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.
I Could Have Told you so
Eva Cassidy Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Love you a while then desert you
If only you'd asked I could have told you so
I could have saved you some crying
I could have told you he was lying
If only you'd asked I could have told you so
I see him there making promises he'll never keep
And soon it's over and done with
Find someone new to have fun with
If only you'd asked I could have told you so
(Scat)
(Chuck Brown)
(Scat)
I could have told you she'd hurt you
Love you a while then desert you
If only you'd asked I could have told you so
I could have saved you a whole lot of crying
I could have told you he was lying
If only you'd asked I could have told you so
I see her there as I toss and turn and try to sleep
I see him there with promises he'll never keep
And soon it's over and done with
Find someone new to have fun with
If only you'd asked I could have told you so
With all of my tears I could have told you so
The song "I Could Have Told You So" is a melancholic ballad performed by Eva Cassidy and Chuck Brown, and tells a story about missed opportunity for a relationship to work. The song talks about a person who is able to foresee the future of someone they care about, knowing that their love interest will only bring them pain and heartbreak in the end. The singer hints at their ability to save the other person from their heartache, but they were never asked and were left with nothing but tears. The lyrics of the song are simple yet impactful, with a message that lingers long after the song ends.
The song captures the essence of unfulfilled love and a sense of helplessness that comes with it. The lyrics express the regret of not being able to spare the other person from the pain they were about to experience. The singer seems to be singing from a place of longing and sadness, wishing that they had been able to make things better for someone they cared about deeply. The chorus "If only you'd asked I could have told you so" evokes a sense of resignation and acceptance, that the person they love has moved on and found someone else, despite the warnings that were given.
Overall, "I Could Have Told You So" is a poignant song that touches on themes of unrequited love, regret, and missed opportunities. The simple yet memorable lyrics and soulful music make this song a gem in the world of ballads.
Line by Line Meaning
I could have told you she'd hurt you
I knew that this woman was not going to treat you right.
Love you a while then desert you
She was going to fake her affection for you, only to leave you alone later.
If only you'd asked I could have told you so
You could have avoided this trouble if you had only asked for my advice.
I could have saved you some crying
I could have warned you about his behavior earlier to prevent your tears.
I could have told you he was lying
I knew that he was not being truthful with you.
I see her there as I toss and turn and try to sleep
I can't stop thinking about how poorly she treated you.
I see him there making promises he'll never keep
I know that he never intended to keep the promises he made to you.
And soon it's over and done with
The relationship will inevitably end.
Find someone new to have fun with
You will eventually move on and find someone else to enjoy yourself with.
With all of my tears I could have told you so
I have been upset watching you suffer and wish that you had listened to me so this could have been avoided.
Lyrics © OBO APRA/AMCOS
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