{"id":3264,"date":"2026-06-21T19:06:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T19:06:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=3264"},"modified":"2026-06-21T19:06:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T19:06:44","slug":"questlove-explores-another-titan-of-black-music-in-earth-wind-fire-documentary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=3264","title":{"rendered":"Questlove explores another titan of Black music in Earth, Wind & Fire documentary"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ahmir \u201cQuestlove\u201d Thompson knows how to make a music documentary. After winning the Oscar in 2021for the superb, celebratory Harlem Culture Festival documentary \u201cSummer of Soul (\u2026or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)\u201d he delved into darker waters with \u201cSLY LIVES! (a.k.a The Burden of Black Genius),\u201d a documentary on musician Sly Stone. Both films explored their subjects from the perspective of a director who is a musician himself; the scenes flowed like a symphonic movement one minute, and a jagged beat sample the next.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more The latest in college pricing: Tuition at 10% of your income<\/a><\/p>\n

Questlove\u2019s latest film, \u201cEarth, Wind & Fire (To Be Celestial vs. That\u2019s the Weight of the World)\u201d debuts on HBO on June 7 after opening this year\u2019s Tribeca Film Festival. For this \u201cQuestlove Jawn\u201d (as his onscreen credit reads), the director looks at the group Maurice White led until his death in 2016. White is the focal point, and we follow his journey from his earliest days in Jim Crow Tennessee to the arenas where EW&F\u2019s greatest hits were performed. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Band members past and present make up most of the talking heads, along with artists like Stevie Wonder and Flea. President Obama and Michelle Obama show up, too, offering funny insights on the high school dances that played the EW&F classic \u201cReasons\u201d as a slow dance song. \u201cIt\u2019s a long song,\u201d notes President Obama. Indeed, it\u2019ll get you five minutes of desperate adolescent grinding on the dance floor.<\/span><\/p>\n

The origins \u2014 and meanings \u2014 of several songs are peppered throughout the film and serve as catnip for fans. \u201cReasons\u201d is dissected by its singer, Philip Bailey, the EW&F\u2019s co-lead singer, whose incomparable falsetto was attempted by every Black guy I knew (myself included). \u201cHow can you believe this is a love song?\u201d he asks. If you listen to the lyrics, you\u2019d realize it\u2019s about a casual hookup. \u201cI\u2019m longing to love you just for a night,\u201d Bailey sings. Like the French language, his silky falsetto can make anything sound romantic.<\/span><\/p>\n

The singer playfully apologizes to anyone who used this sex song as their wedding song.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you wanted to know what the \u201cba-de-ahs\u201d in \u201cSeptember\u201d mean, as well as the importance of the song\u2019s \u201c21st night in September,\u201d Questlove\u2019s interviewees have you covered. From off camera, the director admits having his mind blown in response to Stevie Wonder\u2019s admission that a certain EW&F song inspired his 1976 \u201cSongs in the Key of Life\u201d classic, \u201cI Wish.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEarth, Wind & Fire\u201d delves into the music, but it must also reckon with Maurice White\u2019s humanity and the traumatic events that shaped him. Abandoned by his mother in his hometown of Memphis, Ten., when he was 5, White lived with those wounds his entire life. The effects were often damaging, to himself and the people around him. One of his sons remembers something his mother told him about why White was so distant. Because of his father\u2019s trauma, the \u201cdoor in his heart can only open so far.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

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For the singer, true deliverance and love came only from his music. White\u2019s plan was to start a group that would not just be for Black people. His vision included speaking to all people about his beliefs in meditation and the celestial powers of the universe through music, and to give them something to dance to as well. EW&F certainly did that, but Questlove doesn\u2019t ignore that the message was being delivered in a Black, occasionally Afrofuturistic package. <\/span><\/p>\n

The group\u2019s origins in the Bay Area included co-creator Verdine White, the bass playing brother Maurice met when his mother came to retrieve the then 18-year old from Memphis to bring him to her home in Chicago. That\u2019s where he discovered he had a family of siblings. Verdine is one of the film\u2019s most interesting talking heads, as is Marilyn White, Maurice\u2019s longtime romantic partner. Both of them discuss the joys and pains of loving a complicated man.<\/span><\/p>\n

As with all his films, \u201cEarth, Wind & Fire\u201d has a long parenthetical subtitle that evokes Lina Wertmuller movies, or perhaps Kubrick\u2019s \u201cDr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.\u201d Like that film\u2019s title, the subtitles of Questlove\u2019s films reveal his thesis statements. \u201cTo Be Celestial vs. That\u2019s the Weight of the World,\u201d features a play on \u201cThat\u2019s the Way of the World,\u201d one of the group\u2019s most recognizable hits and the title song from the 1975 movie of the same name.<\/span><\/p>\n

By changing \u201cway\u201d to \u201cweight,\u201d the subtitle telegraphs the battle between White\u2019s desire to surrender to the universe through meditation and other techniques, and the emotional trauma he carried that emotionally kept him earthbound. In his last movie, Questlove questioned \u201cthe burden of Black genius\u201d that resulted from Sly Stone\u2019s success. Here, the burden emanates from within the genius. <\/span><\/p>\n

I admit that I\u2019m slightly less enthusiastic than I was about Questlove\u2019s earlier films (I gave \u201cSly LIVES!\u201d 3-1\/2 stars; \u201cSummer of Soul\u201d was my number one movie of 2021). This one feels a bit more conventional than those two. But Questlove still delivers a worthwhile film filled with insight, knowledge, empathy, and yes, Blackness. It\u2019s a good thing that you can watch it on HBO, because you won\u2019t be able to stop yourself from singing. Don\u2019t hurt yourself trying to hit Bailey\u2019s high notes, folks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Natalie Lemle digs into debut novel \u2018Artifacts\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2605\u2605\u2605<\/span><\/p>\n

EARTH, WIND & FIRE (TO BE CELESTIAL VS. THAT\u2019S THE WEIGHT OF THE WORLD)<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Directed by Ahmir \u201cQuestlove\u201d Thompson. On HBO June 7. 119 min. TV-MA (language)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

His latest film, \u201cEarth, Wind & Fire (To Be Celestial vs. That\u2019s the Weight of the World),\u201d debuts on HBO on June 7 at 9 p.m. and streams on HBO Max.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts"],"yoast_head":"\nQuestlove explores another titan of Black music in Earth, Wind & Fire documentary - Boston Relocation Insider<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=3264\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Questlove explores another titan of Black music in Earth, Wind & Fire documentary - 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