Everyone knows and loves the Motown sound, the great horns of Stax Records and the sound of sweet soul music before it became disco-fied.
Many of the great soul performers passed into music heaven-Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, Marvin Gaye, Mary Wells among them. But what happened to the ones who survived and thrived?
In the summer of 1999, D.A.Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus launched a mission to find and record the great soul stars who never stopped working:Wilson Pickett, Sam Moore (of Sam and Dave), Mary Wilson (of the Supremes), Isaac Hayes, Jerry Butler and the Chi Lites.
The result is a permanent film document of a dying genre of music-rhythm and blues-some 25 years after the hits stopped coming but the musicians kept playing.What happened when disco took over and the radio became fractionalized?
How did they keep going? Indeed, as Jerry Butler sings in the film, Only the Strong Survive’
(2002. USA. Colour. Beta. 35mm. 95mins)
Directed by:D.A.Pennebaker, Chris Hegedus