Etta James talks about movie 'Cadillac Records'
03:02 PM PST on Wednesday, December 3, 2008
By VANESSA FRANKO
The Press-Enterprise
Etta James is in her twenties, blonde and recording "At Last" all over again--at least on the big screen.
Beyonce portrays the vocal legend and Riverside resident in "Cadillac Records," a film about the rhythm & blues revolution and the stars of Chess Records, a record label that helped launch the music into the mainstream. Beyonce also tackles some of James' best-known songs in the movie, which opens Friday.
Perhaps the toughest critic she has faced is James, a movie-lover who said in a telephone interview this week she can complain about anything.
"I never like anything that's done on me," she said.
But James, 70, attended the premiere in Los Angeles last week and gave Beyonce a raving thumbs up.
"She did a good job. I just think I'm really blessed that she did this movie and she did it like she did," she said.
James noted that "she wasn't a brat like I've been," she said, laughing.
The singer was also impressed with Beyonce's research for the film.
"She didn't know me from Adam's housecat," James said, explaining that she didn't pal around with Beyonce or spend time with her while she was working on the movie.
"She knew how to do it because she read that book," James said.
James' autobiography "Rage to Survive," was released in 1995 that details her life story, from not knowing her father to her music career to how she escaped her drug addiction.
The singer's life experiences can be heard in her music, which has run the gamut from blues to jazz to soul to pop throughout more than five decades of performing.
"Etta James is a pillar," said Karen M. Wilson, assistant director of the Gluck Fellows Program of the Arts at UC Riverside who has studied and performed the blues. "She sets a high bar. She represents I think one of the finest voices of her time and she's still wailing."
Wilson listened to the "Cadillac Records" soundtrack and said that Beyonce's performances tell the truth, a stone in the genre.
"Her voice is full and she is musical and clearly she is strong. What is missing is the cut and pain of Etta James' life. Really, that is Etta James truth - but that truth took the song to a different place. We get closest in the cut, 'I'd Rather Be Blind,'" Wilson said.
She said other high points on the film's soundtrack included Buddy Guy, Eamonn Walker (who plays Howlin' Wolf in the film), Little Walter and Olu Dara with his son, Nas. She particularly enjoyed with the latter's "ubiquitous and wonderful historical treatise 'Bridging the Gap.'" She also said Mos Def, who plays Chuck Berry in the film, was a nice surprise.
James said she loved how the film incorporated Little Walter and Howlin' Wolf and the music.
However, she said there were some inconsistencies in the film. James said she and Chess were never linked romantically like they are in the film. She also noted that details such as Chess sending her to detox and how he made sure she would always have her Los Angeles home were omitted.
"I can pick the thing apart, but I wouldn't pick it apart because it was a great movie, a great movie," she said.
James enjoyed it so much that she wants to see it again this weekend.
"They said they're going to get me a DVD. I'm just going to look at it until it just melts off the screen," she said
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