{"id":17351,"date":"2013-06-28T15:58:17","date_gmt":"2013-06-28T23:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/?p=17351"},"modified":"2013-06-28T16:04:22","modified_gmt":"2013-06-29T00:04:22","slug":"recommended-new-back-up-singers-documentary-twenty-feet-from-stardom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/2013-06\/recommended-new-back-up-singers-documentary-twenty-feet-from-stardom\/","title":{"rendered":"Recommended: New Back-Up Singers Documentary “Twenty Feet From Stardom”"},"content":{"rendered":"

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We’d been reading rave reviews about the new documentary exploring music’s great back-up singers entitled Twenty Feet From Stardom<\/strong><\/a>, and then things started to get really<\/em> interesting.<\/p>\n

First we heard through the grapevine that Fresh Air’s Terry Gross<\/strong> had done a fascinating piece on the new film.\u00a0 In the interview (which you can listen to\/download HERE<\/strong><\/a>) Gross<\/strong> interviews the film’s director (Morgan Neville<\/strong>) and one of the featured back-up singers (the supremely talented Merry Clayton<\/strong>), Gross<\/strong> spoke with Clayton<\/strong> and discussed her historic backup-vocal on the Rolling Stones’<\/strong> haunting hit Gimme Shelter<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 In that interview Clayton tells how her participation on Gimme Shelter<\/strong><\/em> came to be, and then Gross<\/strong> played a 31-second clip featuring only Clayton’s<\/strong> isolated, impassioned vocal on the song.\u00a0 And chills went down our spines.\u00a0 Only then did we understand the lyrics of the song that we had misinterpreted all these years.<\/p>\n

Clayton<\/strong> told Fresh Air<\/strong> the following about the Gimme Shelter<\/strong> session:<\/p>\n

“The guys come out and stand next to me and say, ‘It’s just a shot away,’ as I’m saying, ‘Rape, murder.’ I mean it was a sight to behold, and we got through it, and then they went in the booth to listen, and I saw them hooting and hollering while I was singing, but I didn’t know what they were hooting and hollering about. And when I got back in the booth and listened, I said, ‘Ooo, that’s really nice.’<\/p>\n

“And they said, ‘You want to do another?’ and I said, ‘Well, I’ll do one more and then I’m going to have to say thank you and good night.’ I did one more, and then I did one more … and then I was gone. Next thing I know, that \u2014 that’s history.”<\/p>\n

We recommend you listen to the full Fresh Air<\/strong> interview, but if you don’t have time, at least check out the vocal track below.<\/p>\n