Saw the shocking news this morning without sound on the big 60" flat screen at the restaurant, and although she had been fighting one demon or another all her life, it was leukemia that brought her down. Still it was a hard reality to take in.
Everyone knows her signature song "At Last" but I like another one, a raunchy honky-tonk tune titled "WALLFLOWER" subtitled: (and best known as) "Roll With Me Henry" - ahem! Do I have to draw a picture? The song was later cleaned up for the white folks and presented as "Dance With Me Henry" by none other than (brace yourself) the extremely white Gisele MacKenzie. You can look it up for laughs.
Thanks for all the good times and music, Momma.
Etta's death comes a day after that of another R&B legend Johnny Otis. A white guy who loved black culture and music is probably most famous for "Willie and the Hand Jive."
If you liked to dance, or just move, his music made you do whatever you wanted to do. And you did it without apologies.
Etta was 73. Otis was 90. Great talent and good, long lives. Y'all go and rest now.
And so it goes.
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