Eva Cassidy was the third of four children born to Hugh and Barbara Cassidy. From an early age, she displayed artistic and musical talent. When she was nine years old, her father taught her to play the guitar, and she began to play and sing at family gatherings.
While a student at Bowie High School, she did sing with a local band, called Stonehenge, and received considerable praise.
At the age of eighteen, Cassidy began her professional career, singing and playing guitar in a Washington, D.C., area band, called Easy Street. This band performed in a variety of styles, at weddings, corporate parties, and pubs.
During the summer of 1983, Cassidy sang and played guitar, six days per week, at Wild World, in Maryland. Her brother Dan was also a member of this working band.
Throughout the 1980s, Cassidy worked with a number of other bands, including the soul and Motown-oriented band The Honeybees, and the techno-pop band Characters Without Names, later called Method Actor.
During this period, Cassidy also worked as a propagator at a plant nursery and as a furniture painter in Annapolis, Maryland. In 1986, she met (bassist and recording engineer) Chris Biondo, who encouraged her and helped her find work as a backup singer for various acts. In 1990, Biondo and Cassidy hired the so-called "Eva Cassidy Band", composed of Chris Biondo, Lenny Williams, Keith Grimes and Raice McLeod, and she began to perform frequently in the Washington area.
In 1992, Biondo played a tape of Cassidy's voice for Chuck Brown. Best known as the "Godfather of Go-go", Brown is also a jazz and blues vocalist. This led to the first commercial recording of Cassidy, the duet album with Chuck Brown, The Other Side; which featured performances of classic songs such as "Fever", Billie Holiday's "God Bless the Child" and Cassidy's signature tune "Over the Rainbow". The album was released and distributed by Liaison Records, the label that also released Brown's Go-go albums. The duet CD attracted the attention of various record companies, but the offers all required Cassidy to pigeonhole herself within a single style (e.g., pop or jazz), something she adamantly refused to do.[citation needed]
In 1993 Eva Cassidy was first honored by the Washington area music community when she was awarded two Wammie awards for "Female Vocalist Roots/Traditional R&B" and "Vocalist Jazz/Traditional." The next year she was chosen to perform for the awards ceremony.
In January 1996, Cassidy recorded the album Live at Blues Alley, about which The Washington Post later commented that "she could sing anything and make it sound like the only music that mattered". [1] Cassidy was unhappy with her singing on the album, because she had a bad cold on the night of the recording; she began recording a studio album which was eventually released as Eva by Heart posthumously in 1997.
During a promotional event for the Live at Blues Alley CD in July 1996, Cassidy noticed an ache in her hips, which she attributed to stiffness from painting murals. The pain persisted, and, a few weeks later, Cassidy was diagnosed with melanoma. By the time of her diagnosis, the cancer had spread throughout her body. Cassidy's health rapidly deteriorated, and her final performance was in September 1996. At the performance, she had used a walker to reach the stage, sang "What a Wonderful World" in front of an audience of friends, and was subsequently admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital.[citation needed]
Eva Cassidy died on November 2, 1996, at the age of 33. She was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Washington Area Music Association.
Ain't Doin' Too Bad
Eva Cassidy Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And a fine place to stay
Got a car I can drive
I ride around everyday
Ain't doing too bad
Ain't doing too bad at all
I ain't doing too bad baby
I got a book full of men
I can call on the phone
And they all dig me
'Cause my conversation's so strong
Ain't doing too bad
Ain't doing too bad at all
I ain't doing too bad baby
Ain't doing too bad at all
I don't like work
Work don't like me
We stay away from each other
That's the way it ought to be
Ain't doing too bad
Ain't doing too bad at all
I ain't doing too bad baby
Ain't doing too bad at all
Ain't doing too bad
Ain't doing too bad at all
Oh no, no, no, I ain't doing too bad
Ain't doing too bad at all
The lyrics to Eva Cassidy's song Ain't Doin' Too Bad exude a sense of contentment and satisfaction with the singer's current state of life. She starts off by expressing her financial stability with a good amount of money and a comfortable place to stay, along with a car to drive around. The repetition of the phrase "Ain't doing too bad" implies that the singer is in a good place and, despite not being extravagantly wealthy, is content with what she has.
The next stanza, however, shifts the focus on the singer's social life. She states that she has a book full of men she can call, and they all enjoy talking to her because of her strong conversation skills. This could suggest that the singer is popular and well-liked among her peers. The recurring line of "Ain't doing too bad" further emphasizes that the singer is comfortable with her social life as well.
Towards the end of the song, the singer addresses her outlook on work, stating that she does not like it and it does not like her, but they both "stay away from each other" which is "the way it ought to be." This line represents the freedom the singer feels without a strict tie to a job and its stresses. The song concludes with more repetition of the phrase "Ain't doing too bad" indicating that the singer's general outlook on life is optimistic and content.
Line by Line Meaning
Well, I got me some money
I have enough money to live comfortably.
And a fine place to stay
I have a beautiful home to live in.
Got a car I can drive
I have a car that I enjoy driving.
I ride around everyday
I enjoy the freedom and pleasure of driving my car.
Ain't doing too bad
Overall, my life is going well.
Ain't doing too bad at all
Things are going really well for me right now.
I ain't doing too bad baby
I am satisfied with my current situation.
I got a book full of men
I have many men who are interested in me.
I can call on the phone
They are willing to talk to me.
And they all dig me
They find me attractive and interesting.
'Cause my conversation's so strong
They enjoy talking to me and find me intelligent and thoughtful.
I don't like work
I do not enjoy working.
Work don't like me
Work is not interested in me as a person.
We stay away from each other
I try to avoid working as much as possible.
That's the way it ought to be
I believe that it is better for me to focus on the things I enjoy in life.
Oh no, no, no, I ain't doing too bad
I want to emphasize that my current situation is very good.
Lyrics Β© BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: DON ROBEY
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@alisapapa6033
Well, I got me some money
And a fine place to stay
Got a car I can drive
I ride around everyday
Ain't doing too bad
Ain't doing too bad at all
I ain't doing too bad baby
Ain't doing too bad at all
I got a book full of men
I can call on the phone
And they all dig me
'Cause my conversation's so strong
@valerietomecek6085
Excellent π perfect start 2024!! Thank you, Eva β€
@abc456f
Blues, jazz, country, gospel, r & b, folk, pop. She did it all with perfection.
@saltrockshakers4205
Ain't doin' too bad, Eva! People love you all over the world, and many think you're the best ever, including me!!!
@user-vt8rx7od3l
I can't decide which I love more about it, the singer whom I truly admire as a professional and as a personality, or the song itself which fits me so f**** well. Don't care that it's a cover, it will always remain Eva's song for me as I have always listened to it in her performance..
@szatanowska
ππ»ππ»ππ»πππππ amazing talented lady with beautiful voice β£οΈβ£οΈβ£οΈπΈ
@kaym.h.3583
πβ€ R.I.Paradise-
@OldSchoolMusic
Nice, Nice, NICE !!!
@yoolnowk3593
LOVE IT : )) ππππ
@susankande4677
Awwwwweeesommmmme!! β€οΈπππΆππͺ
@geoffturner6381
Smoooooooth!