Tell Mama's B-side was I'd Rather Go Blind, a brooding, agonised ballad of loss and jealousy which now stands as James's most celebrated recording and one of the classic sides of soul music. James wrote or co-wrote several of her greatest songs. That year, James's influence was everywhere, with a variety of black female singers including Turner, Gladys Knight and Candi Staton employing her defiant, abrasive vocal style.
Janis Joplin modelled her singing closely on James and covered Tell Mama. James was a star, yet one seemingly set on self-destruction. Addicted to heroin and bad men, she lived a criminal lifestyle and was jailed several times. After leaving jail in Anchorage, Alaska, in , she met and married Artis Mills. When, in , the couple were arrested in San Antonio, Texas, on narcotics charges, Mills took the fall. On his release in , the couple reunited.
James never again enjoyed a major US hit, although she continued to record strong material. Perhaps her voice, so raw and emotionally expressive, was too fierce for the general public. Indeed, hurt, anger and self-destructive behaviour boiled beneath the surface of her vocals. Once asked to describe her style, she responded that singing allowed her to vent "all this bitch shit inside of me".
James became a natural replacement for Joplin after the latter's death in Teamed with Joplin's collaborator Gabriel Meckler in , James began to record rock songs: mauling the Eagles, slugging Randy Newman.
Eventually, she got regular bookings - even drawing Elizabeth Taylor into an audience. In , she was asked to sing the national anthem at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, and her career got the resurgent boost it needed, though she fought addiction again when she got hooked on painkillers in the late s.
Drug addiction wasn't her only problem. She struggled with her weight, and often performed from a wheelchair as she got older and heavier. In the early s, she had weight-loss surgery and shed some pounds. James performed well into her senior years, and it was "At Last" that kept bringing her the biggest ovations. The song was a perennial that never aged, and on Jan. But it was superstar Beyonce who sang the song to the Obamas, not the legendary singer.
Beyonce had portrayed James in "Cadillac Records," a big-screen retelling of Chess Records' heyday, and had started to claim "At Last" as her own. An audio clip surfaced of James at a concert shortly after the inauguration, saying she "can't stand Beyonce" and the singer had "no business singing my song. James did get her accolades over the years. She was inducted into the Rock Hall in , captured a Grammy in for best contemporary blues album for "Let's Roll;" one in for best traditional blues album for "Blues to the Bone;" and one for best jazz vocal performance for 's "Mystery Lady: Songs of Billie Holiday.
But her health went into decline, and by , she was being cared for at home by a personal doctor. A struggle between her sons and her husband developed as she became more ill, as he sought to control her estate.
Her sons, Donto James and Sametto James, had power of attorney over her affairs. Her doctor, Elaine James, who was not related to the singer, said the legend needed help with basic tasks, such as feeding, dressing and hygiene. In October , James retired from recording. A final studio recording, "The Dreamer," was released, with the singer taking on classic songs - from Bobby "Blue" Bland's "Dreamer" to Guns N' Roses "Welcome To the Jungle" - and still rocking, a fitting end to her storied career.
This program aired on January 20, The audio for this program is not available. Skip to main content. Close close Donate. Close Close. She was fearless, and had guts. The mark she made was setting the bar so high for the depths someone can sing from. The ache and the pain and the ferocity and the soul and the sexiness — it all came through in the space of one three-minute song.
Despite her early commercial success, James wrestled for much of her life with her weight, addictions to drugs and alcohol and with her tumultuous relationship with her mother, who was just 14 when she gave birth to Jamesetta Hawkins on Jan. From Janis Joplin to Joss Stone, an incredible number of performers owe their debts to her. There is no mistaking the voice of Etta James, and it will live forever.
He outlined the song and James finished it, but for tax reasons she gave the co-writing credit to Medallions singer Billy Foster, to whom she was briefly married. It conveys the desperation of a woman who prefers losing her sight to seeing her man with someone else. James, the child of a single teenage mother growing up in South Los Angeles during World War II, never knew her father but remained convinced throughout her life that he was pool shark Minnesota Fats. With her blond curls and light complexion, she stood out in the African American community, and she started to make a mark singing in the choir of St.
Paul Baptist Church. Early on, she toured with Johnny Guitar Watson, the Texas singer, songwriter and guitarist, in an association that figured prominently in her approach to music for the rest of her life.
Where he really influenced her was in his vocals. He would sing standards and then kind of bluesify them. He had an enormously healthy and rich influence on her. She also fell under the positive and negative influences of musicians she revered, such as Billie Holiday, as well as some with whom she crossed paths on the road, including Ray Charles and Chet Baker, all of whom struggled with addiction.
In the mids, after getting caught writing bad checks to support her drug habit, James was offered a choice between prison or rehab. She chose the latter and kicked heroin, but she started using cocaine a few years later.
A spiritual epiphany led her to give up cocaine and alcohol, and in the s she began a personal and professional renaissance, reestablishing her credibility in the music world.
Those works became family affairs when she enlisted her two sons as co-producers. The family moved to Riverside in the s because James said she had had enough of gang violence and other troubles in South Los Angeles. She lived in a simple ranch-style home.
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