At his home in Catalonia, Spain, last year, Labi Siffre received the latest in a series of requests to use one of his songs in a soundtrack. Based on a synopsis of the movie, set in a boarding school in New England, the singer-songwriter signed off. <*p*>
“The storyline was quite nice, and I thought, ‘Yeah, OK,’” he says. “And that’s all I remembered of it. You move on with the rest of the work you are doing.” <*p*>
But a few weeks ago, the British musician heard from one of his followers on social media that the movie was, in fact, The Holdovers, and it used “Crying Laughing Loving Lying” — Siffre’s semi-mournful ballad from 1972 built around a graceful melody and his supple voice — in two different scenes. <*p*>
As Siffre came to learn, The Holdovers, directed by Alexander Payne, is a prestige film with a whole lot of Oscar buzz; its star, Paul Giamatti, won the Golden Globe for best actor in a comedy or musical this past Sunday. Since the movie only recently opened in Spain, Siffre has yet to see it himself, but he likes what he’s heard. <*p*>
“I was pleased,” Siffre, 78, says. “It looks like a film that’s got substance, and that can sometimes seem unusual.”<*p*>
Vintage songs are regularly tapped for soundtracks, commercials, or samples, but Siffre’s is another, stranger story: The artist has existed off the radar for decades. Starting in the early Seventies, he released a series of albums, but until the arrival of streaming services, none was ever released in the U.S. Other than a club gig in New York, he doesn’t think he’s ever played a full concert in America, although he worked as an opening act overseas for Chicago, the Supremes, and Olivia Newton-John. <*p*>
Compared to Siffre, Nick Drake, who went from cult icon to soundtrack regular, is Taylor Swift. <*p*>
Payne himself had never come across Siffre until music editor Richard Ford introduced him to his tunes. “I went, ‘Who is this, and why have I never heard of him?’” Payne tells Rolling Stone. “I wound up listening to 15 or 20 of his songs. I went on a Labi binge.” <*p*>
In fact, many probably have heard Siffre’s music without realizing it. In the Seventies, Rod Stewart and Newton-John both covered “Crying Laughing Loving Lying.” Madness turned his bouncy pop song “It Must be Love” into a ska-pop hit in 1983. And Kenny Rogers recorded a version of his anti-apartheid anthem “(Something Inside) So Strong.” More recently, Kelis offered up a beautifully delicate version of “Bless the Telephone,” and Greta Van Fleet slipped naturally into his “Watch Me.” <*p*>
Siffre’s songs have also been placed in episodes of Better Call Saul and This Is Us. <*p*>
But it’s hip-hop that has provided Siffre with a degree of exposure and financial income. Those staccato funk riffs and keyboards in Eminem’s “My Name Is” were sampled from “I Got The…,” Siffre’s 1975 jam. <*p*>
Jay-Z sampled a different part of the same song in “Streets Is Watching.” Kanye West used Siffre’s quiet-stormy “My Song” as a foundation for “I Wonder” on Graduation. In the world of modern R&B, Miguel sampled “I Got The…” for his “Kaleidoscope Dream.” <*p*>
Yet for all these footprints in pop culture, few would recognize Siffre’s name if they heard it. Part of the reason, he admits, is an innate shyness. <*p*>
“I’m not a networker,” he says over Zoom from Spain. “I’m not good at self-promotion, putting myself forward. I always believed in the songs. And because I’m not very pushy, I kind of thought to myself, ‘Well, one day, someone will notice.’” <*p*>
But the reasons for his low profile may run even deeper. As a Black gay man in Europe, Siffre came to learn that keeping to himself had its advantages. <*p*>
“I grew up as a member of four of the groups always chosen as scapegoats,” he says. “I am an atheist, homosexual, Black man, and artist.” (“I would need only to be, in addition, a disabled woman and I’d have the full set,” he adds in a characteristically pointed aside.) Siffre continues: “I realized very early that people could be nice to you when you met them, but if you told them certain things about yourself, they would either be horrified, despise you, spit on you, whatever. So I grew up being wary.” <*p*>
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