April 7th is Billie Holiday's birthday. So I felt it appropriate to post about one of my favorite vocalists of all time, the Divine Lady Day. I must admit the first time I heard Billie's voice I was scared. I know it sounds crazy. But I was about 12 and I heard the song "God Bless the Child" and was just haunted by it. I'd never heard a voice like that before. Now as I look back I know exactly what I was so scared of... it was how deeply her music touched me. She invaded a place in me that was painful and unknown--her voice forced me to travel my internal anguish, my countless heartaches and rejections, humiliations, emotional wounds and spiritual bruising--you know, the typical baggage a young woman picks up along the way. By the time I was 18, I was playing her music just about everyday. And to this day that hasn't changed: I must hear at least one Billie song a day just to function.
I've often said no one knows me like Billie. How could they? Billie speaks to a part of me I've never fully shared with anyone, a world that is unnamable, unshaped, and scarred with life. She knows all my secrets like she's read my journal or vacationed in my mind. And I know I'm not the only one who feels this way. Lots of die-hard Billie fans know exactly what I mean--as crazy as it may sound. It has to be that aching vocal she possesses, that sorrowful tone, "those rocks in her heart"--Billie so brutally and nakedly exposes her soul in her songs--it's more than blues, more than jazz, it's like a constellation of tears put to melody.
My Official Billie Holiday Playlist
1. That Ole Devil Called Love
2. Lover Man
3. Crazy He Calls Me
4. Moonglow
5. All of Me
6. God Bless the Child
7. Strange Fruit
8. My Man
9. I Wished On the Moon
10. Nice Work If You Can Get It
11. They Can't Take That Away From Me
12. Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do
13. Gee Baby Ain't I Good to You
14. Lady Sings the Blues
15. I'll Be Seeing You
16. It Had to Be You
17. Come Rain or Come Shine
18. Good Morning Heartache
19. Them There Eyes
20. I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm
21. Do Nothing Til You Hear From Me
22. I'm A Fool to Want You
23. You Don't Know What Love Is
24. Travelin' Light
25. But Beautiful
Robin, you scare me, whenever I am thinking of something, I come here and you have written about it.
ReplyDeleteI had my iPod on random and the song "I'm a Fool to Want You" came on. Painful and beautiful vocals from her last album "Lady in Satin." One of my favorite vocals from her for the pure raw emotion she brought to this song.
Great blog!