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.
Imagine
Eva Cassidy Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace, you
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world, you
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one
The lyrics to Eva Cassidy's song 'Imagine' are a poignant and powerful reflection on a world without war, religion, nationalism, or inequality. The opening lines of the song are an invitation to the listener to consider a world without the concept of heaven, and without the idea of hell as a punishment for sins. The lyrics capture the essence of John Lennon's original song 'Imagine' with its calls for peace, justice, and love.
The second verse imagines a world without borders or nations, in which people are free to live without fear of violence or persecution. In such a world, there would be no need for religion or ideologies that divide us into groups. Eva Cassidy's delivery of the song is soft, wistful, and soulful. Her voice imbues the lyrics with a sense of longing for a world in which people can truly live in peace, unencumbered by the many social and political ills of our present world.
In the final verse, Cassidy invites us to imagine a world without the concept of possessions, where people share and cooperate with each other. She acknowledges that it may seem like a dream, but reminds us that we are not alone in this longing for a better world. This final verse reminds us of the importance of community and solidarity, and calls on us to work towards a future in which we can all share in the earth's bounty.
Line by Line Meaning
Imagine there's no heaven
Imagine a world where there is no concept of heaven or afterlife.
It's easy if you try
It is not difficult to imagine such a world.
No hell below us
In this world, there is no place of eternal damnation.
Above us only sky
The only thing above us is the sky.
Imagine all the people living for today
Imagine people not worrying about the future, but living in the present moment.
Imagine there's no countries
Imagine a world without borders, where people are not divided by geographic location.
It isn't hard to do
This is not an impossible idea.
Nothing to kill or die for
In such a world, there are no causes for which people would fight to the point of death.
And no religion too
Religion is absent from this world.
Imagine all the people living life in peace, you
Imagine everyone living in harmony and without conflict.
You may say I'm a dreamer
Acknowledging that this may seem like an idealistic, unlikely vision.
But I'm not the only one
Others share this dream.
I hope some day you'll join us
The singer invites the listener into this vision of a better world.
And the world will be as one
This vision of a peaceful world can be achieved if enough people work towards it.
Imagine no possessions
Imagine a world where personal property is not held as valuable or meaningful.
I wonder if you can
The artist is posing a challenge to the listener's imagination.
No need for greed or hunger
In this world, there is no poverty or inequality.
A brotherhood of man
All people are treated as equals and are united in this vision of a better world.
Imagine all the people sharing all the world, you
People share resources and live without the inequalities created by economic systems and national boundaries.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: John Lennon, Paul McCartney
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Fernando Daniel
Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace, you
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world, you
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one
Robert Stein
My dear Catherine so loved Eva and played her all day long..as my wife was dying from Alizheiers I put my phone by her ear to listen to Eva the last time..we were married 61yrs and I miss her.
coffee
As a road hardened former sound tech it takes a lot to make me tear up.. that did it.
Susan Whitehouse
That’s beautiful that you shared something your wife love in her last moments.
So sorry for your loss
Janet Micas
Well done...keep her with you...in your heart...in your soul...stay strong...with tears and smiles for you and your beloved
Ifitumi Chenemi
God bless her soul and continue to rest her peacefully Robert❤
Patty Whack
May her music comfort you.
Martin Cowley
For me, this song always belonged to John Lennon. Many covers over the years i regarded as tainting a masterpiece, today i change my opinion, listening to Eva's version has made me see that even the beautiful sentiments of this song can be improved by a beautiful voice. What a great pity it is that Eva isn't around any more improving masterpieces.
Marla E. Hutchinson
Well said I'm grateful that her 🎼 has no ending 🙏🏽
Solexx X
@Peter Not with talent like this.
Brian Mcghee
Hopefully up there doing a duet of this with John Lennon we can only imagine x ✌️