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I really turned into, you know, the real street kid. I was kind of like a runaway, but I had a mother, you know what I mean, and I had a place to stay.

Etta James

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Etta James
Age: 73 †
Born: 1938
Born: January 25
Died: 2012
Died: January 20
Jazz Musician
Musician
Recording Artist
Singer
Singer-Songwriter
LA
California
Jamesetta Hawkins
Miss Peaches
Place
Kids
Real
Runaway
Mean
Street
Kind
Turned
Really
Streets
Like
Stay
Mother

More quotes by Etta James

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It's not about battling the original artists when I record these songs, it's about paying tribute to them.
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I'm not starry eyed, and I'm not money crazy.
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Bobby Womack is always very real, both with his music and as a person.
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My mother was a jazz fanatic and she wanted me to play the piano so I could play jazz tunes. I wish I had learned but I was too busy getting into trouble!
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I figured I could do It's A Man's, Man's, Man's World because I believe it's the truth.
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My mother always wanted me to be glamorous. When I thought about that, it really fired me up, and once I lost all those pounds, I started to feel really good about myself.
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Jazz took too much discipline. You have to come in at the right place, which is different than me singing the blues, where I can sing, 'Oh, baby,' if there's a pause in the melody. With jazz, you better leave that space open, or put in something real cool.
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I want a Sunday kind of love A love to last past Saturday night And I’d like to know it’s more than love at first sight
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This is an album of songs that I've always loved, tunes that I heard. For the first time in 53 years of recording, I really had control over an entire album, start to finish.
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When Malcolm X was assassinated I was working at the Apollo. They brought his body to the Unity Funeral Home, which was around the corner.
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My mother always told me, even if a song has been done a thousand times, you can still bring something of your own to it. I'd like to think I did that.
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Long as I was riding in a big Cadillac and dressed nice and had plenty of food, that's all I cared about.
Etta James
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My mother always wanted me to be a jazz singer, but I always wanted to be raunchy.
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Even as a little child, I've always had that comedian kind of attitude.
Etta James
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When I sing for myself, I probably sing for anyone who has any kind of hurt, any kind of bad feelings, good feelings, ups and downs, highs and lows, that kind of thing.
Etta James
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All the things I used to like - cookies, ice cream, gumbo - I don't like anymore.
Etta James
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What happens is, when I perform, I'm somewhere else. I go back in time and get in touch with who I really am. I forget my troubles, my worries.
Etta James
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A lot of people think the blues is depressing but that's not the blues I'm singing. When I'm singing blues, I singing life. People can't stand to listen to the blues, they've got to be phonies.
Etta James
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My mother used to play nothing but Billie Holiday.
Etta James
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I don't care who's playing. Even if it's my favorite artist, I'm probably not gonna go and see him.
Etta James