At Last By Etta James And The Life Of A Soul Legend

One of my earliest memories as a child is sitting in the back of the car, on a journey from Sussex to Bournemouth with my father, and listening to him sing along to at last by Etta James. He's very much into the old style soul music and this is one of his favourites of all time. Usually when an "old" song like this came on I would say something along the lines of "dad can we switch radio stations?", but I can remember just sitting there listening to the intensity of not only the song, but how my dad was singing it. It was then that I realized music could be powerful.

Let's have a listen to the fantastic song itself:

I woke up this morning to some truly shocking news. When I hear of a ageing singer, celebrity etc who has died, I feel sad - but it usually doesn't bother me. When I heard that Etta James had died, I found it really very sad because at once those memories of sitting and listening to her and my father almost doing a virtual duet, made me want to cry. Of course, we can all still listen to her wonderful music, if not on the radio, it will be on YouTube forever.

Her death has come after a few years of illness. She had to go into hospital back in January 2010 due to being infected with the horrible MRSA bug. I remember reading the story of her being in hospital and thinking " she'll get through it, she's tough". While she was in there, one of her sons announced that she had been living with Alzheimer's Disease for the past 2 years, which would explain some of her behaviour and comments around the same time.

In the early parts of 2011 she was diagnosed as having leukemia, a particularly gruelling type of cancer, which soon became terminal. And she died today - I'm sure a day many will not forget. Here's a video describing the circumstances of her death:

Not only was she a fantastic, soulful singer, she also showed people that not everyone is painted with gloss, and that she did have her issues. These were at times, very public, and I think she was always facing a fight to get clean when there were so many people trying to trip her up. I think she was truly courageous throughout her life, and the woman had metal!

The Childhood Of Etta James

What a life it was too, and where to begin. Etta James was born to Dorothy Hawkins, a young mother of just 14, and her father was never released publicly, although she had her own suspicions as to who it was. She thought that is was probably a pool player, and she did actually initiate contact with him back in 1987, but it turned sour. This must have been difficult for her, even though by the time she met her supposed father, she was already middle -aged, but she most likely spent a great deal of time searching and building up courage to find him.

Because her mother was so young, she often was not there while James was growing up, instead living the life of most teenagers - meeting men, going out etc. In fact the couple who finally raised her named her mother " the mystery lady". James was therefore primarily raised by other people, often going from place to place, until she settled with "Sarge" and "Mama Lu".

Sarge, you could say, led her to suffer problems with bed-wetting, as he would get drunk while hosting poker nights and insist that she sing. He would beat her until she did. This created a life long problem for her, as it created an anxiety about singing on demand - which she didn't do very often. Her biological mother returned and took her with her after "Mama Lu" died.

This is when she hit her first stroke of luck, as she joined a group of 14 year old girls and met a producer who would be paramount in her career- Johnny Otis. He turned the group from the Creolettes to the Peaches, and he was also the one who changed James name from her real name to Etta James. It has a ring about it though, doesn't it? Etta James? He managed to get them signed to Modern Records and released the first single "Dance With Me, Henry".

Etta James left the Peaches after a disagreement about the debut single, and instead decided to do it all solo. In her lifetime she released an incredible 28 albums, which wouldn't be easily attainable in today's music business. I suppose the saddest thing in terms of singles is that she only got to number 1 once, although it was less important to top the charts back in Etta James time, as it was more about longevity - which she had! In bucket loads.

Some of her hit songs though were of course At last, All I Could Do Was Cry, Trust In Me, and Something's Got A Hold On Me. All these got into the top 5 of their respective chart.

Etta James battled a heroin addiction spanning nearly a decade, for which she encountered a whole lot of trouble and as such was frequently in treatment centres trying to sort herself out.

It was early in the 70's that her heroin addiction became noticed when James and her husband, Artis Mills - the man she widowed upon her death, were arrested and found to be in possession of heroin. Her husband took the rap for it, and subsequently spent the following 10 years in prison. James herself was not shy of hiding from trouble with the law as she was arrested on numerous occasions for forgery, and possession. When she did finally end up in court, she had to go into a treatment centre where she spent 17 months there - though she could have quite easily have gone to prison.

Even after she had got "clean" she would still enter relationships with men who were also drug dependant, thus starting the dependency all over again. She moved from needing heroin to painkillers - a common trait amongst people who are addicted to something.

I suppose her life was characterized by the good, the bad and the ugly. She was of course a wonderfully talented woman, who was perhaps ruined slightly by her childhood - but nonetheless, she got through it and made something of herself.

Like some other famous people she had her demons, and illustrated them with drugs. I don't think she should be judged for that though, only her musical talent. A very talented lady left the world today.