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!.
Get Out of Town
Anita O'Day Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
You come to me as before
To take my heart,
And break my heart once more.
Get out of town
Before it's too late, my love.
Get out of town,
Why wish me harm?
Why not retire to a farm
And be contented to charm
The birds off the trees?
Just disappear,
I care for you much too much,
And when you are near,
Close to me dear,
We touch too much!
The thrill when we meet
Is so bitter-sweet
That, darling, it's getting me down;
So on your mark,
Get set,
Get out of town!
The lyrics of Anita O'Day's song "Get Out of Town" is a plea for her previous love interest to leave her alone. The Speaker is aware that her ex has come back to her just to break her heart again. She is aware of the mistake she made, and she is asking him to leave before it's too late.
As the song continues, her message becomes clear to her ex to go far away from her. The poet encourages him to go to a farm and charm the birds from the trees instead of hurting her. She is all too aware that they have had a sweetly bitter combination whenever they have met. She knows she has to end it, and that's why she tells him to "get out of town." The poet is aware that they shared some good moments together, but it's getting to her, and it's no longer worth it.
In conclusion, "Get Out of Town" by Anita O'Day is a song about the singer's desire for her ex-lover to leave her alone. Although their relationship was good, it caused her too much hurt, and she doesn't want to relive that again. The song poignantly delivers the message to the ex-love, to leave and never come back.
Line by Line Meaning
But now, from nowhere,
Suddenly, unexpectedly, and out of nowhere, you have come back to me.
You come to me as before
You have re-entered my life much like you did in the past.
To take my heart,
You have come back to steal my heart from me.
And break my heart once more.
You have broken my heart before, and now you have returned to hurt me again.
Get out of town
Leave this place immediately.
Before it's too late, my love.
If you don't leave soon, something bad will happen to you.
Be good to me please!
Please do the right thing and spare me any further heartbreak.
Why wish me harm?
Why would you even consider hurting me again?
Why not retire to a farm
Perhaps it would be better for you to find a new place to live and start anew.
And be contented to charm
Instead of hurting me, you could use your charms and talents to make new friends.
The birds off the trees?
Perhaps you could even find joy in charming the local wildlife.
Just disappear
I would be better off if you simply disappeared from my life entirely.
I care for you much too much,
I still have strong feelings for you, which is why your presence in my life is so painful.
And when you are near,
Whenever you are in close proximity to me,
Close to me dear,
When you are physically close to me,
We touch too much!
We can't help but touch each other, which makes it hard to resist our feelings.
The thrill when we meet
The intense emotions I feel when I see you again,
Is so bitter-sweet
Is completely mixed up; it has both good and bad aspects.
That, darling, it's getting me down;
The weight of all these mixed-up emotions and the pain you've caused me are becoming too much to bear.
So on your mark,
Prepare yourself;
Get set,
Get ready;
Get out of town!
It's time for you to leave and remove yourself entirely from my life.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: COLE PORTER
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)