Did Billy Paul pioneer social realist music ahead of Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder?

Cast: Billy Paul, Blanche Williams, Kenny Gamble, Clive Davis, Questlove, Schoolly D
Director: Göran Olsson
Producer: Jenny Örnborn
Rating: 12A

It may come as a surprise that, in 1973, Billy Paul beat Ray Charles and Curtis Mayfield to win the Grammy for best male R&B vocal performance. It would have seemed far less surprising for the Grammy audience that night, as Paul looked set to become as famous as either of those superstars. The award was for ‘Me and Mrs Jones’, his biggest hit. Nowadays, Billy Paul is seen as a 70s footnote, his “oh, right, that guy”-ness poignantly summed up in a scene where he agrees to talk to a fan’s mother after a show. Picking up the phone, he says, “Hello ma’am, this is Billy Paul. Billy Paul. The singer.”

The reason for his obscurity is ‘Am I Black Enough For You?’, the namesake of this documentary and the single released immediately after ‘Me and Mrs Jones’. An ecstatic slice of socially-conscious funk, it alienated the white crossover audience he was just starting to reach, and ended his fame as quickly as it had begun.

Like many music biopics, Am I Black Enough for You? tells the story of Paul’s rise and fall, but it also tells the story of the 40 years after his brief chart-topping period. With no voiceover, the film meanders from one chapter of his career to the other through interviews interspersed with live footage showing that, well into his eighth decade, Billy Paul remains an amazing performer.

Billy Paul’s life was full of the classic stuff of music biopics: drug addiction, an unscrupulous record label, a gun fight breaking out at a show, but the focus is widened out to look at the civil rights movement in America, and the effect that had on Billy Paul and his music. Questlove of The Roots, one of the fans interviewed for the film, credits Billy Paul with pioneering social realist soul music ahead of Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder.

Am I Black Enough For You? sketches a portrait of a warm-hearted, prodigiously talented singer, without ever probing too deeply below the surface. Director Göran Olsson describes it as “a fan film”, and darker moments are examined and left behind without much scrutiny. The real story is that of Billy Paul and his wife Blanche Williams. The couple are inseparable. Williams follows him on tour and sits on a chair by the stage to watch him every night. Billy Paul may not have had the success of many other musicians who have been immortalised in films and documentaries, but he is alive and happy when the credits roll, which some might say puts him at an advantage.

Am I Black Enough For You? is out now via Drakes Avenue Pictures

By Tom Brown