Wilson's repertoire includes both jazz and blues standards and renditions of pop and rock songs. Her contralto voice has been described as bluesy and sultry, and the style of her music ranges from swing to funk to bossa nova. Many of the songs she covers are by artists who usually record in other genres.
Wilson counts the late Miles Davis as one of her greatest influences. In 1989 she performed as the opening act for Davis at the JVC Jazz Festival in Chicago. In 1999 she produced Traveling Miles as a tribute to Davis. The album developed from a series of jazz concerts that she performed at Lincoln Center in November 1997 in Davis's honor and includes three selections based on Davis's own compositions, in which Wilson adapted the original themes.
A Brief Discography
Point of View (1986, JMT)
Days Aweigh (1987, JMT)
Blue Skies (1988, JMT)
Jumpworld (1989, JMT)
She Who Weeps (1990, JMT)
Live (1991, JMT)
After the Beginning Again (1992, JMT)
Dance to the Drums Again (1992, DIW/Columbia)
Blue Light 'til Dawn (1993, Blue Note)
New Moon Daughter (1995, Blue Note)
Rendezvous (with Jacky Terrasson) (1998, Blue Note)
Traveling Miles (1999, Blue Note)
Belly of the Sun (2002, Blue Note)
Glamoured (2003, Blue Note)
Thunderbird (2006, Blue Note)
Loverly (2008, Blue Note)
Silver Pony (2010, Blue Note)
Another Country (2012, eOne)
Official website: www.cassandrawilson.com
Killing Me Softly With His Song
Cassandra Wilson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Singing my life with his words,
Killing me softly with his song,
Killing me softly with his song,
Telling my whole life with his words,
Killing me softly with his song
I heard he sang a good song, I heard he had a style.
And there he was this young boy, a stranger to my eyes.
I felt all flushed with fever, embarrassed by the crowd,
I felt he found my letters and read each one out loud.
I prayed that he would finish but he just kept right on.
He sang as if he knew me in all my dark despair
And then he looked right through me as if I wasn't there.
But he just came to singing, singing clear and strong.
The lyrics to Cassandra Wilson’s “Killing Me Softly with His Song” convey a raw and emotional experience of being moved by music. The opening lines “Strumming my pain with his fingers, singing my life with his words” create a vivid image of the power of music and its ability to tap into our deepest emotions. The second line, “killing me softly with his song,” suggests that the sheer intensity and profound resonance of the music is so strong that it can be overwhelming, even unbearable.
As the song progresses, it tells a story of a woman who goes to hear a musician play in hopes of finding solace in his music. She’s struck by the power of his performance and the poignant way he’s able to convey human emotion through his music. The lines “I felt all flushed with fever, embarrassed by the crowd, I felt he found my letters and read each one out loud” suggest that the music was so powerful and evocative that it felt like the musician was reading her personal diary out loud to a room full of strangers.
Despite feeling exposed and vulnerable, the woman can’t help but continue to listen to the musician’s performance because it feels like he’s telling her life story through his lyrics. The final lines “But he just came to singing, singing clear and strong” encapsulate the catharsis and emotional release that can come from being moved by music.
Line by Line Meaning
Strumming my pain with his fingers,
He's playing the guitar in a way that resonates with the emotions I'm feeling
Singing my life with his words,
He's singing about my experiences and emotions in a way that feels personal to me
Killing me softly with his song,
His performance is causing me to feel extreme emotional pain
Telling my whole life with his words,
He's singing about all of the experiences and emotions that have defined my life so far
Killing me softly with his song
His performance is still causing me intense emotional pain
I heard he sang a good song, I heard he had a style.
I've heard that he is a talented musician with a distinctive style
And so I came to see him to listen for a while.
I decided to go to one of his shows to check out his music
And there he was this young boy, a stranger to my eyes.
When I saw him in person, I didn't recognize him because he was so young and I had never met him before
I felt all flushed with fever, embarrassed by the crowd,
His performance made me feel overwhelmed and uncomfortable in front of the audience
I felt he found my letters and read each one out loud.
His lyrics felt like they were based on personal letters I had written, even though he couldn't possibly have read them
I prayed that he would finish but he just kept right on.
I wanted his performance to end because it was causing me so much pain, but he didn't stop
He sang as if he knew me in all my dark despair
His performance felt like it was speaking directly to my innermost feelings of sadness and hopelessness
And then he looked right through me as if I wasn't there.
Despite how personal the performance felt, he didn't actually see me as a person and wasn't paying attention to my reactions
But he just came to singing, singing clear and strong.
He was just doing what he loved and performing his music to the best of his abilities
Lyrics © Royalty Network, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Robin Spielberg, Norman Gimbel, Charles Fox
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Dawud Abdullaah
Man, what a great arrangement. The only link to the original is the melody she's singing...and the 2nd part of the chorus. Awesome.
Godfather CHUUUCH
She slick with it 🎤
davielove11
Really nice take on this CLASSIC!
Mr. F Wright
I love this
Luis Alejandro Pėrez
Me gustaría un dúo con Buika, tienen ese color de voz parecido.
Fernando Castaño
La exquisitez hecha mujer !! Negra mi amor
Natalie vermoit
nice smooth sensual voice
Genesis Gunn
Agreed