Etta James, acclaimed blues and R&B singer, dies at 73

Etta James, perhaps the quintessential R&B diva, was equally at home singing unadulterated blues, searing R&B and sophisticated jazz. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and her biggest hit, ‘At last,’ has been enshrined in the Grammy Hall of Fame.The earthy blues and R&B singer whose anguished vocals convinced generations of listeners that she would rather go blind than see her love leave, then communicated her joy upon finding that love at last, died Friday morning, said her son, Donto James. She was 73.She died of complications from leukemia at a hospital in Riverside, said Dr. Elaine James, her personal physician.James had been in failing health for years. Court records in the singer’s probate case show she also suffered from dementia and kidney failure. Her two sons had been in a court battle with their stepfather over conservatorship of her $1-million estate. Doctors announced in December that she had chronic leukemia.James spent time in a detox facility for addiction to painkillers and over-the-counter medications, James, told Reuters in 2010. And she had wrestled with complications since undergoing gastric bypass surgery in 2002 to remedy a lifelong struggle with her weight.after that procedure, which actress Roseanne Barr had recommended to her, James lost 200 pounds. Before the surgery, her weight had gone past 400 pounds. when she performed, she often had to be escorted on and off the stage in a wheelchair. “I thought I was going to die,” she told Ebony magazine in 2003. “I was constantly worried that I was going to have a heart attack.”Perhaps the quintessential R&B diva, James, who was born and lived much of her life in Los Angeles, was equally at home singing unadulterated blues, searing R&B and sophisticated jazz, the latter receiving special attention in her recordings over the last decade. Her dusky voice, which could stretch from a sultry whisper to an aching roar, influenced generations of singers who came after, from Tina Turner to Bonnie Raitt to Christina Aguilera. And Beyonce carefully studied James before portraying her in the loosely historical 2008 film “Cadillac Records.”Despite her early commercial success, James struggled for much of her life with her weight, with addictions to heroin, cocaine and alcohol, and with her tumultuous relationship with her mother, who was just 14 when she gave birth to Jamesetta Hawkins on Jan. 25, 1938.She was adored by rock’s elite, including the Rolling Stones, who drafted her in 1979 as the opening act on their U.S. tour, and voters at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, who inducted her in 1993.“It really does mean a lot,” James told the Times upon her induction. “It shows that if you’re hanging around the candy store long enough, people start giving you things.”James’ six-decade recording career began at the top of the R&B charts when her bawdy 1955 single “the Wallflower,” better known as “Roll With me Henry,” quickly made her a national star.in the rollicking early days of rock ‘n’ roll, James’ saucy song answered Hank Ballard’s then-recent hit “Work With me Annie,” a ribald, thinly veiled invitation to a woman to have sex. James’ response, in which she assertively put forth the same offer on her own terms, was wildly popular but equally controversial coming from a 17-year-old girl long before the sexual revolution of the ’60s upended traditional sex roles.She is best known for “At last,” the powerhouse ballad that became a hit in 1961 and which has been enshrined in the Grammy Hall of Fame. Bending and stretching the notes of the bluesy melody to reflect the hard-won realization of a lifelong desire, and channeling a sense of joy that sounded as though the gates of heaven had just opened to welcome her in, James sang: “At last, my love has come along/My lonely days are over/My life is like a song.”The other song with which she became inextricably connected was “I’d Rather Go Blind,” which she said she co-wrote in 1968 with her friend Ellington Jordan while he was in prison. He outlined the song and James finished it, but for tax reasons she gave the co-writing credit to Medallions singer Billy Foster, to whom she was briefly married. It conveys the desperation of a woman who prefers losing her sight to seeing her man with someone else. Rolling Stone critic Dave Marsh included it in his 1999 book “the Heart of Rock and Soul: the 1001 Greatest Singles ever made.” It was subsequently recorded by artists including Rod Stewart, B.B. King, Koko Taylor and Beyonce in “Cadillac Records,” but it remains most closely associated with James.

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