Etta James
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Interview by Barney Hoskyns, New Musical Express, 14 April 1984
MOST EVERY year now Ms Jamesetta Hawkins – Etta to you – will at the behest of Dingwalls Boss (Goodman, that is) fly over ...
Audio interviews
Interview by Cliff White, Rock's Backpages Audio, 12 July 1978
Etta takes us from 'Roll With Me Henry' to the present day: Johnny Otis; Modern Records and the Biharis; the move to Chess Records and hitting with 'All I Could Do Was Cry'; the end of Chess and working with Rick Hall, and the almost complete absence of royalties in her hit-making days.
File format: mp3; file size: 73.1mb, interview length: 1h 16' 08" sound quality: *****
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, 13 July 1989
Etta James tells Barney Hoskyns about her struggles with addiction, meeting Billie Holiday, making Seven Year Itch and staying contemporary.
File format: mp3 File size: 40.4mb; Interview length: 44 minutes 5 seconds Sound quality: **
List of articles in the library
Albums from Nancy Sinatra, Etta James et al
Review by Peter Jones, Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 11 May 1968
ETTA JAMES Tell Mama — 'Tell Mama'; 'I'd Rather Go Blind'; 'The Love Of My Man'; 'I'm Gonna Take What He's Got'; 'The Same Rope'; ...
Review by Pete Wingfield, Cream, December 1971
THIS DOUBLE ALBUM set of Etta James' hits from Chess seems uncharacteristically enlightened, despite a commercially suicidal price-tag (£3.99, enough to make even ardent soul ...
The Pointers: Sign of a Wasted Rock Culture
Profile by Vernon Gibbs, New Musical Express, 29 September 1973
ANYTIME THE American media welcomes a new act with such an overt display of scraping and bowing for superlatives, it's time to be suspicious. ...
Review by Joe McEwen, Rolling Stone, 1 June 1978
ONCE, WHEN I WAS FOURTEEN, I bought a copy of "My Dearest Darling" by Etta James, a record I'd heard as an oldie on a ...
Audio transcript of interview by Cliff White, unpublished, 12 July 1978
This is a transcription of Cliff's audio interview with Etta. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Live Review by Cliff White, New Musical Express, 22 July 1978
THEY PROBABLY don't realise it but The Who once dedicated an album to Etta James. Meaty, Beaty, Big And Bouncy it was called, and by ...
Jerry Wexler: Producer with a Fan's Passion
Interview by Sam Sutherland, High Fidelity, August 1978
ON A BLEAK, sunless afternoon, Jerry Wexler sits comfortably in the shadows of a recording studio control room, listening to the playback of a vocal ...
Etta James' long search for stardom
Interview by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 10 August 1978
IT IS A cruel irony that had she not been a junkie for thirteen of her forty years, Etta James would probably still be working ...
Soul Punk Etta: Superstardom the Hard Way on a Dollar a Day
Profile and Interview by Cliff White, New Musical Express, 19 August 1978
"THANKSGIVING DAY in November will be my silver anniversary: 25 years since I cut my first record and I haven't become a superstar yet. It ...
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 29 August 1978
Having licked a serious drug problem, Etta is climbing to the top again and has been delighting audiences on the road with the Rolling Stones, ...
Profile and Interview by Bill Millar, Melody Maker, 23 September 1978
YOU CAN ENJOY Etta James as a throwback to the rockin' Fifties. You can admire her as the apotheosis of Sixties soul performing ghetto clubs ...
Profile and Interview by Cliff White, Black Music, October 1978
Etta James, a star of this year's Montreux Jazz Festival, visited London after her show there en route for her American home. While here, she ...
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 17 April 1980
A YEAR AGO, Etta James stopped time as surely as if she had point-blanked a Timex with a .357. ...
Etta James: Her Voice Can Get A Hold On You
Interview by Don Waller, Los Angeles Times, 26 October 1985
"WHAT'S HAPPENING now is that all the kids who grew up listening to me on their transistor radios in the '50s and '60s are now ...
Review and Interview by David Nathan, Billboard, 17 December 1988
"SHOW BUSINESS became a lifestyle for me from the beginning," says legendary vocalist Etta James. "The road became my home – I was almost like ...
Etta James: Mama tells us all about it
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, The Times, 26 July 1989
WHEN ETTA JAMES was a 17-year old glamour puss with drug-store-peroxide blonde hair and a lewd rock 'n' roll hit called 'Roll With Me Henry' ...
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 1 November 1992
Etta James has sung and lived the blues, but these are good times for the R&B matriarch bound for the Rock and Roll Hall of ...
Etta James: The Time Of Her Life
Interview by Roger St. Pierre, Blues & Soul, 17 November 1992
With her new Jerry Wexler-produced The Right Time album showcasing Etta James at the pinnacle of soul creativity, the lady talks to Roger St. Pierre ...
Etta James: The Right Time ****
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 26 November 1992
THERE IS no greater living blues singer than Etta James, and no producer more attuned to the right setting for a blues diva than Jerry ...
Etta James: Town And Country Club, London
Live Review by Roger St. Pierre, Blues & Soul, 1 December 1992
ETTA JAMES is a big, big lady, with a big, big voice — and she certainly made full use of her lung-power in wowing her ...
Jerry Wexler: Production without style — on purpose
Interview by Fred Goodman, Musician, June 1993
Hands-off from Muscle Shoals to Stax to New York City ...
Sleeve notes by Pete Grendysa, MCA Records, 1997
ETTA JAMES WAS just 21 years old when she came to Chess Records in 1960, but she was a seasoned show business veteran with six ...
Etta James: Matriarch Of The Blues
Review and Interview by Tony Russell, MOJO, September 2001
Magisterial readings of blues and soul classics from the folios of Otis Redding, Al Green, and O.V. Wright, with a dash of Dylan and a ...
Etta James/Joi/Res/Raphael Saadiq/Cody Chesnutt: BB King's Blues Club & Grill, New York
Live Review by Kandia Crazy Horse, PopMatters, 24 July 2002
Flight to Amazonia (Slight Return) ...
Retrospective by Andria Lisle, MOJO, December 2002
"SOMETHING TOLD ME IT WAS OVER/When I saw you and here talking/Something deep down in my soul said, 'Cry, girl'/When I saw you and that ...
Hoochie Coochie Men: Cadillac Records (dir. Darnell Martin)
Film/DVD/TV Review by Bill Holdship, Metro Times, 10 December 2008
Hollywood's version of the Chess Records story combines the best and worst of the classic rock 'n' roll biopic ...
Review by Carol Cooper, The Village Voice, 5 May 2009
I CALL THEM anachronauts: performers whose core appeal stems from their ability to transport listeners to another time and place. ...
Retrospective by Carol Cooper, The Village Voice, 23 January 2012
ETTA JAMES used to tell a story about meeting Billie Holiday in which Holiday told her — fatherless wild child to fatherless wild child — ...
Obituary by David Hepworth, The Word, March 2012
JOHNNY OTIS was relaxing in his San Francisco hotel room one afternoon in 1954 when his manager called from the lobby and said he was ...
Retrospective by Lois Wilson, MOJO, February 2013
Abandoned as a child, addicted as an adult, Etta James lived a life punctuated by self-destruction and "wrong-headed men". Then came redemption. As the first ...
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