(Etta, so supportive of me)
I dug her from my archives
Etta James grown up and deep
In her music, memories, her voice
the contralto that sang the lead.
And still her career goes on.
And she lifts her sisters
I met Etta on her “Seven Year Itch”
album of songs of her strength
Her story flowed
Chess had too much control
A label with 2 sessions a night
each track recorded alike
Chess fooled her big
Giving her a bill
Not paying her for gigs
saying she needed to do
more
Time to be a woman
Teach them what’s right
Finally she took her
stand
Lawyers helped checkmate
their behinds
“Love women who rock,”
she said “Bonnie Raitt,”
who sang her “At Last”
Our love is here to stay, Etta James.
‘Cause our careers go on
k.d. lang said “Etta knew
and sang songs that gripped
both freedom and its cage.”
It took 20 years
For Etta to take control
One day at a time
Healing her singing so real
Etta James Enterprises
Repeat after me, brothers and sisters
Etta James Enterprises
With help from her lawyers.
The boys helped her along
Keith Richards, Marvin Gaye, more
her career goes on
Functioning, loving sobriety
She saw real colors
like she was 15
again.
Clean and alive on stage Miss Etta
No more
stumbling!
Her music portrays
Her strength, wisdom, age
Not as a super woman
But her own determination
And vulnerability
When she was a child
Etta wanted to join the Police
but instead the Glee club
Then Johnny Otis
invited her one night
to sing for him at the hotel
Shy, she sang in the bathroom,
And he loved her
Bashful, jazzy Etta
“Over the Rainbow”
“How Deep is the Ocean”
15 turning 16—
ponytail, Levis, white shirt
Saddle shoes, tattoos
Red lips, shoplifting
Tom boy. Etta James
-January 2025
