I’m not a huge soul/r&b fan so it means something for me to say that this documentary, out on DVD in September, is one of my films of the year.
In the early seventies Billy Paul hit the charts both sides of the Atlantic with his archetypal fine-wine-and-leopard-skin-rug soul classic ‘Me and Mrs.Jones’. However, his follow up single ‘Am I Black Enough for You’ flopped. Was his material too contentious for mainstream audiences? The documentary – a mix of interviews and concert footage -begins as an examination of this question but slowly, rivetingly proceeds towards an unusual implied answer – so what if it was?
The central premise of the film – that his career was possibly ruined by his record company’s politically militant song choices might be the cue for an angry or elegiac film; a string of what-ifs and coulda-beens but it isn’t – it’s a wonderful and uplifting celebration of a man and his music and shows us a septuagenarian as fit as a butcher’s dog and basking in the love of his wife and of the fans who still flock to hear that voice, that incredible voice.
You may be surprised how many songs on it you recognise. And if you thought Smokey’s voice was something, listen to Billy Paul sing ‘The War of the Gods’ and shiver.
See it, not least because it’s an affirmation of what most of us desperately hope is true – that love and music can be enough to sustain a person.