'Sheryl' Review

Warning: This blog makes reference to depression and suicide

This documentary about music legend Sheryl Crow, is a real tug at the heart strings. She has been though a lot over the course of her career, dabbled with some of the best names in the biz and suffered some of the worst a a result. But has also really empowered women in music over the years and shown the world that women can have a major impact on the music industry and world as a whole.

Her first major struggle was during her time on tour with Michael Jackson for his Bad Tour. His manager had taken a shine to her and took the opportunity to harsh her. After going through a rigmarole of depression and emotion. She decided to speak to a lawyer, as she was basically blackmailed into keeping it all hidden. The lawyer told her to basically suck it up and deal with it as 'your lucky to be in the position your in' kind of vibe, after which she began to slowly fall from grace.

After the tour she managed to pick herself back up and began to really hit her stride musically with her first major album 'Tuesday Night Music Club'. Featuring the single, 'All I Wanna Do'. The idea was based on a poem called Fun by Wyn Cooper, Crow made sure to get in touch with him for the right to it, prior to it's release.

Controversy soon followed with her self-titled follow up album, (this next parts a bit long and wordy, so stay tuned) specifically in regards to the single 'Leaving Las Vegas', thanks to a David Letterman appearance. Where Letterman asked her if it was self-biographical and she stated 'Uh, yes, actually. I’ve never lived there", when it was actually based on a concept and a character. The name of the song itself actually came from a O'Brian's novel, which was later turned into an Oscar winning movie. A member of her writing team Baerward was friends with O'Brian, so he asked for permission to use the title of the song.

All O'Brian's sister asked, is that her brother "got credit somewhere down the line". Crow was unaware of this and so she went on Letterman and mentioned it, unaware of the previous transaction that had gone on and O'Brian became furious over the comment. Several weeks later O'Brian committed suicide and all the tabloids, including her fellow song writer Baerward blamed Crow for it and like anything, it got way out of hand. While it was later revealed by his sister that it was unlikely that Crow's comment had caused his suicide, it didn't stop people believing it. This obviously took a real toll on Crow and as she continued on she's encounter yet another controversial struggle. This time with Walmart, who refused to sell her album due to its 'controversial nature'. Sighting in one of her songs on the album 'Love Is A Good Thing', watches our children as they kill each other with a gun they bought at the Walmart discount stores." The store then refused to carry the album unless she changed the lyrics, to which she refused.

Crow no doubt lost sails from this decision, but like anything that gets banned or adulterated, it gave the song more fire and exposure. The song itself was written by Crow after reading stories about a bunch of kids that brought guns in the sporting department of a Walmart. The store, itself, only claiming they sold guns to adults, ergo Crow was casting the giant corporate store in a bad light.

Despite all this Crow remained strong and stood her ground, but depression would raise it's ugly head again and continued to follow her for into her fourth album 'C'mon C'mon', with her song 'Weather Channel' which is a perfect example of that, as she describes the various struggles she's been though over the years, making reference to the 'black dog' that Churchill would often refer to as he experienced various amount of depression throughout his reign as British prime minister.

Later on, after a failed relationship with Lewis Armstrong, she then discovered she had cancer and went through the whole process of dealing with that. She has since come out of that, unscathed and is now considerably more stronger than she's ever been before and still going strong as a single mum, after using surrogacy. Proving to the world that she is fully capable and doesn't need man in her life to live out the later years of her life. The documentary really captures all the ups and down's of her life in such detail, it's hard not to feel sorry for the numerous struggles, heart breaks and depressive moments of her life, she went though and yet she still managed to remain as one of the most influential and important figures of her generation.