Luther: Never Too Much: American culture has an impressive number of artistic figures and larger-than-life entertainers, and one of them is Luther Vandross, the legendary R&B singer. This remarkable man deceased prematurely in 2005, but through the screenings, songs, and performances captured in the documentary ‘Luther: Never Too Much’, it is perfectly clear how insightful and multifaceted his personality was.
The documentary was directed by Dawn Porter and serves not only as a celebration of life and career of the greatest African American musician Richard Paul Vandross, Jr, but also as an exploration of many themes. After watching the documentary, you cannot help but contemplate how Luther Vandross, becoming a star of the American showbiz, contributes more to the global culture than just singing and dancing. .
Even those fans who were aware of his work, might have had a limited knowledge of him in terms of his capability and style, because it wasn’t only about gospel, the music still had influences of disco and soul which many desired to experience firsthand. Turning back to his biography, he grew up on his mother’s tunes and was motivated by the rhythms of his neighborhood.
From a young age Scott exhibited interest in soul and gospel music which later in his life became his forte and broadened horizons. Furthermore, possesses strong vocals and gifted with a fantastic sense of harmony and rhythm made him a music connoisseur with a multifaceted mature understanding of an artist.
Unabashedly labeling himself as one of the ‘real singers’ to emerge out of disco, Vandross had already written, arranged and produced songs for artists such as Dionne Warwick, Barbra Streisand and Aretha Franklin until he emerged as a solo artist in 1980. (Even those who are aware of his work in the show business will stun at the scale of his work and the numerous artists he has collaborated with.)
Understandably, the documentary focuses on not only his rich, soft and powerful voice but instead shows clips of the countless hit songs he wrote during the 1980s and 90s, beginning with his most well-known song “Never Too Much,” which will guarantee him a wave of increased streams for his music in the future. However, what becomes more sinister as his narrative unfolds is the obsession from the media with Vandross’ size and the outlandish claims that accompanied the changes in his weight in relation to his sexual orientation.
While the media has had to a degree realized some of the consequences of their unduly probing of public figures in relation to their health and body image, one equally clear revelation in Porter’s film is how the combination of what was public knowledge about him and the ferocity of the secrecy about what was not led to deep embarrassment.
The heart of Max Szadek, the singer’s personal assistant who recalls how he understood that any love, which was possibly Vandross’s most private self-composition, is about wanting to be romantically attached, breaks along with the singer. As far as this film is concerned, it remains cautious in depicting the much-discussed sexual orientation of the protagonist — one of the many bombshells that perhaps some of the audience wished to have walked away with — and the interviews of those close to him — Valerie Simpson, Marcus Miller, Richard Marx — do not make any sensational but gentle revelations either.
That he was given the title “Dr. Love” by his army of followers as a result of his great ability to get people in the right mood: somehow, this sounds a bitter irony to the man who spent all his life surrounded by adoring friends and co-workers, but never could be so honest about the type of love in which he was actually looking for, let alone the type of love that he was able to find.
Vandross’ unwavering ambition and the obstacles he faced in becoming a pop figure is another aspect worth examining in the documentary. During a period when ‘crossing over’ to the more lucrative pop charts and appealing to white America was frowned upon by many in the Black community, Vandross undeterred, with an unrelenting focus, sought to create a hit to elevate him to the level of Jackson and Prince.
He took nine attempts to win the Grammy down the road and thirty years into his fruitful career already signed with J Records under Clive Davis, the man known to shed the embarrassment of being an American R&B singer. Five more attempts later he achieved what he long fought for, a number one Billboard hit with ‘Dance With My Father’.
Despite that, he makes sure to point out how material he has not used in the film, and how it is available in large enough portions that her film may be viewed as a biography and a musical compendium, as well as a biography and an invitation to get to know him better. Unfortunately, Vandross was among the many soul music giants who died before their time, like Otis Redding, Donny Hathaway, Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye, Teddy Pendergrass, and too many others.
Each met their demise for different reasons, but each had a unique, influential voice that was distinct and impactful in its own right, and this film shows why Vandross should be mentioned in the same breath as those singers even with the fact that his career went through the ‘modern’ R&B era. Not only did he foreshadow the romantic and sexual discontent of New Jack Swing and its following musical tributaries, but his now-legendary scale-climbing on the microphone enabled Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and Beyonce to finally have mainstream success with their vocal range and the pop music charts.
This interview offers the first glimpse of how he pored over what his idol Aretha Franklin did who could completely destroy an audience with a performance in neutral and don’t appear to be laboring. One can see how that trait would fit well with Luther Vandross’s brand as a performer and is key to the dominance he just as well had. Any way one looks at it, “Never Too Much” proves to the world just how determined Luther Vandross was in his work, and that was to ensure that his naturallooking talent was sold to the masses on the premise that it appeared effortless.
To achieve some results certainly faster than I would have liked, not because I was particularly slow or anything like that, but because of the zeitgeist, is just one of many observations. But for many the biggest will be just how chillingly prophetic is the title of Dawn Porter’s documentary, because after the first time you hear Vandross sing, that is it, you are hooked.
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