Amazing Grace ...

I’m not Christian, and I don’t really believe in anything like a God or any sort of higher power. If anything, I’d describe myself as a humanist, without ever really being able to fully explain quite what that means other than the fact that I believe in science first and foremost, and my definition of “faith” is something akin to a personal code or an inner monologue to live life by. It’s complicated, but I do struggle with the idea that there’s some form of invisible force beyond that. Beyond science, or beyond a personal moral code. I think organised religion is controlling, manipulative, and the source of much global division. That much seems clear, to me, at least. 

However, I’ve written a little bit in the past (here) about how Rastafarianism as it relates to reggae music has impacted on me, and about how songs of praise or worship can be hugely invigorating and empowering for me on a personal level. Even if a lot of the reggae music deals with a mythical African King/Emperor I have very little understanding of, and certainly no first-hand experience of.

Equally, there’s something very compelling about black American gospel music. Something very powerful, and it’s never impacted upon me more than it did a couple of weeks back when I sat down inside a small - almost empty - inner city Sydney cinema to watch Amazing Grace, the Sydney Pollack-directed documentary about Aretha Franklin’s two-day/night performance stint at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles back in January of 1972. 

Those performances doubled as recording sessions, and those recordings formed the core of Franklin’s iconic live album, Amazing Grace. Franklin was assisted by the Reverend James Cleveland and the Southern California Community Choir, but she’s the star. Or rather, her phenomenal voice is the star. It was as pure as honey in 1972, with Aretha still just a few months shy of her 30^th birthday. 

The album was released later that year, and it went on to become the best-selling album of Franklin’s entire career, and the best-selling “gospel” album of all-time. It includes a mix of traditional gospel songs (‘Climbing Higher Mountains’, ‘God Will Take Care of You’, etc) and more recent fare like adaptations of the Carole King-penned ‘You’ve Got a Friend’ and Marvin Gaye’s ‘Wholy Holy’, which had appeared on Gaye’s What’s Going On masterpiece of a year earlier. 

The release of Pollack’s raw grainy video/documentary footage, initially around 20-hours all up, proved to be far more problematic. There were issues aplenty, not the least of which was an inability to sync the audio with the video, something that was eventually achieved by some post-production miracle. After that, it was Franklin’s own reluctance to allow the edited version (something close to 90 minutes) to see the light of day which ensured the documentary was shelved for more than 40 years. Which, given how utterly inspirational most of that footage is, seems rather incredible. 

After Franklin died in August of 2018 her family gave the go ahead for the film’s release and it immediately became a festival hit, going on to achieve worldwide/mainstream release status in April of 2019. 

I was fully engrossed in Amazing Grace from start to finish. 90 minutes of virtual wall-to-wall gospel music. I was in complete awe of Franklin. In awe of MC James Cleveland. And in awe of the articulate preacher/Baptist Minister Clarence Franklin, Aretha’s father, who made a short cameo appearance (as did one Mick Jagger, as part of the gathered throng watching on). In awe of those songs. Songs of praise to a higher being I don’t even believe in. 

I left that cinema completely enthralled by the power of that music. If that’s what a true religious experience is meant to feel like, then sign, seal, and deliver me to the promised land. I’m ready. Well, almost … I may have just got a little bit carried away. 

Highly recommended. Unmissable, even.