Rolling in the Deep

In case you're curious, the title of this blog post refers to the name of a song by English pop singer Adele.

Track listing:
1.  Rolling in the Deep
2. Rumor Has It
3. Turning Tables
4. Don't You Remember
5. Set Fire to the Rain
6. He Won't Go
7. Take It All
8. I'll Be Waiting
9. One and Only
10. Lovesong
11.  Someone Like You

Cool info:

• DOB: May 5, 1988, West Norwood, London, England
• Birth name: Adele Laurie Blue Adkins
• Trivia
• Lives with her mom in South London
• English soul and jazz singer
• Influenced by the music of Etta James and Ella Fitzgerald
• First winner of the Brit Awards Critics Choice in 2008

Here's the lyrics for Rolling in the Deep, one song I'm sort of addicted to nowadays.

There's a fire starting in my heart
Reaching a fever pitch, and it's bringing me out the dark
Finally I can see you crystal clear
Go ahead and sell me out and I'll lay your shit bare
See how I'll leave with every piece of you
Don't underestimate the things that I will do

There's a fire starting in my heart
Reaching a fever pitch
And it's bringing me out the dark

The scars of your love remind me of us
They keep me thinking that we almost had it all
The scars of your love, they leave me breathless
I can't help feeling
We could have had it all
Rolling in the deep
(Tears are gonna fall, rolling in the deep)
You had my heart inside of your hand
(You're gonna wish you never had met me)
And you played it to the beat
(Tears are gonna fall, rolling in the deep)

Baby, I have no story to be told
But I've heard one of you
And I'm gonna make your head burn
Think of me in the depths of your despair
Making a home down there
As mine sure won't be shared

The scars of your love remind me of us
They keep me thinking that we almost had it all
The scars of your love, they leave me breathless
I can't help feeling
We could have had it all
Rolling in the deep
(Tears are gonna fall, rolling in the deep)
You had my heart inside of your hand
(You're gonna wish you never had met me)
And you played it to the beat
(Tears are gonna fall, rolling in the deep)
We could have had it all
Rolling in the deep
You had my heart inside of your hand
But you played it with a beating

Throw your soul through every open door
Count your blessings to find what you look for
Turn my sorrow into treasured gold
You pay me back in kind and reap just what you sow

(You're gonna wish you never had met me)
We could have had it all
(Tears are gonna fall, rolling in the deep)
We could have had it all
(You're gonna wish you never had met me)
It all, it all, it all
(Tears are gonna fall, rolling in the deep)

We could have had it all
(You're gonna wish you never had met me)
Rolling in the deep
(Tears are gonna fall, rolling in the deep)
You had my heart inside of your hand
(You're gonna wish you never had met me)
And you played it to the beat
(Tears are gonna fall, rolling in the deep)

You could have had it all
(You're gonna wish you never had met me)
Rolling in the deep
(Tears are gonna fall, rolling in the deep)
You had my heart inside of your hand
(You're gonna wish you never had met me)

But you played it
You played it
You played it
You played it to the beat.

A Sad Song

Eleanora Fagan was born on this day in 1915. Eleanora cut school so often she was sent to live at the House of the Good Shepherd, a home for “colored girls” run by the Little Sisters of the Poor. She was returned to her mother after a year, but in 1926, 11 year old Eleanora was raped by a neighbor & sent back to Good Shepherd. But the nuns refused to keep her for long.


At only 11 years old, Eleanora earned money cleaning at a whorehouse. The madam let her listen to the records of Louis Armstrong & Bessie Smith. Eleanora was able to express her feelings with music & she began singing at various storefront churches.


As a young teenager, Eleanora moved to NYC with her mother, to pursue a singing career, instead she found work as a prositute in Harlem.


Billie Holiday was the self creation of young Eleanora Fagen. She began to get small gigs & out of the way clubs, but Holiday was gaining popularity with fellow musicians. After years of touring with Count Basie, Holiday was offered her first steady job at Café Society in 1938, earning $75 a week. She went on to be featured soloist at clubs all over the country, acquiring the nickname “Lady Day.” Her distinctive voice, which she used like a musical instrument, transformed jazz singing. Holiday: “I don’t think I’m singing; I feel like I’m playing a horn.”


Holiday had many affairs with both men & women, but was known as a lesbian among many of her peers in the jazz world, where she aquired the moniker- Mister Holiday, because she was seldom seen in the company of gentlemen. Holiday: “Sure, I’ve been to bed with women… but I was always the man.” She had an affair with Orson Welles & Tallulah Bankhead.


Billie Holiday was unlucky in life, unlucky in love & dead from drink & drugs at the age of only 44.

By the late 1930s, Holiday had married small-time drug dealer Jimmy Monroe, who introduced her to opium & heroin. In 1947, she spent a year in prison for possession of drugs. After she was released Holiday had difficulty finding work & she had a string of relationships with maniacal men & a decline into dependence on drugs, a roughening of her voice & a physical decline.

On 10 July 1959, Holiday died in hospital in NYC of cirrhosis of the liver. In a characteristically cruel turn she had been arrested on her deathbed for possession of narcotics, & spent her final days under police guard.


The life & legend of Lady Day seems to point to a victim, a problematic, profane & pushy woman. She was after all, a junkie & an alcoholic; she had sex with a great many men & many women"




I like to think that Billie Holiday was a determined woman with a great appetite for life, who lived it on her terms in a man’s world. Holiday was never able to capitalize on her amazing talent to live a life as a music superstar. She couldn’t break the pattern of abuse from others or herself, but that fed her genius. Her brand of self destruction was a plea for the love that ironically her bad behavior pushed away. But that voice, that perfectly imperfect gift, will always be loved.

Born On This Day- March 27th... Sax Blowing Gay Guy Dave Koz

In 2004, Dave Koz came out publicly as a gay man in the Advocate. Later the same year, he was named by People magazine as one of their "50 Hottest Bachelors" in their June issue. His career was already established & the world of jazz is not really the most gay friendly sub-group on the musical universe. I feel that artists like Koz, with their fan base in place. can win over prejudices & that is important."Smooth Jazz" is not my favorite genre (by any means), but I admire his good looks, musicality, & bravery. Koz turns 48 years old today.

Koz: "Music is important for everyone…even those that wouldn’t classify themselves as die-hard music fans. Could you imagine our world without it? What about going to a movie without a soundtrack? Or a bar without some ambiance of music playing? We mark our experiences with songs & artists & moments in time become forever etched in our brains with musical soundtracks all their own. So I don’t think using ‘music as comfort’ it’s uniquely a LGBT experience. I think everyone has that usage for it to some extent. But I do think that there are musical stereotypes that get attached to certain groups…like dance/techno is the only thing that gays like to listen to/respond to. Tell that to the ever-increasing LGBT audience I am overjoyed to see at the concerts, cruises, events my band and I do."

Born On This Day- March 25th... Jean Sablon

A long, long time ago, in a land far, far away, & I mean Seattle in the 1990s, the Husband owned his own grocery store/café- Plenty in the Madrona neighborhood. In the search for fun music to play on the sound system, we discovered Post Apocalyptic Bohemian favorite Jean Sablon.

Jean Saboln was openly gay, living with his partner, a US service man, for more than 4 decades, yet he was a matinee idol & the French housewife's pin-up of choice. He recorded in the 1920-1980s, & he topped bills in cabarets & concert halls in Paris, London & on Broadway. In the1960s- 1980s Saboln made highly rated TV specials in France & Britain. Gershwin & Cole Porter wrote songs for him. Sablon helped to popularize swing music in France by teaming up on several occasions with Stephane Grapelli & Django Reinhardt.


In 1937, Sablon made his first visit to the USA. He spent the war years here, singing on stage & on the radio he was featured on the CBS Hit Parade, where he was ranked higher than Sinatra. The microphone revolutionized the music industry, & Sablon pioneered the subtleties of it use.His voice was heard by 50 million listeners twice each week. Bing Crosby owned all of his records, & Sinatra compared himself to Sablon in interviews. Sablon spent some time living in Hollywood where his close friends included Cary Grant, & Marlène Dietrich.

Sablon toured 5 continents demonstrating his independence & inquisitiveness, the qualities led him to introduce many new musical genres to France: biguine, calypso & bossa nova.
 
After Chevalier & Piaf, he was the only French singer to have tremendous success in the USA. In France, his style was that of a chanteur de charme which the American term 'crooner' hardly does justice to, but he was known as "the French Bing Crosby".

Sablon was the very definition of a suave, stylish, seductive Parisian lover. He sang with a velvety voice, thrilling in its lower registers. light & lovely on his upper notes. Listening to him makes me dizzy & horny.

In 1981 he gave his 75th anniversary concert at the Lincoln Center in New York Sablon was beloved in Brazil & it was in Rio de Janeiro, in 1983, that he gave his farewell recital to a very emotional public in tears as he said goodbye: "I bow myself out . . ."


He died in France in 1994.

Music

You know how everyone has that one band/artist that they're totally devoted to? Like some people will call themselves a 'Beatles' person or someone will call themselves a 'Who' person or a 'rap' person or a 'rock person. Well, when it comes to me, my tastes in music are all over the place, in all kinds of genres and decades. Firstly, I'm a massive fan of British rock, like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney. Those 3 musicians I could listen to forever, all day and all night if given the chance. And when it comes to other genres, I love Latin music, like Enrique Iglesias, Shakira, Carlos Santana. And just regular rock music like Foreigner, Aerosmith, Van Halen, you name it. And I'm also an avid fan of R&B, jazz, New Orleans-style jazz. That stuff is very relaxing, when it comes to R&B, I could just about listen to any R&B artist, like Aaliyah, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, or Jazz, like Etta James, Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, you name it. I love music in general, the only music I don't listen to is new wave stuff, like Nirvana, The Sex Pistols, or rap. sorry, you find that junk on my MP3. Most of the stuff you'll find on this lovely little piece of technology is mainly Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, The Beatles and the occasional Latin artist mixed in there somewhere. Here are some pictures of some of the artists that I listen to, now I'm not necessarily saying that these artists are better than what others may listen to, I just happen to like these musicians: 

The Rolling Stones

The Beatles

Paul McCartney

Born On This Day... December 29th- No One Really Knew Her Until She Was Dead... Billy Tipton

Attend the tale of Billy Tipton. I first became aware of her when she passed away in Spokane, the city that I grew up in, & the the truth was discovered. She lived as a man from 21years old until she died at age 74. Her 3 adopted sons never suspected a thing. Here is the fun part: Tipton lived with 5 women over 5 decades, all of them attractive, even vava vavoom. She had intercourse with all 5, none stumbled onto the truth that her husband was a woman… well, #4 figured it out eventually. Like 1000s of fans, they were taken in by one of the great performances of all time.

Dorothy Lucille Tipton decided to become Billy Tipton in 1935, ostensibly because it was the only way an aspiring jazz musician could get work in an almost exclusively male business. The ruse wasn’t all that difficult. Billy's face was boyish, and her figure full, but not curvy. She had sizable breasts but no waist. A sheet wrapped around her chest, men's clothing, & a bit of padding in the crotch, & she passed. Billy was actually boyishly handsome; women found him adorable.. A talented pianist, horn player, & tenor, he quickly found a gig with a band.

At the start Billy was strictly a cross-dresser, making no great effort to hide her gender during her off hours. She lived with a woman with the unusual name of Non Earl Harrell, in what was assumed was a lesbian relationship. Initially they were based in Oklahoma City, but by 1940 they had moved to Joplin, Missouri, then an entertainment center. There Billy began to pretend to be a male full-time, a pose he would adopt for the rest of his life.

Billy & Non Earl broke up in 1942. After a relationship of a few years with a singer named June, Billy took up with Betty Cox, a pretty 19 year old with a striking figure. The couple were together for 7 years. Betty claimed that they had a passionate heterosexual relationship, including intercourse. She even thought she'd had a miscarriage. I sometimes think I don’t really know my Husban. But after the first 7 years, I think I knew which sex he was. JustlLike the Husband & I, Billy & Betty made love only in the dark. Doesn’t everybody? Billy never removed his underwear & wore a jockstrap that was fitted with a "prosthesis." He wore massive chest bindings at all times, supposedly for an old injury. He would not let himself be touched below the waist. He never shared a bathroom. Betty may also have been distracted. Acquaintances said she went out with other men while she was with Billy, & while she appears to have been genuinely fond of him, in some ways this may have been a marriage of convenience for both.

The turning point in Billy's life came in 1958. He had his own jazz trio & a growing reputation, & a new hotel in Reno wanted to hire them as the house band. He seemed on the verge of a fairly successful career. But instead, he took a job as a booking agent in Spokane, Washington, & playing with the house band at The Tin Pan Alley. He played mainly swing standards rather than the jazz he preferred. His performances included skits imitating celebrities like Liberace & Elvis Presley. In some of these sketches, he played a little girl, but he never impersonated a woman, & he would make jokes about homosexuality Perhaps he feared fame would lead to the discovery & decided he'd gone as far as he dared.

In Spokane, Billy was living with a call girl, but in the early 1960s he left her for a beautiful but troubled stripper named Kitty Kelly. She claimed she & Billy never had sex, but in other respects they lived a stereotypical suburban life. They adopted 3 boys, but neither could handle the kids during adolescence, and after a bitter quarrel in 1980 Billy moved into a trailer with his sons. From there it was all downhill. The boys split, his income dried up, he refused to see a doctor. He remained in Spokane, living in poverty, until he collapsed & died in 1989. The paramedics who were trying to revive him uncovered the truth. Death must have come as a relief; he had been pretending for 54 years.

Born On This Day... Favorite Musician Chet Baker

Not gay, but absolutely one of my most important musical figures in my considerable lifetime is Chesney Henry Baker, Jr., a trumpet player & singer with matinee idol beauty, emotionally remote performances, & a well publicized drug habit.

In 1952, Baker joined the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, which was an instant phenomenon. The Quartet's version of My Funny Valentine, featuring a memorable Baker solo, was a major hit, and became a song with which Baker was intimately associated.


The Quartet found success quickly, but lasted less than a year because of Mulligan's arrest and imprisonment on drug charges. In 1953, Pacific Jazz released Chet Baker Sings. In the year I was born, 1954, Baker won the Downbeat Jazz Poll. Because of his chiseled good looks, Hollywood studios approached Baker & he made his acting debut in the film Hell's Horizon, in 1955. He declined an offer of a studio contract, preferring life on the road as a musician. Over the next few years, He became an icon of the West Coast jazz sound, helped by his good looks & singing talent.


Baker was a heroin user since the 1950s, & eventually saw his musical career decline as a result. At times, Baker pawned his instruments for money to maintain his drug habit. In the early 1960s, he served more than a year in prison in Italy on drug charges; he was later expelled from Germany & Britain for drug related offenses. He settled in Northern California where he played music in San Francisco between short jail terms served for prescription fraud. In 1966, Baker was severely beaten after a gig in San Francisco, sustaining severe cuts on the lips & broken front teeth. From that time he had to learn to play with dentures.


In the 1970s, Baker returned to Europe. From 1978 until his death, Baker resided & played almost exclusively in Europe, returning to the USA roughly once per year for a few performance dates. From 1978 to 1988 was Baker's most prolific era as a recording artist.


In 1983, another of my favorite artists, Elvis Costello, a longtime fan of Baker, hired the trumpet player to play a solo on his song Shipbuilding, from the album Punch the Clock. The song was a top 40 hit & exposed Baker's music to a new audience. Later, Baker often featured Costello's song Almost Blue in his live sets, and recorded the song on Let's Get Lost, a documentary film about his life.





In the early morning of May 13, 1988, Baker was found dead on the street below his 2nd story room of Hotel Prins Hendrik in Amsterdam. Heroin & cocaine were found in his hotel room. His death was ruled an accident.


To get to know this amazing musician try Let's Get Lost, which shows him as a cultural icon of the 1950s, but juxtaposes this with his later image as a drug addict. The film, directed by fashion photographer Bruce Weber, & shot in black & white, includes a series of interviews with friends, associates & lovers, interspersed with film from Baker's earlier life, & with interviews with Baker from his last years.


With a breathy, walking-on-eggshells trumpet tone similar to the sound & achy, whisper, weathered & weary vocals, Baker delivers piercing takes on a number of standards: Just Friends, My Funny Valentine. Elvis Costello joins Baker on blue embered versionss of The Very Thought of You & You Don’t Know What Love Is. Baker recorded over 50 albums. Everyone should have at least 1 Chet Baker CD in their collection. I recommend- Chet Baker Sings (1953) & Chet Baker Sings & Plays (1963).

Born On This Day- October 31st... Talented Ethel Waters

When doing research for my posts, I am always struck by the cruelty, hatefulness & challenges that were/are foisted on minority artists & performers in the past century. That their work should be adored & rewarded, but the artist would still need to enter a theatre or hotel by the back door. That these amazing performers persevered & gave us so much is a testament to the power of art.

Ethel Waters rose from stardom from a most-obscure beginning, a whore's alley in Philadelphia where she lived in poverty with her mother and grandmother. She faced unspeakable racism during her rise to fame. Ethel Waters was born on October 31, 1896, as a result of her mother's rape at age 13, Ethel Waters was raised in a violent, impoverished home. She never lived in the same place for more than 15 months. Waters: "I never was a child. I never was cuddled, or liked, or understood by my family." Despite this unpromising start, Waters demonstrated early the love of language that so distinguishes her work. Waters' birth in the North and her vagabond life exposed her to many culture, & gave to her interpretation of southern blues a unique sensibility that pulled in eclectic influences from across all American music. Ethel Waters: singer, dancer, actress, & evangelist, never be confined to a single identity. As a singer, she played with styles, doing what was called- “race music” & doing white standards.

Waters married at the age of 13, but soon left her abusive husband & became a maid in a Philadelphia hotel working for less than $5 a week. On her birthday- Halloween night 1913, she attended a party in costume at a nightclub in Philadelphia. She was persuaded to sing 2 songs, & impressed the audience so much that she was offered professional work at the Lincoln Theatre in Baltimore. She later recalled that she earned $10 a week, but her managers cheated her out of the tips her admirers threw on the stage.


She was a street kid whose highest aspiration was to be a lady's maid. Instead, she found herself in vaudeville. As an actress, in films like The Member of the Wedding, Waters gave the “mammy” roles real edge & depth. Her life was as varied as her singing. She was a Catholic who could swear like a sailor. She was a lesbian whose loud fights with her lovers made more proper lesbians like Alberta Hunter label her a disgrace to their tribe. She joined Billy Graham & toured the country. Her signature song had been Stormy Weather, but once she joined the Graham crusade, she never sang it again. Waters: “My life ain't stormy no more”, which was good for her & bad for her fans. Her best known recording was her version of the spiritual- His Eye is on the Sparrow.



In 1933, Waters made a satirical all-black film entitled Rufus Jones for President. She went on to star at the Cotton Club, where she sang Stormy Weather. Waters: “I sang it from the depths of the private hell in which I was being crushed & suffocated." She took a role in the Broadway musical revue As Thousands Cheer in 1933, where she was the first black woman to appear in an otherwise all white show. In addition to the show, she starred in a national radio program & continued to work in nightclubs. She was the highest paid performer on Broadway, but she was starting to age. MGM hired Lena Horne as the ingénue in the all-Black musical- Cabin in the Sky, & Waters reprised Petunia, her stage role. The film, directed by Vincente Minnelli, was a success, but Waters was offended by the attention given to Horne, & she was feeling her age.


She was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1949 for Pinky. In 1950, she won the NY Drama Critics Award for her performance opposite Julie Harris in the play- The Member of the Wedding. Waters & Harris repeated their roles in the 1952 film version. In 1950, Waters starred in the TV series- Beulah but quit after complaining that the scripts' portrayal of African-Americans was degrading.


Waters was the second African American ever nominated for an Academy Award. She was voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998. Waters' recording of Stormy Weather was honored by the Library of Congress. It was listed in the National Recording Registry in 2004. Waters was approved for a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2004. However, the actual Star has not been funded, & as of her birthday in 2010, public fundraising efforts continue.