(The latter includes both Sly and the Family StoneвЂ™s performance of the interracial solidarity of вЂњEveryday PeopleвЂќ and Nina SimoneвЂ™s recitation of a poem asking Black people if they were ready to kill.) Yet neither film knows quite what to do with Gladys Knight and the Pips-a group that, although it had begun in the nineteen-fifties, and recorded hit singles in the nineteen-sixties, didnвЂ™t take off until the early seventies.

Soul!,вЂќ about the вЂњSoul!вЂќ host Ellis Haizlip, and this yearвЂ™s вЂњ Summer of Soul,вЂќ a documentary about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival. Two recent soul documentaries tell a more nuanced story: the 2018 film вЂњ Mr. But stories about soul also enforce a simple binary that Gladys Knight and the Pips resist, wherein supposedly assimilationist Motown entertainers such as the Supremes and nineteen-sixties Stevie Wonder are succeeded by unapologetically Black, conscious artists such as Nina Simone, James Brown, and nineteen-seventies Stevie Wonder. Histories of pop music tend to favor individuals over groups: Sam Cooke over the Soul Stirrers, Patti LaBelle over the pseudonymous trio in which she started out. вЂњYouвЂ™re like a diamond,вЂќ Knight declared, pointing a finger to the sky then shimmying her hand to signal the glimmer-вЂњbut she treats you like glass! Yet you beg her to love you-ha!-but me you donвЂ™t ask.вЂќ SheвЂ™s not upset, sheвЂ™s dancing, at least as much as the small stage permits she rows her torso forward, and sends up another vocal firework: вЂњIf I were your woman-woo!вЂќ By now itвЂ™s clear that Knight is not on the sidelines of anything, and that if sheвЂ™s anyoneвЂ™s woman, she belongs to-or, rather, is meant to shine with-the Pips.Дespite their extraordinary talent, Gladys Knight and the Pips have been more beloved by fans than respected by music historians. Knight wore a low-cut, ankle-length purple dress, and her princess-style hairdo was fastened with a matching bow the Pips (all men) looked sharp in cream-colored turtlenecks and dark suits. In 1972, Gladys Knight and the Pips appeared on the television show вЂњSoul!,вЂќ where they performed, among other hits, вЂњIf I Were Your Woman,вЂќ a ballad in which the singer tells a man who is already taken that he deserves better he deserves her.

Gladys knight neither one of us