I promise that I copied today’s completely bizarro prompt word for word from the 30 Day Song Challenge list. Putting aside for the moment the absolutely horrendous grammar (“you are waiting for to come out”?), I still can’t make heads or tails of this prompt. I suppose I could name not-yet-released albums that I am looking forward to being released, or individual songs from artists who I’d like to see release another album, but how am I supposed to name a song from an album that hasn’t come out yet?
See: Nick Cage, left.
So, I’m taking today as a “free” day.and just picking whatever song I want. That’s lucky for you, readers, because today’s pick combines not only one of my most favorite Heartbreaker Songs of all time and two of the baddest women ever to pour their souls out into a microphone, but also a pretty decent movie recommendation as well. (It’s a four-fer!) But first, a question: have you ever seen anything so awful, so gut-wrenching, so unbearably painful to watch that it would compel you to say “I’d rather go blind than to see that again”? I’m not talking about that Creed video or when Marco Rubio literally choked his SOTU response or whatever you want to call this. Yes, those are hard to watch, but not so hard that you’d give up a chance to lay eyes on the beauty of sunrises and sunsets, the wonder of a baby’s first smile, the awe-inspiring immensity of the Universe sent back in images from the Hubble Telescope. Sight is a magnificent sense. You wouldn’t give it up for just any old thing.
Unless, that is, you had to watch your love walk away from you.
That’s the story of the song “I’d Rather Go Blind,” co-written and recorded by Etta James. In James’ autobiography Rage to Survive, she says she first heard an unfinished version of the song by her friend Ellington Jordan when she visited him in prison. She later wrote the rest of the song with Jordan, but for tax reasons gave her songwriting credit to her partner at the time, Billy Foster. This song really is about nothing but cold, raw, unrelenting heartbreak, and it’s made all the more poignant by James’ recounting of the mise-en-scène in which she is suffering it: I was just sitting here thinking of your kiss and your warm embrace / When the reflection in the glass that I held to my lips / Revealed the tears that was on my face. Anyone who’s ever had a drink alone and who, in that moment, was given reason to recall the reason why she was drinking alone, knows how gut-wrenching a moment like that can be. Here’s Etta James’ version of the song:
A few years ago, one of my dreams came true on the big screen when Beyoncé Knowles was cast to play Etta James in the movie Cadillac Records, which tells the story of the Chicago-based music label Chess Records and the artists that label made into stars. I’ll go ahead and admit that the movie isn’t great, but it’s got great music and it’s got Queen Bey and it’s about one of the more important music labels (next to Motown and Stax) in the history of R&B, so you should watch it. One of the best scenes in the film was the one in which Beyoncé sings “I’d Rather Go Blind.” Hers is exactly the right sort of balance that a cover song should have, enough like the original to pay the appropriate homage, but not a flat-out impersonation. Beyoncé adds just enough Beyoncé to make her rendition my second-most-favorite recorded versions of this song. Here it is:
I guess I should say #sorrynotsorry for the rule-break today, but I really didn’t know what to do with the prompt. I’ll get back in side the box tomorrow, I promise.
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Here’s your quick-access link to the entire 30 Day Song Challenge 2014 prompt-list and my picks for each day.