People always say 'Etta, you know what your problem is? You're neither fish nor fowl. There is no place to rack you.' When I would go in a record shop, you might find one or two records by me in different stacks.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the struggle of identity and belonging in a world that categorizes people.
Etta James expresses the challenge of feeling out of place or not fitting into defined categories, as illustrated by her experience in record shops. This speaks to a broader human experience of individuality and the pressure to conform to societal expectations, highlighting the complexity of identity when faced with rigid classifications.
In practice
In a motivational speech about self-acceptance.
Jazz took too much discipline. You have to come in at the right place, which is different than me singing the blues, where I can sing, 'Oh, baby,' if there's a pause in the melody. With jazz, you better leave that space open, or put in something real cool.
I figured I could do "It's A Man's, Man's, Man's World" because I believe it's the truth.
It's not about battling the original artists when I record these songs, it's about paying tribute to them.
I wanna show that gospel, country, blues, rhythm and blues, jazz, rock 'n' roll are all just really one thing. Those are the American music and that is the American culture.
The only time that I am really truly happy—when I feel at my best—is when I'm on the stage.
When I'm singing the blues, I'm singing life.
To say that 'prayer changes things' is not as close to the truth as saying, 'prayer changes me and then I change things.' God has established things so that prayer, on the basis of redemption, changes the way a person looks at things.
Where charity stands watching and faith holds wide the door the dark night wakes - the glory breaks, Christmas comes once more.
Death, so called, is a thing which makes men weep, And yet a third of life is passed in sleep.
... the reason life works at all is that not everyone in your tribe is nuts on the same day. [pp. 65-66]
We must therefore rediscover, after the natural world, the social world, not as an object or sum of objects, but as a permanent field or dimension of existence.
In all things there is a law of cycles.
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