When The Lady Sings The Blues

Album: Guitar Slinger (2011)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Gill penned this song with his old songwriting partner Pete Wasner. He said: "We've been making music and traveling and writing songs together for 30 years. We have always had a great kinship musically. More than anybody, when we play together, we know exactly what the other one is going to do. It always feels right to play music with him and write songs with him."
  • The song pays tribute to Billie Holiday and was inspired by her biopic, Lady Sings The Blues. Gill explained: "When I was 13 or 14, we had a little movie theater a block from my house. One of my favorite movies at that time was Lady Sings The Blues with Diana Ross. At that time, I had never heard of Billie Holiday. Anyway, I saw that movie 50 times. I was just mesmerized by this music and became a huge fan of that bluesy big band sound. I was a young sponge and I couldn't get enough of it. I wanted to pay tribute to Billie, so the last verse finds a way to use some of her song titles like 'God Bless This Child' and 'Ain't It Nice What A Little Moonlight Can Do When The Lady Sings The Blues.'"
  • The song features a lot of bluesy guitar playing by Gill. He said: "I feel like my guitar playing on this record has taken a step up. It's interesting now, 30-something years into a career, that people are really starting to get a great sense of my guitar playing. It's almost as much a guitar record in spots as it is a singing record. This is one of the tracks that is kind of funky and Little Feat-ish or Steely Dan-ish with a lot of guitar playing on the end of it." (Quotes from the now-shuttered Roughstock.)

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Little Big Town

Little Big TownSongwriter Interviews

"When seeds that you sow grow by the wicked moon/Be sure your sins will find you out/Your past will hunt you down and turn to tell on you."

Millie Jackson

Millie JacksonSongwriter Interviews

Outrageously gifted and just plain outrageous, Millie is an R&B and Rap innovator.

Don Dokken

Don DokkenSongwriter Interviews

Dokken frontman Don Dokken explains what broke up the band at the height of their success in the late '80s, and talks about the botched surgery that paralyzed his right arm.

Martyn Ware of Heaven 17

Martyn Ware of Heaven 17Songwriter Interviews

Martyn talks about producing Tina Turner, some Heaven 17 hits, and his work with the British Electric Foundation.

Sending Out An SOS - Distress Signals In Songs

Sending Out An SOS - Distress Signals In SongsSong Writing

Songs where something goes horribly wrong (literally or metaphorically), and help is needed right away.

John Lee Hooker

John Lee HookerSongwriter Interviews

Into the vaults for Bruce Pollock's 1984 conversation with the esteemed bluesman. Hooker talks about transforming a Tony Bennett classic and why you don't have to be sad and lonely to write the blues.