Etta James'
performance of the enduring classic "At Last" was the embodiment of
refined soul: Angelic-sounding strings harkened the arrival of her
passionate yet measured vocals as she sang tenderly about a love finally
realized after a long and patient wait.
In
real life, little about James was as genteel as that song. The platinum
blonde's first hit was a saucy R&B number about sex, and she was
known as a hell-raiser who had tempestuous relationships with her
family, her men and the music industry. Then she spent years battling a drug addiction that she admitted sapped away at her great talents.
In other words, she was one of music's original bad girls.
"The
bad girls ... had the look that I liked," she wrote in her 1995
autobiography, "Rage to Survive." ''I wanted to be rare, I wanted to be
noticed, I wanted to be exotic as a Cotton Club chorus girl, and I
wanted to be obvious as the most flamboyant hooker on the street. I just
wanted to be."
James' spirit
could not be contained — perhaps that's what made her so magnetic in
music; it is surely what made her so dynamic as one of R&B, blues
and rock 'n' roll's underrated legends. The 83-year-old died at
Riverside Community Hospital, with her husband and sons at her side, De
Leon said.
"It's a tremendous
loss for her fans around the world," he said. "She'll be missed. A great
American singer. Her music defied category."
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