The more time I spend looking into the history of music and musicians, the more I realize the magnitude of my ignorance. I've always enjoyed music, but for most of my life it was pretty much just an aural experience for me, and I seldom delved too deeply into the backgrounds of the musicians themselves. In fact, it was common for me to not even know what artist was performing the music I was enjoying, never mind knowing much about their life story.
In recent years though, I've tried to spend more time learning about the background of the musicians and their music, and it's been well worth my time. Not only do most of them have fascinating life stories, but I think it's also enhanced my listening experience, since I'm now occasionally using my feeble brain along with my ears.
A good example is a singer that I do remember from the 1950s and 1960s, and I also recall her signature tune, but I didn't know much about her at that time. It turns out that she not only had a fascinating (but tragically short) life, but her biggest hit song even has a story of its own — and at least two names, just like her.
Dinah Washington (born Ruth Lee Jones in 1924) had a relatively short career, dying in 1963 from an accidental drug overdose, but she managed to cram a lot of living into her time on Earth. Her musical career was one that encompassed in equal parts triumph and controversy. Many critics felt that she sold out by embracing a lot of different - and commercial - types of music, and others had a problem with her refusal to do gospel music. (Although she was deeply spiritual, she felt that gospel music had no place in the professional arena.)
Article comments
1 - j Valentine
Great article about Diana, but what is an "accidental" over dose???????
2 - BIg Geez
There seems to be some confusion about how Dinah died. The info I found was that she was always dieting, popping pills constantly, and took too many one night...or that she mixed sleeping pills with alcohol. Difficult to say for sure 40+ years later.