12/03/2008
Singer and Civil Rights Icon Odetta Dies at 77
American folk singer and civil rights icon Odetta has died at 77, of heart disease:
"Odetta sang at coffeehouses and at Carnegie Hall, made highly influential recordings of blues and ballads, and became one of the most widely known folk-music artists of the 1950s and ’60s. She was a formative influence on dozens of artists, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Janis Joplin. Her voice was an accompaniment to the black-and-white images of the freedom marchers who walked the roads of Alabama and Mississippi and the boulevards of Washington in the quest to end racial discrimination. Rosa Parks, the woman who started the boycott of segregated buses in Montgomery, Ala., was once asked which songs meant the most to her. She replied, 'All of the songs Odetta sings.' Odetta sang at the march on Washington, a pivotal event in the civil rights movement, in August 1963. Her song that day was 'O Freedom,' dating to slavery days: 'O freedom, O freedom, O freedom over me, And before I’d be a slave, I’d be buried in my grave, And go home to my Lord and be free.'"
The Boston Globe writes, in their obituary: "She was full of surprises in recent years, too. Indie-pop auteur Stephin Merritt recruited Odetta to sing 'Waltzing Me All the Way Home' on the 6ths album 'Hyacinths and Thistles' in 2000. He later said Odetta had told him she thought the song was about two gay black soldiers during World War II, which was news to Merritt."
Listen to it here:
A couple clips in Odetta's honor, AFTER THE JUMP...
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Posted 10:23 AM EST by Andy in Deaths, Music, News | Permalink
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In the late 1990s, when I was a teenager, I had a chance to hear Odetta sing in a very small concert. She was a presence - electric, intense, you couldn't not notice her, hear her.
In the middle of two songs, she gave a sermon about how America had lost its way, and at that time was growing too proud in spite of its young age, acting like the bully at the world's recess. It was the first time I had ever heard a voice of true dissent.
Afterward, a group of us were able to talk to her - she was one of the warmest, most intelligent people that I had ever, up till then, spoken with. This is an enormous loss for the very best of American culture.
Posted by: Andalusian Dog | Dec 3, 2008 10:42:45 AM
wow! she's been around forever and i thought she'd be waaay past 80 by now. i used to love listening to her records when i was a little kid and my mother would play them.
Posted by: alguien | Dec 3, 2008 10:55:33 AM
"When I'm high I AM Odetta" (Pia Zadora in the original and only HAIRSPAY)
Posted by: Patrick | Dec 3, 2008 11:18:29 AM
God, she was wonderful. I first encountered her in a duet with Janis Ian on the "Aftertones" album, was captured by her voice and sought out her own records.
I'm really sad now that I missed her this fall -- she played a free festival very near my house, but I had to work all that weekend. Had I know it was my last chance to hear her live, I might have just blown the deadline.
Posted by: Distingué Traces | Dec 3, 2008 4:34:32 PM