Inside At Last
Etta James' glorious first album!
For my thirteenth birthday, my friend gifted me a CD of Etta James' At Last!. I had never really heard James’ music beyond the title track. I didn’t even listen to jazz like that. Despite this, she gave it to me saying, “I think you’d really like this.” Hearing this, I wanted to find out exactly why this album reminded her of me. And that is exactly what I set out to do: I spun the album (on my pink Hello Kitty CD player) whenever I could. At Last! when I got ready. At Last! when I studied. At Last! when I lied in bed. At Last! when my eyes hurt from looking at a screen, but I still really wanted to listen to music, so I’d play a CD instead.
I’ll spoil the ending: I never was able to pin down what it was. But over time, I fell in love with the album. It was my gateway into what I used to overgeneralize as “old music”. Now that I’m in college, my Hello Kitty CD player and At Last! collect dust in my childhood bedroom. Still, I often listen to the album online because it reminds me of home. It reminds me of that friend, and it reminds me of every year these songs accompanied me through.
I think there is so much to admire about this album, and today, I want to share just some of those things with you. Like I did with Indigo over a year ago, I want to analyze not only the songs, but the artist, the genre, and the atmosphere that brought this album to life. If you are so inclined, I encourage you to listen to it as or after you read.
To me, this album explores loneliness. It yearns, it prays, it mourns, it celebrates, and it loves. James’ voice lends itself beautifully to these intentions. It is impossible to discuss this album without talking about its titular track, “At Last”. “At Last” is a musical standard, originally performed by Glenn Miller for the film Sun Valley Serenade. James’ rendition is slow and sweeping, with strings accompanying her. She plays with dynamics: sometimes, she is timid and longing, and other times, she is loud and powerful. She sings of finally falling in love, of her “lonely days” ending and entering a sweet, new phase of life.
Moving a few tracks up, “A Sunday Kind Of Love” is perhaps the second most well-known track from the album. This is another jazz standard, originally produced in 1946 by Claude Thornhill. In efforts to cement her as a master of many genres, James’ version has more of a pop tinge to it–on record and in some live performances, she is accompanied by saxophone, bass, flute, drums, guitars, and another sweeping string arrangement. It’s worth noting that, though these tracks are more soul and R&B, James evokes most classic characteristics of jazz in her performance: she repeats words and phrases, creates new runs, verbally interjects with adlibs, corporally embodies the tune, and initiates a call-and-response with her audience. This genre-bending was what made her such a powerhouse. Even her most lonely tracks are transformed into something exciting that the audience can actively engage with, not just sit back and watch.
As you might have picked up on, a large amount of songs in this album are covers, or as they’re known in the musical world, standards. Most commonly found in jazz and rock, standards are “reinterpreting a tune previously recorded by another artist”. In jazz, many of these standards came out of Tin Pan Alley, and it seems that different versions of the same song don’t share much more than lyrics and a vague semblance of melody. Look at “A Sunday Kind of Love”: Thornhill’s version puts more emphasis on the long i sounds. It feels a bit held-back, but this is how it stands out. It reminds me of the kind of yearning that is passive, making yourself physically small but feeling huge waves of emotion nonetheless. On the other hand, James’ version feels declarative. Her voice takes up space in a room. Even through a recording, it reminds me of yelling out to the world, claiming those huge waves of feeling as your own. Back to the standards–these two melodies of these two renditions aren’t that similar. Thornhill’s version has more improvisation and plays with dynamics and speed. James’ version maintains a more consistent, pop-like rhythm, likely a nod to the jazz, soul, R&B, and pop fusion of genres James was encouraged to embody.
One of my favorite standards off the album is “I Just Want To Make Love To You”, originally written by Willie Dixon. I find this song interesting because lyrically, it responds to its original. In Dixon’s version, he sings, “I don’t want you to wash my clothes / I don’t want you to keep you home”, and in James’ version, she sings, “All I want to do is wash your clothes / I don’t want to keep you indoors”. It speaks to the malleability of a jazz standard–some of the best renditions riff off of the core themes and sounds of a standard. No rendition is the same–lyrically, sonically, or melodically. Something else that stands out to me about this song is that this (alongside “Tough Mary”) is one of the most upbeat, brazen tracks on the album. Typical sweeping strings are replaced by a more bouncy arrangement. The horn solo, combined with her powerful delivery, veers the song into rock-and-roll territory, which James was also known for.
To speak generally, I imagine how difficult this period of time must have been for her. She was 23 when this, her first album, came out in the midst of the Civil Rights Era. Black women then (and now) struggled under the cultural phenomenon of the “exceptional woman”, where only one, outstanding “female creative voice … survives and earns a place in the historical narrative.” This, combined with the already tense atmosphere for Black women in America, fostered an unnecessary sense of competition among musicians. Etta James herself did not experience her highest level of success until the 1990s, three decades after this album came out. However, with a successful career spanning six decades, it can be argued that she was able to push back against racial barriers and use music as a unifier.
Here are some relevant links if you’re interested in learning more about her and her work:
Happy March! The playlist is here, as ever. Thank you for reading.
Love,
Aarushi.
alright alright ill listen to it 😒😒😒😒😒😒😒😒😒😒😒😒😒
i love exploring music through writing; it’s one of those unique forms of expression that makes my dumb lil artist heart so very happy. thank you for going into depth about this project. i am going to listen to it in its entirety at some point this month for sure <3 aarushi you’re the sweetest.