This Netflix documentary on the life and death of the great soul-singer and song-writer Sam Cooke opens with the shocking image of Cooke's slain body slumped inside the doorway of a cheap Chicago motel. According to a couple who were friends of his and had accompanied him that night to a bar, Cooke was somewhat inebriated and was flashing a wad of money around while pursuing a young woman there. The couple left to go home and we get to hear the actual phone calls made to the police that night, one by the girl claiming that she'd been kidnapped and didn't know where she was and then when Cooke's shooting was phoned in. The story goes that this young woman was a call-girl and had tried to steal the singer's trousers containing his cash, Cooke had rumbled her in the act and while banging on the door of the female hotel manager there for attention, said manageress shot him repeatedly to death.
This was a squalid ending to a stellar career which had so much more to give. Cooke had in the can two classic sides of a single which was released posthumously and went top ten in the U. S., the dance-floor filler "Shake" and what has come to be known both as his signature song and a rallying call for the Civil Rights movement, the magnificent "A Change Is Gonna Come". Who knows what he might yet have accomplished?
As well as being handsome, a beautiful singer and gifted writer, Cooke had business aspirations and had set up his own record label and publishing company. He'd aligned himself with the Civil Rights movement, not only by starting to sing protest songs like "Blowing In The Wind", but also by boycotting a racially segregated concert in Memphis,
Unsurprisingly, a good number of grandiose statements and probably apocryphal anecdotes are recounted in front of the cameras by surviving family, friends and admirers, but I was more convinced by the verité audio and video recordings of Cooke himself in his time.
Theories are expounded that Cooke's killing was no accident but I was less convinced of this especially when his company secretary of the time freely revealed that Cooke, perhaps in response to the tragic death of his infant son, was a serial womaniser and just found himself in a bad situation but other theories taking in his shady manager Allan Klein or his involvement with Civil Rights activists like Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali are also aired.
Like I said, I was left less than convinced by any of these conspiracy theories but I was otherwise entertained by this story of a remarkable musical talent. It had its faults I felt, possibly arising from its own agenda regarding Cooke's relation to black activism and on the musical side by overstraining to connect him to major white acts of the day like Elvis or the Rolling Stones, the latter of whom were only connected to Cooke by recording a song written by an artist on his record label. He's even credited with introducing the Afro hairstyle to America.
Still, squalid demise excepted, this was an interesting and entertaining documentary on one of the greatest ever soul artists and one only wonders why Hollywood has never thought to adapt his colourful life to the big screen before now.
This was a squalid ending to a stellar career which had so much more to give. Cooke had in the can two classic sides of a single which was released posthumously and went top ten in the U. S., the dance-floor filler "Shake" and what has come to be known both as his signature song and a rallying call for the Civil Rights movement, the magnificent "A Change Is Gonna Come". Who knows what he might yet have accomplished?
As well as being handsome, a beautiful singer and gifted writer, Cooke had business aspirations and had set up his own record label and publishing company. He'd aligned himself with the Civil Rights movement, not only by starting to sing protest songs like "Blowing In The Wind", but also by boycotting a racially segregated concert in Memphis,
Unsurprisingly, a good number of grandiose statements and probably apocryphal anecdotes are recounted in front of the cameras by surviving family, friends and admirers, but I was more convinced by the verité audio and video recordings of Cooke himself in his time.
Theories are expounded that Cooke's killing was no accident but I was less convinced of this especially when his company secretary of the time freely revealed that Cooke, perhaps in response to the tragic death of his infant son, was a serial womaniser and just found himself in a bad situation but other theories taking in his shady manager Allan Klein or his involvement with Civil Rights activists like Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali are also aired.
Like I said, I was left less than convinced by any of these conspiracy theories but I was otherwise entertained by this story of a remarkable musical talent. It had its faults I felt, possibly arising from its own agenda regarding Cooke's relation to black activism and on the musical side by overstraining to connect him to major white acts of the day like Elvis or the Rolling Stones, the latter of whom were only connected to Cooke by recording a song written by an artist on his record label. He's even credited with introducing the Afro hairstyle to America.
Still, squalid demise excepted, this was an interesting and entertaining documentary on one of the greatest ever soul artists and one only wonders why Hollywood has never thought to adapt his colourful life to the big screen before now.