This space is dedicated to the proposition that we need to know the history of the struggles on the left and of earlier progressive movements here and world-wide. If we can learn from the mistakes made in the past (as well as what went right) we can move forward in the future to create a more just and equitable society. I will be reviewing books, CDs and movies I believe everyone needs to read, hear and look at as well as making commentary from time to time.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Lady Sings The Blues-Billie Holiday

CD REVIEW

The Quintessential Billie Holiday, Volume 9, (1940-1942) Billie Holiday, Columbia, 1991

In my book, and I am hardly alone on this, Billie Holiday is the torch singer's torch singer. Maybe it is the phrasing on her best songs. That well-placed hush. Maybe it is the unbreakable link between her voice when she is on a roll and the arrangements. Hell, maybe in the end it was the dope but, by Jesus, she could sing a modern ballad of love, lost or both like no other. And if it was the dope, let me say this- a `normal' nice singer could sing for a hundred years and never get it right, the way Billie could get it right when she was at her best. Dope or no dope. Was she always at her best? These recordings done between 1940 and 1942 show the highs. Billie had mastered her trade.

Many of the songs on the current compilation are technically sound, a few not, as is to be expected on such re-mastering. You will like Am I Blue and In My Solitude. Can anyone every do a Cole Porter song better than Billie on Let's Do It. Or the phrasing of Johnny Mercer's Mandy and Me. Damn.

One last word- I have occasionally mentioned my love of Billie Holiday's music to younger acquaintances. Some of their responses reflecting, I think, the influence of the movie version of her life (Lady Sings the Blues with Diana Ross) or some unsympathetic black history 'up lift' type views on her life have written her off as an 'addled' doper. Here is my rejoinder- If when I am blue and need a pick me-up and put on a Billie platter (CD)and feel better then, my friends, I do not give a damn about the dope. Enough said.

The Quintessential Billie Holiday, Volume 6, (1938) Billie Holiday, Columbia, 1991


Many of the songs on this compilation are technically sound, a few not, as is to be expected on such re-mastering. For examples of what I mean by what I said in the first paragraph of this review check out the playfulness of You Go to My Head and If I Were You. The sentiment of The Very Thought of You and I Got a Date With A Dream. Hey, I don’t even usually like these kinds of songs composed by the masters of Tin Pan Alley but they had me had me humming along. That tells the tale here.

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posted by markin at 10:05 AM

1 Comments:

Blogger markin said...

To give a flavor of the lyrics that Billie could bust up here's are the ones to Am I Blue. I have heard Ethel Waters do it and Lauren Bacall (in To Have And To Have Not) but they are amateurs by comparison on this one.

Am I Blue


Am I blue
Am I blue
Ain't these tears in my eyes tellin' you
Am I blue
You would be too
If your plans with your man
Done fell through

There was a time
I was the only one
And now I'm the sad and lonely one, lonely, lonely
Was I gay, until today
Now he's gone and we're through
Am I blue

Oh, you know I'm blue
Oh, you make me, make me so blue
Ain't these tears in my eyes tellin' you
Oh, you makin' me so blue
You know, you know, know you do
Now my plans with my man
They done fell through

There was a time
That I was his only one
And now I'm the sad and lonely one, lonely
Was I gay, until today
But now he's gone and we're through
Am I blue

1:19 PM

 

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