Some jackass on Twitter says to the mass public: "Like you even listened to Etta James". (I'm not even repeating the name, I don't believe in giving someone an audience when it's not warranted.)
My thought about this immediately was, "Like you haven't?" Who has not listened to, hummed along with, and had stuck in their head the very famous song At Last?
When I was fifteen years old, I began a love affair with the blues. I couldn't get my hands on enough records, tapes, and finally CDs of music that was so far removed from what I should have been listening to as a teenager. I still have them! In fact, I became so enthralled with the music, that while taking guitar lessons, it was to the pleasure of my guitar teacher, Greg that I learn how to play some old blues riffs. So there we were, me at fifteen, and he a thirty-something digging on the blues together. It must have been a sight. How out of place it might have seemed to the creators of that great music in the Delta if they could be transported in time to 1989 watching us jam.
At sixteen, I took my collection of music to a local cable outlet where I could play host and showcase my love for Bessie Smith, Son House, Blind Boy Fuller, Bo Carter, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Leadbelly, Ella Fitzgerald, Otis Redding, BB King, and oh.. Etta James. Tell me at what point I lost you, and which artists you're familiar with. I bet I know which category Etta James falls in to.
The program manager snickered at me every day, telling me how cool it was that such a young girl was so in to the blues. Well, I hadn't even thought about it like that, I was just in love with the music. I never wanted it to end.
For me, it hasn't. I still listen to all that great music, and sing to it in the car or at home, and prefer it any time over any other music. I loved how the Delta influenced all of that meaty, soulful music in to electric blues and jazz, and Etta James was certainly a part of that.
This is why losing someone like Etta James is hard. It's not that the songs she made were hits for their time, it's the fact they were put out in the first place. Giving us decades of something to hum along with, or fall in love to, and cry afterward knowing that someone's voice burrowed in to us and never left.
Etta James represents that dying breed of who gave us what I think is the most marvelous music ever made.
So to answer that snotty question as if it needed to be answered, "Yes. I listened to Etta James. So did you. So did we all. And we loved her."
My thought about this immediately was, "Like you haven't?" Who has not listened to, hummed along with, and had stuck in their head the very famous song At Last?
When I was fifteen years old, I began a love affair with the blues. I couldn't get my hands on enough records, tapes, and finally CDs of music that was so far removed from what I should have been listening to as a teenager. I still have them! In fact, I became so enthralled with the music, that while taking guitar lessons, it was to the pleasure of my guitar teacher, Greg that I learn how to play some old blues riffs. So there we were, me at fifteen, and he a thirty-something digging on the blues together. It must have been a sight. How out of place it might have seemed to the creators of that great music in the Delta if they could be transported in time to 1989 watching us jam.
At sixteen, I took my collection of music to a local cable outlet where I could play host and showcase my love for Bessie Smith, Son House, Blind Boy Fuller, Bo Carter, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Leadbelly, Ella Fitzgerald, Otis Redding, BB King, and oh.. Etta James. Tell me at what point I lost you, and which artists you're familiar with. I bet I know which category Etta James falls in to.
The program manager snickered at me every day, telling me how cool it was that such a young girl was so in to the blues. Well, I hadn't even thought about it like that, I was just in love with the music. I never wanted it to end.
For me, it hasn't. I still listen to all that great music, and sing to it in the car or at home, and prefer it any time over any other music. I loved how the Delta influenced all of that meaty, soulful music in to electric blues and jazz, and Etta James was certainly a part of that.
This is why losing someone like Etta James is hard. It's not that the songs she made were hits for their time, it's the fact they were put out in the first place. Giving us decades of something to hum along with, or fall in love to, and cry afterward knowing that someone's voice burrowed in to us and never left.
Etta James represents that dying breed of who gave us what I think is the most marvelous music ever made.
So to answer that snotty question as if it needed to be answered, "Yes. I listened to Etta James. So did you. So did we all. And we loved her."
4 3:
A nice essay and tribute. And yes, we all did listen to her.
Amen, Sista! Etta's "At Last" was my husband's and my wedding song. Who wants to walk down the aisle (metaphorically) to "Here Comes the Bride"??? Eeeegads! I'm a follower of Pizza Dreams and now I'm a follower here. ;)
Well said, rock star.
Most people on the internetz are such sad, bitter pretenders.
To combat that, what you do is talk about all the things you love often and always. Yell out the opposition with your positive energy. :-)
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