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.
You Don't Know What Love Is
Eva Cassidy Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Until you've learned the meaning of the blues
Until you've loved the love you've had to lose
You don't know what love is
You don't know how lips hurt
Until you've kissed and had to pay the cost
Until you've flipped your heart and you have lost
You don't know what love is
Do you know how a lost heart feels
The thought of reminiscing
And how lips lips that taste of tears
They lose their taste for kissing
You don't know how hearts burn
For love that cannot live yet never dies
Until you've faced each dawn with sleepless eyes
You don't know what love is
Do you know how a lost heart feels
The thought of reminiscing
And how lips lips that taste of tears
They lose their taste for kissing
You don't know how hearts burn
For love that cannot live yet never dies
Until you've faced each dawn with sleepless eyes
You don't know what love is
The lyrics of Eva Cassidy's song "You Don't Know What Love Is" deal with the theme of heartbreak and the pain that comes with losing love. The first verse talks about the idea that you don't really understand what love is until you have experienced the sadness and sorrow of the blues. The second verse emphasizes the physical pain that comes with heartbreak, using the imagery of lips that hurt and a heart that has been flipped and lost.
The chorus of the song brings a sense of longing and nostalgia, asking if the listener knows how it feels to have a lost heart and reminisce about past love. Cassidy's voice conveys a sense of deep emotion and vulnerability, making the pain of heartbreak and lost love even more palpable. The final verse continues to emphasize the burning feeling in one's heart for a love that cannot be, describing the experience of facing every day with sleepless eyes.
Line by Line Meaning
You don't know what love is
You cannot fully comprehend the meaning of love
Until you've learned the meaning of the blues
Until you have experienced the feeling of sadness and despair associated with love
Until you've loved the love you've had to lose
Until you have loved someone so deeply, but lost them and had to come to terms with it
You don't know how lips hurt
You cannot understand how much it hurts to kiss someone and have to pay the price for it
Until you've flipped your heart and you have lost
Until you have taken a chance on love and had your heart broken in return
Do you know how a lost heart feels
Have you ever felt the pain of a broken heart?
The thought of reminiscing
The memory of past love can be painful to remember
And how lips lips that taste of tears
Kissing someone who has cried can make the experience bittersweet
They lose their taste for kissing
The joy of kissing fades away as the relationship deteriorates
You don't know how hearts burn
You cannot comprehend the intensity of heartache
For love that cannot live yet never dies
For love that may be impossible, but still remains in the heart
Until you've faced each dawn with sleepless eyes
Until you have spent many sleepless nights due to the pain of lost or unfulfilled love
You don't know what love is
You cannot fully understand the complexity and depth of love
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: DON RAYE, GENE DE PAUL
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@JohnPDixon-of4ro
So soulful. My favorite version of this song....and there are many great ones out there. RIP Chuck.
@barmysteve
A wonderful version, such a stunning voice,
@dallassolis5347
r.i.p Sir Brown, you deserve every title that celebrates your sublime contribution to music xx
@MsFluba
Love this side of Chuck! Thank you for the love and happiness! Go-Go Forever!
@williemaereavis340
Pypyyypyuupy
@PoetryManDC
RIP to Brother Brown - Sing In Peace Eva...
@nancyann1358
Beautiful reminds me of Johnny Hartman 💕
@piyochan33
【You Don't Know What Love Is】
Arranged By – Chuck Brown
Bass [Upright Bass] – Keter Betts
Drums – Raice McLeod
Piano, Vibraphone [Vibes], Strings – Lenny Williams
Vocals – Chuck Brown
Written-By – Rye, De Paul
@caroldavis656
Oh Chuck...I miss you so much!
@JaCeeMusic
Luv!