Few female jazz singers matched the hard-swinging and equally hard-living Anita O'Day for sheer exuberance and talent in all areas of jazz vocals. Her improvising, wide dynamic tone, and innate sense of rhythm made her more than just another big-band canary. At a time when most female vocals tended to emphasize the sweet timbres of their voice, she chose to emphasize a path blazed by the one major jazz singer who emphasized message over medium - Billie Holiday. Like Holiday, O'Day combined the soaring freedom of jazz instrumentalist with the storytelling lyricism of a poet.
After making her solo debut in the mid-'40s she incorporated bop modernism into her vocals and recorded over a dozen of the best vocal LPs of the era.
During the late Forties, she recorded two dozen sides, mostly for small labels. The quality of these singles varies: O'Day was trying to achieve popular success without sacrificing her identity as a jazz singer. Among the more notable recordings from this period are "Hi Ho Trailus Boot Whip", "Key Largo", "How High the Moon", and "Malaguena". O'Day's drug problems began to surface late in 1947, when she and husband Carl Hoff were arrested for possession of marijuana and sentenced to 90 days in jail. Her career was back on the upswing in September of 1948, when she sang with Count Basie at the Royal Roost in New York City, resulting in five airchecks. What secured O'Day's place in the jazz pantheon, however, are the seventeen albums she recorded for Verve between 1956 and 1962.
Her first album, Anita O'Day Sings Jazz (reissued as The Lady Is a Tramp), was recorded in 1956 for the newly established Verve Records (it was also the label's first LP). The album was a critical success and further boosted her popularity. In October of 1952 O'Day was again arrested for possession of marijuana, but found not guilty. The following March, she was arrested for possession of heroin. The case dragged on for most of 1953; O'Day was finally sentenced to six months in jail. Not long after her release from jail on February 25, 1954, she began work on her second album, Songs by Anita O'Day (reissued as An Evening with Anita O'Day). She recorded steadily throughout the Fifties, accompanied by small combos and big bands. In person, O'Day was generally backed by a trio which included the drummer with whom she would work for the next 40 years, John Poole.
As a live performer O'Day also began performing in festivals and concerts with such musicians as Louis Armstrong, Oscar Peterson, Dinah Washington, George Shearing, Cal Tjader, and Thelonious Monk. She appeared in the documentary Jazz on a Summer's Day, filmed at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival which increased her popularity. The following year O'Day made a cameo appearance in The Gene Krupa Story , singing "Memories of You". Late in 1959 she toured Europe with Benny Goodman; according to her autobiography, when Goodman's attempts to upstage her failed to diminish the audience's enthusiasm, he cut all but two of her numbers from the show.
After the Goodman fiasco, O'Day went back to touring as a solo artist. She recorded infrequently after the expiration of her Verve contract in 1962 and her career seemed over when she nearly died of a heroin overdose in 1968. After kicking the habit, she made a comeback at the 1970 Berlin Jazz Festival. She also appeared in the films Zig Zag (1970) and The Outfit (1974). She resumed making live and studio albums, many recorded in Japan, and several were released on her own label, Emily Records.
O'Day spoke candidly about her drug addiction in her 1981 memoir, High Times, Hard Times.
Her version of the standard, "Sing, Sing, Sing" was remixed by RSL and was included in the compilation album Verve Remixed 3 in 2005.
2006 saw her first album release in 13 years, entitled Indestructible!.
Black Moonlight
Anita O'Day Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Bruised by the city, bewildered, betrayed,
With a heart heavy laden, with faltering stride,
I have come to the bridge, to the line that divides.
What am I doing up here in a daze
As I gaze at the cold river bed?
Why do I ask myself, "Shall I go back?",
Black moonlight,
Where everything reflects your colour,
Darkness that is endless,
Nights that leave me friendless, blue.
Black moonlight,
You make the lights of Harlem duller,
Just like me you're faded,
Jaded and degraded too!
Why must you send ebony moonbeams,
Depressing, distressing, like shadows of loves that are gone?
Where will it end?
will it spread on
To the starlight, the sunlight, and darken the promise of dawn?
Black moonlight,
I've lost all power to resist you,
Madly I wait you,
Even though I hate you,
Black moonlight!
Oh black moonlight,
I've lost all power to resist you,
Madly I wait you,
Even though I hate you,
Black moonlight!
The lyrics of Anita O'Day's song Black Moonlight are an evocative expression of the despair and disillusionment felt by someone who feels lost and abandoned in a harsh urban environment. The singer is struggling with their own feelings of inadequacy and betrayals by others. They walk towards a bridge and come to the line that divides - this could be interpreted as representing a crossroads in the singer's life, where they must choose between continuing down the same path of misery or taking a different direction.
The chorus gives voice to the titular black moonlight, a symbol of the singer's mood and the surrounding atmosphere. It is a metaphor for the darkness, loneliness and loss that pervades their existence. The black moonlight is described as endless, friendless and leaving the singer feeling blue. The singer feels debilitated and unable to resist the power of the black moonlight, even though they hate it. The dark imagery of the song is further emphasized by lines such as "shadows of loves that are gone." and "jaded and degraded too!"
The song is a powerful commentary on the human experience of lost hope, despair and loneliness. Through its lyrics, the song captures the sense of nihilism that can come from living in a world that doesn't seem to care. The song is a reminder of how difficult it is to change one's circumstances and how it can slowly erode a person's sense of self.
Line by Line Meaning
Lost in the shuffle, I've drifted and strayed,
I feel lost and disconnected from everything, as if I'm just floating aimlessly through life.
Bruised by the city, bewildered, betrayed,
Living in the city has left me feeling battered, confused, and let down.
With a heart heavy laden, with faltering stride,
My heart feels weighed down and I can barely even walk straight because of the emotional burden I'm carrying.
I have come to the bridge, to the line that divides.
I'm standing on the bridge that represents the division between life and death, uncertain of which way to go.
What am I doing up here in a daze
I can't even believe I'm standing here on this bridge in such a foggy mental state.
As I gaze at the cold river bed?
I'm staring down at the frigid water below, contemplating whether to jump in or not.
Why do I ask myself, "Shall I go back?",
I'm wondering whether I should turn around and try to salvage the life that I have before me instead of giving it all up.
When I seem to be going ahead to;
Even though I'm hesitant to leave this bridge, I'm still drawn to the black moonlight that represents death.
Black moonlight,
The black moonlight is darkness and death.
Where everything reflects your colour,
Everything I see now is tinted with the bleak, shadowy influence of the black moonlight.
Darkness that is endless,
The darkness of death is all-encompassing and eternal.
Nights that leave me friendless, blue.
Those dark, dismal nights leave me feeling alone and depressed.
You make the lights of Harlem duller,
The black moonlight extinguishes the brightness and energy of the city.
Just like me you're faded,
And just like the city, I'm also dulled and washed out by the influence of death.
Jaded and degraded too!
I've become beaten-down and worn-out from everything life has thrown at me.
Why must you send ebony moonbeams,
Why must death push upon me with these dark and foreboding signs?
Depressing, distressing, like shadows of loves that are gone?
These signs make me feel hopeless and remind me of all the love and happiness that has left me behind.
Where will it end?
I don't know what exactly will happen when I surrender to death's influence.
will it spread on
Will it expand beyond just me and reach others?
To the starlight, the sunlight, and darken the promise of dawn?
Will this darkness spread to those who still have light in their lives, even to the very beginning of a new day?
I've lost all power to resist you,
I'm powerless to fight against the pull of death.
Madly I wait you,
Even though I hate the idea of dying, I find myself waiting for it impatiently.
Even though I hate you,
I know that death is something I don't want to face, but it feels inevitable.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: COSLOW, JOHNSTON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Aceiseverywhere
on Who Cares?
Let it rain and thunder
Let a million firms go under
I am not concerned with, stocks and bombs that I've been burned with
I love you and you love me
And that's how it will always be
And nothing else can ever mean a thing
Who cares what the public chatters?
Love's the only thing that matters
Who cares if the sky, cares to fall
in the sea
Who cares how history rates me?
As long as your kiss intoxicates me
Oh why should I care?
Life is one long jubilee
As long as I care for you
And you care for me!
Who cares if the sky, cares to fall
in the sea
Who cares what banks fail in Yonkers?
As long as you've got a kiss that conquers!
Oh why should I care?
Life is one long jubilee
So long as I care for you
and you care for me!
(These lyrics might be wrong, sorry)