Soul Survivor

AMG Review of Soul Survivor

Richie Unterberger
All Music Guide

Originally broadcast on television as part of the American Masters series, this is a straightforward 90-minute documentary of Brown's life, roughly timed with the 50th anniversary of his entry into professional music. Excerpts from performance footage dating back to the 1960s (none of them too extensive) are interspersed with interviews with Brown and lots of people he's worked with, known, and influenced, including Fred Wesley, Bobby Byrd, Little Richard, Chuck D, Dan Aykroyd, Reverend Al Sharpton, and some less expected insiders, like Marva Whitney and Lyn Collins (who sang and toured as part of his revue). There are also voice-over excerpts from Brown's autobiography, read by an actor rather than the Godfather of Soul himself, which is a good thing considering that Brown's speech frankly wasn't very easy to understand by the time this documentary was filmed. That diminishes the watchability of the contemporary interviews with Brown, though to be honest the other interviewees have more of interest to say. In keeping with the way many such celebrity documentaries go, there's a touch of worshipful tone in some of the praise heaped upon him. Yet at least some of the less savory aspects of his career and personality aren't glossed over; the arrests and jail sentences are covered, but also the point is made that Brown was a demanding and, at times, difficult person for whom to work. Some of the performance clips are so exciting -- his 1964 slot at The T.A.M.I. Show, his 1968 Boston TV performance right after Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, an early-'70s show at a prison -- that one does hunger to see more of these, particularly since the more extensive excerpts of a February 2003 concert at the House of Blues in Los Angeles and a rehearsal from the same period aren't nearly as galvanizing. The DVD has an hour of bonus footage, and while the concert portion of this (five songs from the House of Blues show, three songs from the rehearsal) isn't too vital, it also has interesting additional interview material with eight of the subjects questioned for the documentary.