57118--20 feet from stardom

A leftover from my all-too-brief photo excursion. I sure want to go back and spend some time. Mare Island is a great place for photography.

We watched a great film the other night, a documentary called 20 Feet from Stardom. It's about backup singers. It won the Academy Award for best Documentary. I watched the award show, and saw them win, but had no idea what it was about until one of my friends mentioned it the other night. It starts in the late 50s-early 60s with Darlene Love, who had a contract with Phil Spector. The film focused on about a half-dozen singers from the 60s and early 70s, and one that is contemporary. It was great to see old footage of these singers backing people like Joe Cocker and Tina Turner. It also featured Merry Clayton, who blew the roof off the recording studio when she sang backing vocals for The Stones' Gimme Shelter..

The second half of the film tells what happened to them, and how elusive stardom was for these enormously talented singers. It becomes very moving. I won't tell you about it, because you need to see it for yourself and let it unfold. It's on Netflix. I give it 4 stars (out of 4).

I bought the soundtrack and am listening to it now.