Etta James

Today we mourn the loss of a great blues singer, Etta James, at the age of 73. In real life, little about James was as genteel as that song, "At Last." The platinum blonde's first hit was a saucy R&B number about sex, and she was known as a hell-raiser who had tempestuous relationships with her family, her men and the music industry. Then she spent years battling a drug addiction that she admitted sapped away at her great talents.

In other words, she was one of music's original bad girls.

"The bad girls ... had the look that I liked," she wrote in her 1995 autobiography, "Rage to Survive." ''I wanted to be rare, I wanted to be noticed, I wanted to be exotic as a Cotton Club chorus girl, and I wanted to be obvious as the most flamboyant hooker on the street. I just wanted to be."

James' spirit could not be contained — perhaps that's what made her so magnetic in music; it is surely what made her so dynamic as one of R&B, blues and rock 'n' roll's underrated legends. The 73-year-old died at Riverside Community Hospital, with her husband and sons at her side, her manager Lupe De Leon said.

"It's a tremendous loss for her fans around the world," he said. "She'll be missed. A great American singer. Her music defied category."

I did copy most of the above from MSN music news. She broke barriers of age, color and sex in a man's world. May God bless and keep you always Etta. R.I.P.

Peace and Happiness aLL~!