Billy Paul asks 'Am I Black Enough for You'?

By Joyce Glasser - 02/07/2009

If the name Billy Paul doesn’t immediately spring to mind, the title of his biggest hit from the 1970s, ‘Me and Mrs Jones’ probably will.  This interesting documentary by Swedish director Goran Hugo Olsson tells us what happened to the one-hit wonder. In fact, ‘Thanks for Saving my Life’ made it into the top ten in 1974, but the success of ‘Mrs Jones’, the Grammy winning number one single that crossed racial and geographical divides in the early 1970s, was never to be repeated.

 

Olsson explains why, ironically through an interview with Kenny Gamble of the song writing/producing team Huff and Gamble. Through Philadelphia International Records, these two men wrote, recorded and distributed Paul’s records.  The interview is ironic because years later Paul successfully sued the company for unpaid royalties, but the award was significantly reduced by a statue of limitations.

 

After the crossover hit, Mrs Jones, Huff and Gamble presented Paul with Am I Black Enough for You, a song that, like most of his follow up songs in the 1970 and 1980s, raised the black consciousness but alienated his white fans. Gamble naturally denies that their more militant ‘message’ songs damaged Paul’s career, but Blanche Williams Paul’s outspoken wife for the last forty years, called Am I Black Enough for You a ‘career killer.’

 

The film asks the interesting question whether black artists of the 1970s had a responsibility to politicise their songs.  Unfortunately, though Paul tells a touching story about his grandparents’ and parents’ persecution in the south, it’s difficult to read Paul himself, who keeps a poker face and seems to harbour few regrets (he retired, but is still singing and recording).

 

That could be because ultimately the film is a love story about Paul and the woman (Blanche became Paul’s manager) who shared the good and bad times with him.  The strongest moment in the film is when Paul talks about their drug addiction. He was shaving in the mirror one morning and saw himself weighing only 128 pounds. “I’m looking at that man in the mirror’ says Paul  “and I was listening to Michael Jackson… and knew I was looking death in the mirror.  So I went to rehab.” 

 

He and Blanche helped each other through rehab back to good health.  Watching this scene a few days after Jackson’s untimely death, you couldn’t help but wish Jackson had a Blanche to help him share the price of early fame.