linda1527's Full Review: David Ritz - Rage to Survive: The Etta James Story
Just saw Etta James two months ago in a concert, and let me tell you, she has still got it going on. She put on quite the show with her awesome band, The Roots Band. Both of her son's are in that band. She has lost a ton of weight after having gastric bypass surgery just a few years ago. After seeing the woman herself, I just had to find out about more about her and her life. Hence, I found Rage to Survive, The Etta James Story. The book was written around 1997, and the author had met her about 20 years previous to this. He held up on writing her biography as he felt she still had a lot of living to do, and yes, indeed she did!
It is truly one of the saddest books I have read on someone like her who had so much talent. She was born out of wedlock to her mother of 14. Her mother pretty much left her to be brought up by other people, sister, grandmother, good friend. Etta referred to her mom as the "mystery woman" as she would just see her flit in and out of her life during her childhood and didn't even know the "mystery woman" was her mom until later in childhood. Dysfunctional doesn't even begin to describe the horrors of her early life.
From a very young age Etta had this "voice" that was her great talent and her saving grace. I swear, this woman has nine lives and she has lived them all to the fullest extreme. The fun part of the book was hearing about all of the great artists she met as she grew up and went on tour. She knew Jimi Hendrix before he was discovered. One of her idols was Billie Holliday. She once met Billie when Etta herself was going on an audition. In walks Billie Holliday with two men on each side of her. First thing Etta noticed was how "swollen" her hands and ankles were. She was kind of fixated on her physical appearance and Billie was pretty strung out herself at that time. She said, "are you looking at me? Let this be a lesson to you what drugs can do." But, of course, that didn't stop Etta from finding out for herself.
She was hooked on heroin especially, and has gone to treatment and/or prison numerous times because of it. From the very beginning of her career she, like a lot of the black artists during that time had no business sense and were taken advantage of, receiving no royalties on their songs, or even decent money for their performances. Etta James did love her drugs and hung with some pretty rough characters, many of them were pimps as she herself describes them. She met the man she would marry when she was in Alaska on tour at around age 30. He was probably the only real person who loved her and did not take advantage of her like so many had. She is married to him to this day. He once took the rap for her when she was busted with drugs and did about 10 years in prison for her. Can you imagine that? Even then, when he was gone she didn't straighten up and "fly right." She got pregnant with her second child while he was in prison. Her first child was born out of wedlock before she met her husband.
She has seen a lot of her good friends die from overdoses and yet she continued on that journey of drugs until about 20 years ago, when she finally sought long-term treatment, finally took a look at herself and was able to pull herself together. After much maligning from record producers and the like she took charge of her career and is finally reaping the benefits.
The night I saw her in concert she was phenomenal. Great blues singer and had the place hootin' and hollerin'. If you're a fan of Etta's and ever get a chance to see her and read this book, don't pass on this gem.
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