http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehy6VjLU8DY
- love her too!
anon
- "Dusty in memphis" is a great album. maybe doesn't have the frenetic energy so many people seem to want but it's just amazing.
- Her disco and pop songs she did in the 80s were great.
- We get it you're not an eldergay.
- Wishin' and Hopin'
One of my favorites when I was just a little gayling.
What happened to pop music? It's awful now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DycbgHM1mI0k%26feature%3Dyoutube_gdata_player
- Yeah, Dusty's one of my favorites.
"Dusty In Memphis" was her best album, but I'd recommend a few more.
Pick up one of her anthologies if you can, since they cover all of her career. I included a link to the one I have.
Also pick up "Beautiful Soul" which covers a mid 70s period and includes an album she made but never released.
- Another vote for Dusty in Memphis. Amazing.
- I like her version of this song, too
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqK90xExYK0
- I love her version of THIS - mid 70s trippiness.
She could sing ANYTHING.
http://youtu.be/Q3iorVlGPR4
- And to completely blow your mind, check out her songs "Sooner or Later" or "Blind Sheep" (they aren't on YouTube but MP3's are out there).
It's delicious early 80s synth pop. Dusty is serving some Pat Benetar realness in those songs! Like I said, the bitch could sing ANYTHING. And sound good doing it!
R9
- "No Easy Way Down" from DIM is her best song, IMO. A Carole King composition sung to absolute perfection.
I lover her 60s albums too (especially "A Girl Called Dusty"). She does a rocking version of "24 Hours to Tulsa" on that one.
- Since this is DataLounge when I saw the caption `Dusty Springfield`,I thought it`s going to be something like`I don`t understand her appeal,she`s nothing special etc...`. Well,what do you know.
Anonymous
- R11 "No Easy Way Down" is wonderful, but I love what she does with the Goffin King songs "Goin' Back" and "Some Of Your Lovin'".
"Some" was the song Jerry Wexler heard on the radio and said, "Damn, we have to record this artist." Leading to "DIM."
http://youtu.be/U454GbTN3xc
- Apologies in advance for posting so much - I know someone will dislike it immensely - but Dusty's music is a passion of mine.
This is just mindblowingly AH-MAZ-ING.
Also....her HAIR!!!
http://youtu.be/8J3J2GQckF4
R9/R10%20et%20al
- OP is an elder gay pretending to be young and hip.
Dusty Springfield had one real hit and Son of A Fag Preacher is the only one gay people like.
- "In Private" from 1989
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3Dk1z5DZEse3I
- I'm a huge fan of hers and you're right, she could sing almost any genre and sing it amazingly.
She has many excellent albums but if you don't own a copy of 'Dusty In Memphis' you're doing yourself a disservice.
She sings the best version of 'If You Go Away' that I've ever heard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DwyCVxPEPx5Y
- I've been listening to the Jeff Barry album a lot. After Dusty In Memphis, it's my favourite album of hers.
- Love her. Came to her late (2011) via a hag. She really could sing anything, and deliver it an emotional depth few since have been able to replicate.
Her version of "Anyone Who Had A Heart" is heartbreaking.
But this... this is the one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DAuPOwe-2EYA
ayb
- Will someone please tell OP that Dusty was a lesbian before he learns it in the streets?
- I discovered her a few months before she died (1999) - Rolling Stone had a top 500 albums list and Neil Tennant of PSB raved about Dusty In Memphis. I bought it without even hearing it based on his rave. I'd only ever heard of "What Have I Done To Deserve This" before that.
Yes, Dusty is a lesbian. Very interesting split among Dusty fans about that. There isn't a lot of question that she is or isn't (she is) but there seems to be a core group of fans and her friends who pooh pooh talk about Dusty's lesbianism. They claim it's to focus on the music.
On the flip side there are some rather salacious stories about her in various books.
- But yeah... this is becoming a favourite to warble along to when I.. well, *achem*
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D8jo7XUHfrsk
ayb%2C%20MARY%21
- My favorite songs and covers by her:
"What's It Gonna Be?"
"Willie and Laura Mae Jones"
"Natchez Trace"
"Don't Forget About Me"
"I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself"
"24 Hours from Tulsa"
"Just a Little Lovin'"
- Just a little lovin.....early in the mornin!
- This is from the Jeff Barry sessions. She recorded it before James Taylor, but she was on the outs with Atlantic Records and it remained unreleased until 1999.
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DgWvacW3CaNc
- Of course Dusty was a lesbian. That isn't even up for debate.
[quote]On the flip side there are some rather salacious stories about her in various books.
She was in a relationship with Carole Pope (Canadian punk/rock singer) in the early 80s for about a year. Carole's band Rough Trade was taking off at that time so Dusty moved to Toronto. She hired a moving truck and had her assistant move all her shit from LA to Toronto. They lived in Cabbagetown and Dusty regularly frequented several local watering holes. Carole eventually tired of Dusty's excessive drinking and bad behaviour and they broke up.
- She also recorded "Close To You" before the Carpenters. Her version is OK and many artists recorded it before the Carpenters really took it to the top.
R26 Yeah, the books talk about Dusty's drink and drug use. To make a long story short, her move in the early 70s to the US was probably the worst thing for her. She "went Hollywood" and it didn't work well for her career and personal life. Anyone who's seen a Behind The Music knows what time it is.
- [quote] Of course Dusty was a lesbian. That isn't even up for debate.
Dusty claimed she was bisexual. Though Vicki Vickham claims not to know of any romantic relationships Dusty had with men.
I remember reading of an encounter between Dusty and U2, where Dusty was found making out with Adam Clayton.
- [quote]Dusty claimed she was bisexual
She claimed that in public, but privately she knew exactly who she was. She may have drunkenly made out and fucked men from time to time, but she loved only women.
- [quote] Dusty was found making out with Adam Clayton.
I could see that. Adam is a pretty boy and has an androgynous element to him...or did.
- She claimed she was bisexual in 1970 - that's 1970. NO ONE was out then. Dusty came half way out. Some fans cannot face this, but Dusty was a lesbian.
"Dusty's excessive drinking and bad behaviour and they broke up"
She was also bi-polar. Undiagnosis, unmedicated. Dusty's old friend Billie Jean King thinks so based on Dusty's wacko self-destructive behavior.
Dusty was best buds with Billie, Rosie Casals and all of the lesbians tennis players when she lived in California.
- I can't fathom how this one was never released as a single.
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DxZ8Gd5fqhZ0
- I am pleased now that I was taken to a recording of one of her BBC shows in 1969 when I was 20 or so ..... I remember Dusty being in a bad mood and having to repeat the first number as the sound was off. She stomped around the stage and more or less ignored the audience.
Love her Pet Shop Boys songs including the one live version they did at the Brit awards at the Albert Hall, must have been late 80s, Dusty looked fabulous there. The Boys in their later concerts sing "What have I done to deserve this" to back projections of Dusty.
Those 60s singles like "Whats it going to be?" still sound terrific now, like that collection of her A sides and B sides.
eldergay%20
- This one wasn't even on a record:
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DWWdlVemgKCc
- r33
I think she lipsynced at the BRITS. She avoided singing live in her later years, which makes her "Where Is A Woman To Go?" on "Later... with Jools Holland" even more special.
- [quote] I could see that. Adam is a pretty boy and has an androgynous element to him...or did.
I've never thought of him as pretty. Are you sure you're not mixing him up with the drummer, Larry Mullen?
- I remember first going nuts about her when Pulp Fiction came out. It wasn't until I bought Dusty in London a few years later I realized she was white! BTW, Memphis gets a lot of love, but her London album is brilliant. "Take Another Little Piece of My Heart" and "How Can I Be Sure" are highlights.
I can never get enough Dusty. By far one of the greatest pop vocalists of the 20th century. There's never an occasion where her music doesn't fit the mood.
- So an investment in both Memphis and London would be worthwhile?
- [quote]I could see that. Adam is a pretty boy and has an androgynous element to him...or did.
In what universe would Adam Clayton be considered a "pretty boy?"
- To supplement what R26 said, her relationship with Carol Pope was very volatile. Many a time, the police visited their Cabbagetown home to find one of them threatening the other while holding, for example, a frying pan. In Datalounge terms: typical lesbian drama.
- r38
Try to get the 1999 Deluxe edition of Memphis - it includes the 'lost' Jeff Barry album.
Next up, I'd recommend either the UK (not the US) "Gold" compilation, and/or "The Complete A & B Sides, 1963-1970".
- According to Carole (from her book) Dusty would ask her to, "Pound me into the mattress, won't you darling?"
Also in the book Carole says that the sexiest thing they did in bed was when they would cuddle and Dusty would sing into her ear.
That's sweet.
- Hell, *I* would have cuddled with Dusty Springfield if she'd have sung into my ear.
- "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" has always been a DL favorite.
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DQR4vE9xL3yk
- "The Look of Love," another favorite of mine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3Da28kY1-s-Vc
- "It wasn't until I bought Dusty in London a few years later I realized she was white!"
Um, please. She sounded very white.
- I love ALL her stuff, but I'm especially intrigued by the off the beaten path stuff, and her unreleased 70s album has a few gems, including this (which changes mid song)
http://youtu.be/itLligqnNfk
- And THIS. This is probably my favorite Dusty.
Janis Ian wrote this and admitted after she heard this version that Dusty owned this song.
http://youtu.be/nEJ2nDZRKBM
- And she sang the theme from "Growing Pains"!
- I don't know if she knew it was her last live performance, but this is amazing. It's hard for me to get through it without tears.
Dusty.
AND Sinead.
And Alison Moyet.
Three of my absolute favorites.
LOVE.
http://youtu.be/UQ_omzpxBd4
- The Look of Love is my favorite by her (I love this live version) along with No Easy Way Down. I've got an anthology of hers, she had a very soulful voice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DYyWeWNAr-4Q
- [quote] According to Carole (from her book) Dusty would ask her to, "Pound me into the mattress, won't you darling?"
Dusty did always come off as a bottom!
- Eldergay Londoner here, it was always whispered back in the day about Dusty's preference for black girls, like she pioneered Tamla Motown here and had some kind of relationship with singer Madeline Bell.
- In 2008 Shelby Lynne put out "Just a Little Lovin' Inspired by Dusty Springfield."
It's a great album, for me. She does some Dusty tunes in a jazzy, combo sort of way. It's a great way to listen to these tunes and appreciate the lyrics. She did a great job with I Only Want To Be With You which I've only heard in that 60's pop way of Dusty and God help me, The Bay City Rollers version. I never equated these two versions as overtly romantic and sexy but Shelby's does.
Anybody heard it?
- [quote] Eldergay Londoner here, it was always whispered back in the day about Dusty's preference for black girls, like she pioneered Tamla Motown here and had some kind of relationship with singer Madeline Bell.
I've heard that, too. And then there's the whole Nina Simone throwing a drink in her face business. I don't know if Nina just disliked Dusty, if Dusty was coming on to her, or what, but Nina apparently Was Not Having It.
- Yes, R54, and that tin-ear, tone-deaf dyke ruined Dusty's songs.
I can't get the image of Dusty with a frying pan in her hand--"Come on, bitch!"
- I like Shelby Lynne but honestly I'm with R56, her Dusty covers were the cure for insomnia. Nothing jazzy about it. Just slowwwwwwwwwww.
- Did someone say lesbian? And bipolar? Frying pan? And U-Haul?
- What's her best album, other than Dusty in Memphis? I'm thinking of getting her Cameo album from 1973.
- I grew up in the 1960s and my sisters had a copy of Dusty in Memphis that I would play over and over again. I particularly love her version of Windmills of Your Mind.
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DWl8fKAYQuPk
- So many great albums, my fave is "It Begins Again" mid 1970's when she did her concerts at Drury lane in London. What a night!!! The concert was repeated and filmed (now on dvd) at Royal Albert Hall.
The follow-up album, Living without your Love" also good. She could sing it all - showtunes, jazz, traditional, disco, regular pop and new wave!
Mary%27s%20friend
- R59 That's kind of the thing - and I say this as someone who loves her - she was more of a "singles" artist. Cameo is probably the most complete album other than DIM.
Her later albums are OK....White Heat is very interesting.
- She blows Miss Warwick out of the water with "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself."
Wasn't Dusty a fan of obscure '60s soul singer Baby Washington? She covered a couple of her songs, "That's How Heartaches are Made" and "I Can't Wait Until I See My Baby's Face."
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DuBDVBNIXt_E
- Nina Simone threw a drink in Dusty's face? Damn. Not surprising given the fact that Simone was a crazy bitch. Likely it was jealousy because she knew Dusty could outsing her.
Mississippi%20Goddamn%2C%20indeed
- I agree with the other who found Shelby Lynne's album snozze-inducing, R54. It just had no oomph. Jazzy is one thing; dull is another.
Probably my most disappointing album purchase of the last year.
- I recently downloaded A Brand New Me, her 1970 follow-up to Dusty in Memphis. It's every bit as brilliant, albeit with a different sound from that album.
- I remember reading an interview with Neil Tennant where he talked about looking for her in the 1980s, when the PSB wanted to work with her but at the time she was so unfashionable and her career totally dead. He said they found her living in a motel somewhere.
- One of the most versatile voices in the history of Pop music. Because of her smoky timbr, she had that very appealing quality of making you think "no way will she be able to hit the notes coming up" and then she would and how!
Pop queen of the UK in the 60's and queen of blue-eyed soul worldwide. Then she'd turn around and do fully orchestrated Italian and French classics.Then she'd do cocktail lounge beauties like the Look of Love. All the while being Burt Bacharach's muse in England (he would solit - and overlap - his difficult songs between Dionne Warwick and Dusty, knowing they were the ones who had the chopd for their weird ranges).
A darling of the gay community not only because of her talent but becaause, how many lesbian singers were there in the 60's who looked like drag queens aand sang with broad hand gestures? (Kinda covered all sides of the equation in one stroke).
LOVE HER!
And can't believe Kristine Chenowith was signed to play her - so wrong!
- There are a few DL sisters who have met Miss Mary Isabel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien.
"Hi, I used to be Dusty Springfield"
- [quote]I'm 33 years old and I can't get enough of this woman. She was long before my time..
No, no you're not OP, and no, she wasn't. You're the same obsessed middle aged frau or gay guy who's trolled DL for years posting the endless Dusty Springfield threads. Most people here would never know who she was if you didn't incessantly post about her.
You're also likely the same sad sack who posts the never ending Golden Girl threads.
- OP, I recommend the following DVD's on her life (accompanied by great clips of her interpretations):
"DUSTY - Reflections" - with commentary by Petula Clark, BJ Thomas, Neil from The Pet Shop Boys, Burt Bacharach, Dionne Warwick
"DUSTY - Full Circle" BBC Documentary with French and Saunders interviewing Miss Dusty Springfield. Funny interviews, great clips (including old Dusty recordings when she was a little dykette).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmMRJzpDkAI
I Do Have To Say I Love Her
- This 60's picture captures both qualities - butch dyke with a drag queen wig.
http://www.google.com.pr/imgres?imgurl=http://www.biography.com/imported/images/Biography/Images/Profiles/S/Dusty-Springfield-9491157-2-402.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.biography.com/people/dusty-springfield-9491157&h=224&w=224&sz=1&tbnid=ScLibKTVs7i9wM:&tbnh
- OK, I fucked up that link, so here it is again
http://www.biography.com/imported/images/Biography/Images/Profiles/S/Dusty-Springfield-9491157-2-402.jpg
r72
- She was great, but in my opinion, Gayle McCormick was better, she really rocked it Janis-style, which Dusty never did. And she's still living in St. Louis and needs the money. Her albums-cd's-downloads are "A Group Called Smith", "Gayle McCormick" (produced by Lambert-Potter who also worked with Dusty), "Flesh & Blood" (not available on cd, maybe download), and "Minus-Plus", and "One More Hour."
the Gayle McCormick troll
- Love this duet. One beautiful song, two beautiful voices.
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DjXap9GF2rNE
- She loves being 74 years old.
- "Nina Simone threw a drink in Dusty's face? Damn. Not surprising given the fact that Simone was a crazy bitch. Likely it was jealousy because she knew Dusty could outsing her."
Um, no, it was mental illness. At the very least, bi-polar. Dusty was no stranger to bi-polar disease either.
- I would be that poster, R69, having met Dusty in NYC's lesbian bar Bonnie & Clyde's back in the early 80s. She was with Nona Hendryx and introduced herself to me with the heartbreaking words, "I used to be Dusty Springfield."
getting too old for this shit
- I hope the promise of Dusty's biopic will induce Adele to lose weight...wouldn't that be something to see! Adele was born to play Dusty.
- I hope they don't side-step Dusty's lesbianism either.
stranger%20things%20have%20happened
- R4 I'll let him off with it, cause he's past 30 so it doesn't sound obnoxious like those annoying as fuck "I'm 14 and like this old music!1!!!" youtube comments.
Anyway sort of before your time. :) She's less well known in America, but still had a few hits unlike her peers Dusty and Cilla. You may have known the Pet Shop Boys hit but that's all I suppose.
Dusty is my favourite singer ever, female at least. I always liked the shit I knew like the other Pet Shop Boys penned hit "Nothing Has Been Proved" but like OP the classic stuff was mostly before my time (I'm now elder gay probably and just turned 37).
Pulp Fiction gave her a revival with "Preacher Man" and I was aware that Memphis was considered one of the all time great albums, but I didn't fully get into her till just before she died and I was obsessed when I got the boxset released after her death.
Nothing beats "Goin' Back" for a sobathon and like Dusty I will have that played at my funeral.
- [quote] This 60's picture captures both qualities - butch dyke with a drag queen wig.
Dusty was not butch. She wouldn't have had all those gay boys copying her signature arm movements if she was.
- *Sandie and Cilla
81
- R82, she somehow equated 'butch' with being a lesbian, no matter how dumb that was.
- Oh please!
Love Dusty, and imitated all her moves (easily, as they were strong and well-suited for a guy, which I am).
Look at her childhood pictures and her off-screen mannerisms, watch her in interviews - not when she would comically bat her eyes at guest men in her show (it never read as anything but comical, like Rosie with Tom Cruise), but when she sat down to have real talks.
She was NOT femme, but a strong-mannered woman, which is precisely what I loved about her. Just her clothes/hairdo/poorly applied make-up were feminine - an admitted facade - and only in the 60's. Later in life, she was all pants, padded blazers, flats....and poorly applied make-up.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-m5Qv0aQFFF4/T5vYJYS9GRI/AAAAAAAANmw/zyiKSZf_pg8/s1600/springfield7.jpg
Billie Jean and Rita Mae
- She wasn't a bulldyke on a motor bike, but she was no girly girl either (she was just "drawn" that way).
So yes, there were butch qualities to her.
