Issue #1

Etta James
By Rijn Collins

I held the CD in my hands and tried to decide whether to take a chance on it or not. I’d never even heard of Etta James, but had just done my usual trick of wandering down the aisle looking for strong female faces, taking a risk that a strong voice would accompany it. This had led me to find such marvels as Koko Taylor and Mahalia Jackson, and I wondered if it would work this time. At home, I listened to the first bars of ‘baby what you want me to do’ and literally felt a chill run down my spine as her voice burst through the music. Now an absolute convert, I’m yet to find a voice that can match Etta’s in passion and richness.

I challenge anyone to listen to her moan lasciviously ‘i gotta sweet little angel, I love the way he spreads his wings’ on ’sweet little angel’ and not be entranced. In researching her for this profile, I found the comment ‘known for her gutsy contralto and salacious lower register’ and laughed out loud. I think it’s this unrestrained licentiousness that appeals to me so much, for it would not have been easy in the fifties for a woman to exhibit such a wild spirit; but Etta James did, and still does.

She was born 25/1/38 as Jamesetta Hawkins in south central Los Angeles. Her mother was only fourteen years old, and as for her father, she was never quite sure. She chose to believe he was Minnesota Fats, the pool player, and visited him several times as a young adult, but he neither accepted or refuted the parental claim.

Etta’s mother loved the songs of Billie Holiday and although Etta found her classy, her early singing role models were men such as Guitar Slim and Johnny Watson. She displayed an early and prodigious singing ability, coached by her church choirmaster, Professor James Earle Hines. “He had a voice like God. He’d raise his hands up high, the red silk robe flowing down his arms, and I’d swear the man had wings. I wanted to fly like that; I wanted to sing like him.” Under his tutelage she became a child gospel prodigy, singing in her LA Baptist Church and over the radio at the age of five.

As a young teenager she moved with her mother to San Francisco, becoming a self confessed juvenile delinquent, cutting school to drink wine and smoke dope with her girlfriends. She also sang with her girlfriends, putting together a group called The Peaches. They played the Fillmore in 1952 when Etta was only fourteen years old, and were ‘discovered’ by Johnny Otis. Although there’s no record of what happened to the other members of The Peaches, Etta went on to record for Modern Records along with the likes of B.B. Kind and John Lee Hooker. A teenager in the seminal decade of teen music, the 50’s, her early music is rooted in teen passion, rebellion and restlessness, never a difficult stretch for someone with as wild a spirit as Etta.

Her first hit was a “pushy little jiveass reply” to Hank Ballard’s “Work With Me Annie” called “Roll With Me Henry”, a song she wrote and recorded at the age of fifteen. From then on Etta James was on fire, producing twelve Top Ten r&b smashes and more than twenty five chart hits between 1955 and 1975 - only Dinah Washington and Ruth Brown had more hits in this period. Her first boyfriend was singer Harvey Fuqua, who introduced her to Chess Records (home of legends Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters and Memphis Slim) - and heartbreak.

“I was this chubby little thing. I was the original groupie. Thrilled by show biz and all the trappings. Strung out on Harvey until I was buying the boy diamond rings and hi-fi sets. He was my first love and don’t you know I thought he’d be my last. Mercy, was I naïve!” When Fuqua married another woman, Etta turned her attention to a long romance with drugs in an attempt to quell the pain.

When she started on Chess Records she was considered nitty gritty R&B, switching to R&B in an early Motown vein, all tinkly pianos and weepy fiddles like on “All I Could Do Is Cry” and “My Dearest Darling”. She then did standards reminiscent of Lady Day, saying “these were songs that my mother loved, songs that took me back to my childhood when I’d watch my mother dress up in beautiful gowns - my mother was a gorgeous woman - and go out on the town with hip jazz musicians or high-rolling gamblers. They were exciting, romantic, sophisticated songs. I found I could sing them without losing my bluesy or churchy feeling. I could make them my own”. The success of these songs led people to begin calling Etta a jazz singer. “That was cool. I’d always loved jazz and felt like I understood what jazz was all about. It was adult music, and part of me was feeling grown up.”

But part of Etta’s magic was her flexibility, and before long she was crossing over with gutsy, defiant songs like “Baby What You Want Me To Do” and “Something’s Gotta Hold On Me”, relishing lyrics telling two timing men where to go and revelling in the strength of a woman. This is my personal favourite period of Etta’s career, and the one I listen to the most. As she says, “what I look for in a song is for the story to be real. I like a blood and guts kind of thing”.

She kept crossing over time and time again, becoming a recognised master in the fields of blues, jazz, R&B, gospel and pop, switching genres time and time again, proving “if I can feel it, I can sing it”. She refused to be pigeonholed into one style of music, saying “I’m still just being myself. I can’t chase after fads. When disco came along, I knew that was going to come and it was going to go. Why should I try to sound like the singers on the radio today? I’ve made my mark by being me”.

Her life had many difficult periods, such as extensive drug addiction in the 60’s, abusive men and dire financial problems, all detailed in her 1995 autobiography “Rage To Survive” - which, if anyone has a spare copy, please email me! Her career remained strong and her songs were covered by the likes of Janis Joplin, Tina Turner, and the Rolling Stones. The 80’s saw her playing small clubs and special events such as the 1984 LA Olympic Games, which earned her a new generation of listeners, as did her soundtracks to movies such as “Back to the Future” (1984), “Reform School Girls” (1986), “Rooftops” (1989) and “Sister Act” (1993). She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, and won a Grammy in 1994 for ‘best jazz vocalist’ for her songs of Billie Holiday, having been nominated for Grammys a further five times.

She still plays, records and tours, at the age of sixty three. Her latest album is “Heart of a Woman”, dedicated to her favourite singers Dinah Washington, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughn and Carmen McCrae. “I decided to do this one for the women. I wanted to do an album that’d be truthful, one that women would love”.

Etta James remains one of my favourite singers. In a music collection that mainly centres around punk, I nonetheless always find myself gravitating to her passionate and rich howl. Few songs can affect me like her magnificent “God’s Song (That’s Why I Love Mankind)” with its poignancy and pathos, or the earthy sexuality of “Baby What You Want Me To Do”. Using my instincts to buy that first CD, “Etta James Rocks The House” has let me in for a lifetime of relishing her breathtaking voice, and I urge you all to seek her out also.

“I’m not one to dwell on what went on in the past. I know who I am and what my place in history is. But the best part is, that I can still do what I want to do.”