I can dig Billie.

Oh and when Harlepolis sees some of the posts, she's gonna raise some hell in here.

Why-is harlepolis a huge Billie fan?

scriptgirl said:

Yeah, didn't you see her avatar and signature quote?

no. give me a link to one of her posts

scriptgirl said:

I am really hoping to see Harlepolis post here, but it may not be for any other reasons then already stated.

Cinnie said:

Yeah you don't wanna deal with her when she's pissed.

Timmy84 said:

What you talken 'bout Timmy, all hell gonna breakloose, soon. One thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three.....


Bigtime Billie Holiday fan. LadyDay could ring some emotion out of singing the alphabet. This is one of my favorites sung by Ms. Holiday.

http://www.youtube.com/wa...KyjaESlQ6U

Here's one of my favorite Lady Day tracks:

Her voice to me is brilliance personified. It has so much truth packed within its structure, it could cut glass.

And fortunately art appreciation will never be solely measured by the objective (octave range, record sales, or how difficult something is to play).

Are there people who glom onto her because they think it’ll make them appear more intellectual? Of course. Same reason some people choose to look down their nose at Billy Joel.

But if artists were to be judged by the sincerity of a portion of their fans, all would be damned.

Brendan said:

People with all their objectives seem to miss a key one: soul

Cinnie said:

And Billie had LOTS of it. Soul doesn't always mean you gotta sing in the church, lol.

Mong said:

So I guess Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, James Brown,Al Green, Otis Redding, Maurice White, Sam Cooke, Gregg Allman Curtis Mayfield, and Ray Charles are emotional chopped liver? Just sayin that Donny was in a hell of a soulful league...
[Edited 8/14/09 16:49pm]

bottom line:
Art is subjective. One mans' treasure is another man's trash.

Brendan said:

Some music sounds complicated but it's easier to learn how to play and some music sounds simple and it's harder to learn how to play.

Damn, I sound like Yogi Berra.

Billie Holiday was my fathers favorite singer... and he played her records every Saturday morining. At the time I couldn't understand why he gushed all over this women. I told him, "She sounded like a chicken being strangled trying to sing." Hey, I was seven, I didn't know.

TD3 said:

diamondpearl1 said:

Donny stands out amongst that lot, though Stevie on a good day is a close second, as seen particularly in his MJ Memorial performance. Now that was singing completely and utterly from the heart. Plus Stevie is leagues ahead of Donny as a songwriter and musician.

I don't think it's fair to say that about Donnie-who knows what he could have done if he had lived longer?

I agree, Donny was taken out too damn soon. He should've gotten real help with his problems, otherwise we wouldn't be saying what we're saying now, lol.

I was talking to a boss of mine about Donny and his condition-my boss is a former psychiatrist and says that Donny could have managed his condition with meds, but still that was just a bandaid and not a solution. There was really no hope for him.

i dont give a fuck if you guys don't think she has a good vocal range. i love her nonetheless, the ethos behind her voice sells me.
[Edited 8/14/09 18:09pm]

scriptgirl said:

That dude was seriously fucked up.

But anyway, @ Baroque. I hear ya!

scriptgirl said:

Donny was never as strong a songwriter as Stevie. He was always more of a song stylist for me. When he covered a song, he completely put his stamp on it and came up with the definitive version of the track, whether it's "Superwoman", "Yesterday" or "Misty". Let's remember that Stevie had amassed a ridiculous back catalogue by the time he'd reached the same age that Donny sadly lived to - I don't think Donny had the potential of Stevie composition wise...but then hardly anyone does.

I love both of these men but I've always thought Donnie Hathaway could and did sing circles around Stevie Wonder.

See, I think Donny and Curtis Mayfield trump Stevie

TD3 said:

Donny-To Be Young Gifted and Black, A Song For You, Little Ghetto Boy, Someday We'll All Be Free, This Christmas, The Ghetto, I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know

Stevie-As, Love's In Need Of Love Today, Superwoman, Yester-Me-Yester You, Yesterday, Stay Gold, Village Ghetto Children, Livin For The City, I Was Made To Love Her, All I Do, You Will Know, For Your Love, You Can Depend On Me, Lately, Visions, Ribbon In The Sky, Another Star, Do I Do,I'd Never Dreamed You'd Leave In Summer, Can't Imagine Love Without You, These Three Words, Knocks Me Off My Feet, Master Blaster (Jammin), Overjoyed, Heaven Is A Zillion Light Years Away, Don't Know Why I Love You, Pasttime Paradise, Isn't She Lovely, Golden Lady, Fingertips....

And as I list these songs and start to tear up as I think of some of 'em, I remember that this "my dog's better than your dog" shit is 4 the birds. Every last one of these icons we're talkin 'bout here, wrote testaments, scriptures, bibles, scrolls, and blueprints that we the children and grandchildren still read some 4 decades later, and will continue 2 be read and added 2 everytime God breathes life in another childs lungs.
[Edited 8/14/09 20:26pm]

Getting back to the subject. B Holiday's greatness was her ability to make people feel what she was feeling. Also, people related to her pain and struggle. Some of her contemporaries may have been better singers but they didn't relate to people like Holiday did. For African-Americans in the 30s and 40s, she was a major icon, similar to what Aretha was to blacks in the 60s.

diamondpearl1 said:

Jazz can be bluesy, too. Listen to Louis Armstrong.

her voice conveyed the pain in her life which makes her delivery more genuine...
even in her more upbeat sounds hope was there. Her voice was made for he blues


get a brown drink or some apple juice put it in a highball glass dim a light
this is Lady Day !

diamondpearl1 said:

yes!!

this thread is embarrassing
[Edited 8/14/09 22:13pm]