmingham they love

the governor, boo-hoo-hoo

Now we all did what could do

That's what we were doing,

we were living.

We were living the moment,

living that emotion, creating.

It was basically like a slap

in the face. A-ha, sweet home Alabama.

We got your sweet home Alabama.

But we gonna sing you anyway, and

we're gonna sing the crap out of you.

If given the opportunity,

we will demonstrate our value

beyond any reasonable doubt,

so much so that going forward,

when you start to define singing,

it's going to be based on

this transformative sound

coming out of these

backup singers' mouths.

My way of being an

activist in our struggle

as a black people

was to do the music.

Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord

It's the last line.

Lord lift us up

Where we belong

Where the eagles cry

On a mountain high

Lord lift us up

Where we belong

Up where the thrill below

Up where the free winds blow

Any song that you can name

with background on it,

either I was doing it

with a bunch of girls,

or either the Waters

were doing it.

We always went

in the studio with,

"God, we're on this song. "

And we would always do our very

best, like it was ours.

- Patti LaBelle.

- Patti LaBelle.

- "You Are My Friend. "

- "You Are My Friend. "

The Bad Girls album.

Toot-toot, ahh, beep-beep

That's when we really cleaned up.

- Whitney Houston.

- Whitney Houston,

"The Greatest Love of All. "

- All those LPs.

- The Disney characters.

- Yes.

- That's us on there,

the "Small World," you know.

- You hear all that singing.

- Lion King.

- Uh-huh.

- Growing Pains.

As long as we got

each other..

The biggest selling record

in the history of records,

Michael Jackson's Thriller.

'Cause this is Thriller

And the biggest

selling movie, Avatar.

It's some bird sounds

and things like that.

Stuff like that,

you know, different things... But doing

this kinda just took us away

from doing our own records, you know,

and stuff like that,

which we used to do.

Singing, you know,

oohs and aahs and...

It's kinda fun for a minute.

Uh...

I'm not sure if I'd like

to do it for a living.

I love you baby like

a flower loves the spring

And I love you baby

like a robin loves to sing

And I love you baby, like

the schoolboy loves to play

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