Etta James Quotes

Bobby Womack is always very real, both with his music and as a person.

Now I can stand up on the stage again like I used to after five years of sitting down while I sang.

Country music has the great stories.

And as I started reaching deeper I realized that most of the blues of that day was done by men. Women just didn't have the nerve.

It's not about battling the original artists when I record these songs, it's about paying tribute to them.

When Malcolm X was assassinated I was working at the Apollo. They brought his body to the Unity Funeral Home, which was around the corner.

I figured I could do "It's A Man's, Man's, Man's World" because I believe it's the truth.

This is an album of songs that I've always loved, tunes that I heard. For the first time in 53 years of recording, I really had control over an entire album, start to finish.

Long as I was riding in a big Cadillac and dressed nice and had plenty of food, that's all I cared about.

It's the same thing now. When I go onstage the young people scream and holler as much as the older generation.

I talked to the record company about what I had in mind. They said they wanted something lush. I figured the best thing to do was let them hear what I had in mind.

Most of the songs I sing have that blues feeling in it. They have that sorry feeling. And I don't know what I'm sorry about. I don't.

All the things I used to like - cookies, ice cream, gumbo - I don't like anymore.

I was a sloppy kid, wanted to be just wild.

I'm not starry eyed, and I'm not money crazy.

My mother was a jazz fanatic and she wanted me to play the piano so I could play jazz tunes. I wish I had learned but I was too busy getting into trouble!

Even as a little child, I've always had that comedian kind of attitude.

My mother always wanted me to be a jazz singer, but I always wanted to be raunchy.

I am so happy that I am alive and can walk.

I was originally like a punker, know what I mean, like the punks are today, I'd spit in a minute.

See, I don't like places where people can't dance - don't like clubs or theatres where a bunch of bourgeois people sit around tip, tip, tipping their fingers.

I sing the songs that people need to hear.

People that can't stand to listen to the blues, they've got to be phonies.

I'm not a bourgeois person, never will be.

When I look out at the people and they look at me and they're smiling, then I know that I'm loved. That is the time when I have no worries, no problems.

The only time that I am really truly happy—when I feel at my best—is when I'm on the stage.

I've gone through so much in my life. I should have been dead a long time ago, but I am still here, and I'm the happiest I've ever been.

I want a Sunday kind of love A love to last past Saturday night And I’d like to know it’s more than love at first sight

It feels so good to be happy.

I’ve learned to live with rage. In some ways, it’s my rage that keeps me going. Without it, I would have been whipped long ago. With it, I got a lot more songs to sing.

When I sing for myself, I probably sing for anyone who has any kind of hurt, any kind of bad feelings, good feelings, ups and downs, highs and lows, that kind of thing.

The music was thunder and joy. Lightning bolts of happiness and praise, foot-stomping, dance-shouting, good-feeling singing from the soul.

At last my love has come along. My lonely days are over and life is like a song.

In some ways, it's my rage that keeps me going.

When I'm singing the blues, I'm singing life.

The two things you can't fake are good food and good music