RIP Whitney Houston

[TypeO]

Sad, yes. But not so sudden if you've seen the toll her addiction took on her. Once you start doing crack, you might as well start digging your grave. Other than crystal meth, no other drug ravages the body, mind and soul like crack. I would venture to say that crack has ruined more lives than heroin...and I've heard of more people successfully rehabbing from heroin than crack.

I really feel for her daughter and her family. I hope they keep Bobby Brown away from the daughter. What was that book years ago? "Smart women, foolish choices". When Whitney hooked up with Bobby Brown, that was the red flag that something was wrong. Whatever demons Whitney had, Bobby Brown was not a supportive husband or helpmate. In fact, he exacerbated her problems. He ruined her...and he'll do the same to her daughter if he gets a chance.

Well, better dead and at peace than living life as a crackhead...for that AIN'T living.

R.I.P.

The sad part is that in 1989 she was booed at the Soul Train Music Awards, because she was perceived as a sell-out, that she sounded "too white", or was trying to appeal to white audiences.

Some say her marriage to Bobby Brown was somewhat of a response to that, i.e., proving her roots.

Reminds me of the pressure black kids face in school getting good grades.

They are often ridiculed by others as "trying to be white".

Shit's gotta get fixed.

[dazedcat]

Shit's gotta get fixed.

It's gotta be in a very big way, soon too.

[MadScreamingGallery]

God Bless. Rest in Peace, beautiful angel.

[Juliet]

Hello:

It bothers me that I saw an interview repeated shortly after Whitney's death where she admitted taking cocaine,,,why was that allowed? ..Out of respect for her and her daughter I don't think that should have been aired...I thought she was supposed to be over her drug addiction....and moving forward.....

Juliet

R.I.P. WHITNEY.....

Edited February 14, 2012 by Juliet

[Walter]

Hello:

It bothers me that I saw an interview repeated shortly after Whitney's death where she admitted taking cocaine,,,why was that allowed? ..Out of respect for her and her daughter I don't think that should have been aired...I thought she was supposed to be over her drug addiction....and moving forward.....

Juliet

R.I.P. WHITNEY.....

I can see both sides of airing that. Now that we are a few days removed from her death, it is time to point out to younger folks what her drug addiction did to her talent and her family. It was sad to see what happened to her, but as Strider pointed out, it is not living when a person is addicted to crack - it's just surviving day to day. Hopefully her daughter will stay away from the lifestyle choices she made and the people whom she hung out with.

[LedZeppfan77]

I do not have all the facts. My comments in the Grammy thread were a bit distastefull but not ill intended. Onlly curious as to whether it was a suicide or accident? They found her in the water and with pills nearby. I suppose if it was a suicide there would have been a note? But perhaps there was and they are not telling? I just wonder because it always hits close to home.

And its too bad she could not get rid of that loser she was abused by for years. Piece of crap he is.

Edited February 14, 2012 by LedZeppfan77

[ledzepfvr]

I think that the coroners report may find she probably died from a mix of the prescription drugs and alcohol. She may have been off the illegal drugs but was taking prescriptions for various reasons. Once the system is saturated with these it does not take much alcohol to just fall into a deep sleep and not wake up. My ex's brother died that way, and he had only had 1 beer.

Of course I may be wrong so we will just have to wait and see what comes about in a couple of weeks

[LedZeppfan77]

I think that the coroners report may find she probably died from a mix of the prescription drugs and alcohol. She may have been off the illegal drugs but was taking prescriptions for various reasons. Once the system is saturated with these it does not take much alcohol to just fall into a deep sleep and not wake up. My ex's brother died that way, and he had only had 1 beer.

Of course I may be wrong so we will just have to wait and see what comes about in a couple of weeks

The latest I hear is Xanax? Which is not as strong as Valuum and is used as an anti anxioty medication. It would take a handfull lets say and a good amount of booze to kill someone if that was the only combination. We are probably being told what they wish to tell us. There is always more to the story

[Jahfin]

I wasn't really a fan of Whitney Houston's but I was definitely aware of her when she first started making waves on the music scene. By the same token, I was also well aware of her all too public decline. Lots has been said about her recent untimely passing and I'm sure lots more will be written. In the time being, I think Mark Kemp's thoughts on the matter are well worth sharing.

Whitney Houston: A (Very) Personal Tribute

BY MARK KEMP

CREATIVE LOAFING (CHARLOTTE) | FEBRUARY 15, 2012

I've been a music journalist for nearly three decades, and yet my reasons for mourning Whitney Houston are much more personal than pop-cultural. Whitney's life and career have overlapped with mine many times and on multiple levels in the past 28 years.

I was never a big fan of Whitney Houston's music, although I respected and admired that hurricane of a voice. Still, her death Saturday at the way-too-young age of 48 affected me more profoundly than I ever would have imagined, as it did her millions of fans. I didn't know what I was going to write about her, but I knew I needed to write something. I've been a music journalist for nearly three decades, and yet my reasons for mourning Whitney Houston are much more personal than pop-cultural.

You see, Whitney's life and career have overlapped with mine many times and on multiple levels in the past 28 years. I began as a newspaper reporter in the early '80s but was writing almost exclusively about music by 1985, the year Whitney's first album arrived. She was pop-R&B; I wrote mostly about emerging post-punk, indie-rock and hip-hop. To my ears, Whitney Houston represented everything that was wrong about '80s music. As big as her voice was, it got sapped of its soul by sterile production techniques that were so common in '80s pop. R&B had come a long way since the organic southern soul and funk of early-'70s Aretha Franklin records, or even the pristine pop of Motown. Prince and Michael Jackson were doing creative things with '80s production, but the cheesy synthesizers and other ham-fisted sonic tricks were suffocating the voices of most mainstream pop and R&B stars, Whitney included. The 21-year-old daughter of gospel-soul singer Cissy Houston certainly cut a powerful, statuesque figure — all big puffy hair and hoop earrings, huge, gorgeous smile and sleek leather jacket — when she appeared in an early MTV video belting out "they can't take away my dignity" in her first blockbuster ballad, "The Greatest Love of All." It was a little schlocky, but you couldn't deny that voice.

Fast-forward 15 years: Whitney Houston had been at the top of her game for an entire generation and was by then a legend, her vocal gymnastics having influenced a cattle call of younger singers, from Mariah Carey to Christina Aguilera to Beyoncé's early group Destiny's Child. It was a style that Time magazine, writing about Carey, once described as "Nutrasweet soul." But Whitney — with Arista Records executive Clive Davis by her side, helping to sculpt that sound and image — was the godmother of this new breed of divas. By the late '90s, Whitney's "children" regularly passed through the green room at MTV, where I was then working as vice president of music editorial on the daily show TRL. Like Whitney, I was at the top of my game, too, having risen from a freelance writer covering alternative rock and hip-hop to editing the music pages of Rolling Stone. I'd sat in on recording sessions of classic albums by Public Enemy and Stetsasonic, and written cover stories on artists ranging from Lou Reed and Yoko Ono to Morrissey, Michael Stipe and Beck. Whitney and I were doing well. Or, so it seemed.

It didn't start out that way. Whitney's first solo gig was far from the powerhouse pop she became famous for. It was a song called "Memories," which the 19-year-old singer performed on an album by the downtown New York experimental funk-rock collective Material. Behind her soulful voice was a sweet, smoky saxophone solo by the legendary jazz man Archie Shepp. That song remains, for me at least, the only recording that truly shows the nuances of Whitney Houston's talent. Soon after, Davis scooped her up and turned her into a pop princess that even Whitney didn't recognize. She became America's sweetheart, hopping about video shoots in big hair, wearing tops with shoulder pads amid sets splattered with new wave art, singing "How Do I Know" and "I Wanna Dance with Somebody." What Davis had was a new Donna Summer-like disco queen for Madonna fans. What Whitney had was stardom.

Whitney was the biggest pop-R&B diva in the world throughout the '90s, scoring hit after hit and singing a stirring version of "The Star Spangled Banner" at the 1991 Super Bowl. She landed a spot in the Kevin Costner movie The Bodyguard and turned Dolly Parton's modest ballad "I Will Always Love You" into a multi-platinum showcase of vocal dexterity that had young wannabe pop singers from Charlotte to Seattle grasping hairbrushes in their suburban bathrooms, lip-synching the words and dreaming of the glamorous life that Whitney surely lived.

It was around that time that she married fellow pop star Bobby Brown, and the couple, like their counterparts in rock, Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, became the gossip of the music world. The most common question was: How could America's R&B-pop sweetheart marry a bad-boy R&B rapper? Whitney countered, saying that no one really knew who she was. She continued gaining accolades, landing movie roles and looking regal next to her bad-boy husband. And the gossip columnists continued gossiping about this unlikely musical power couple that seemed to be living the glamorous life. Cracks began to appear in the façade, though, and by 2000 it was abundantly clear that Whitney Houston's life was anything but glamorous.

That year, news broke that Whitney and Bobby were using drugs and things were looking dire. She began acting strangely during interviews and missing important appearances. She was no longer the bright-eyed singer — the good girl, America's sweetheart — that she'd projected only a few years earlier. Her Colgate smile was now an icy glare. She looked hard, disheveled, unhealthy, defiantly anti-glamorous. The statuesque beauty with that hurricane of a voice was deteriorating right before our eyes into a common, everyday drug addict.

I was on a similar path. The MTV executive who had everything he'd ever dreamed of had taken a detour and was on a crash course and about to collide head-on into one Whitney Houston. (No, not literally, but the impact was just as real.) I walked into work one day, unhealthy, unhappy, unfulfilled. My writing staff at VH1 was waiting in a conference room, as they always did, to brief me on the top music stories of the day. On this day, they were huddled around an image of Whitney Houston, and cracking jokes about her appearance. Enraged, I launched into a diatribe: Those images, I told them, weren't funny. They were images of sickness, sadness, disease. I was being defensive and overly sanctimonious, and I had no ground to stand on. By then, Whitney and I were in about the same place. I felt her pain. I knew she must be hurting and that she definitely was killing herself, because I was, too.

Whitney got through that period of her illness, and over the years she would get better, then get worse, and then get better again. So would I. But the one thing she never seemed to do was fully accept that she had a problem. I've heard people in the past few days blame Bobby Brown, and that's typical of those who don't understand addiction. Bobby Brown was not Whitney Houston's problem; Whitney's problems were her own. He may have been a symptom, but it's pretty well established in the addiction field that no one can make someone else an addict any more than someone can make another person diabetic. I can't say whether or not Whitney was an addict; only she could have said that. But I do recall seeing her tell Oprah Winfrey in a 2009 interview that she was OK now; she still drank alcohol occasionally, but she was OK. And Whitney may have been OK, but for those who suffer from addiction, it's really kind of not OK to drink alcohol. At least, that's the case for me.

We don't yet know exactly what killed Whitney Houston, although we can guess. And it would be disingenuous for us to say that we aren't already doing just that. After all, she was only 48. I can only imagine how terribly her family and close friends are hurting right now. I know that my own family and close friends can imagine that quite easily.

Today, I'm happy with my lot in life. I love my work and wouldn't want to be doing anything other than what I do. I would no sooner trade what I have in Charlotte today to be back at MTV, or in the middle of the music industry, with all that money, than I would trade a warm massage for a heart attack. I love my community, trust my close friends today and feel blessed. But when I heard Whitney Houston had died Saturday, it shook me to my core. I wished I could have been there with her, but what could I or anyone else have done? All I could tell myself was, "There but for grace go I." Rest peacefully, Whitney. No matter what anyone says, they can never take away your dignity.

[Walter]

Good article, Jahfin. Thanks for posting it.

[TypeO]

The day after her death, Headline News Network was spewing everything they knew at the time (like all the rest of the news channels), and every time drugs were mentioned, they kept making these PC comments about how they certainly didn't want to speculate on the causes of her death before the toxicology results, etc.

Then the first commercial that comes on is for Passages Malibu - who, BTW, was sponsoring the special coverage.

Wow.

[dazedcat]

If anyone cares to listen to what Houston's career could have been, track down a tune called "Memories" that she sang for Bill Laswell's Material in 1982. This was long before her pop diva stardom.

She could have been a jazz singer.

[Strider]

If anyone cares to listen to what Houston's career could have been, track down a tune called "Memories" that she sang for Bill Laswell's Material in 1982. This was long before her pop diva stardom.

She could have been a jazz singer.

"IF" and "COULD HAVE" are some of the saddest words in the English language.

[Virginia]

For me, her greatest vocal performance and one of the best EVER by anyone is below!!! Singing the "Star Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl XXV in Tampa Stadium. With the first Gulf War (Desert Storm), just about ten days or so in, there was a lot of patriotism in this crowd and so much heartfelt support for our troops and country. Whitney, really brought this performance home for the troops and our country, Don't know how else to say this. (Feel free to elaborate on this!!!) It's just an amazing two minutes. She will be missed! Even better being that my Giants beat the Bills in one of the best Super Bowls ever!

I remember watching that live back then and having goose bumps. I watched it a few months ago too when somebody else (I forget who) butchered it; to remember how it SHOULD be done. I'm normally not one to say things like this, but her voice truly was a divine gift. Her music was a huge part of my young adulthood, and I always hoped she'd overcome her demons and return to the stage; I'm very sad that will never happen. Nobody today (and possibly ever) could out Whitney Whitney in her prime; not Mariah, Jennifer Hudson, or anyone else. RIP Whitney.

[Jahfin]

From ABC News:

Whitney Houston’s Star-Spangled Secret

Whitney Houston sings the national anthem at the 1991 Super Bowl. (George Rose/Getty Images)

By Chris Cuomo and Andrew Paparella

It was what turned a star into a superstar: Whitney Houston’s mesmerizing rendition of the national anthem at the 1991 Super Bowl. Houston’s powerful “Star Spangled Banner” performance came at a poignant, patriotic time — the U.S. had just entered the 1991 Gulf War .

But here’s what you didn’t know: What the Super Bowl audience and hundreds of millions of TV viewers heard was lip-synched.

“The music was pre-recorded, and so was the vocal,” confirmed Rickey Minor, who was Houston’s musical director at the time.

Minor, now the band leader on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show, said that in a crowd that large and loud, it was impossible for Houston to hear herself. Though she did sing, it was her pre-recorded voice that the audience heard.

Here’s another surprise: Minor and Houston changed the national anthem to ensure a better performance.

“The original version is in 3/4 time, which is more like a waltz,” Minor explained. “What we tried to do was to put it in 4/4 meter… We wanted to give her a chance to phrase it in such a way that she would be able to take her time and really express the meaning.”

Minor was nervous that the altered anthem wouldn’t be well received, but that story, at least, has a happy ending: Houston’s performance electrified the stadium and soon after, popular demand prompted Houston’s record label to release a single that hit the top 20 on the Billboard charts.

“I think it might well be the best Super Bowl performance of all time, ” said Billboard Magazine editor Danyel Smith. “It may well be, with the exception of her version of Dolly Parton’s, ‘I Will Always Love You,’ the most remembered thing about her. I think our grandkids will look at the video for ‘I Will Always Love You’ and they will look at the video of Whitney Houston singing at Super Bowl twenty-five.”

Watch the full story on “One Moment in Time: The Life of Whitney Houston,” a two-hour “20/20″ special Friday at 9 p.m. ET.

Edited February 16, 2012 by Jahfin

[Strider]

^^^That actually has been well-known news for quite some time now...the whole Whitney lip-synched the Star-Spangled banner came out shortly after the 1991 Super Bowl.

It was a great rendition, nonetheless.

[Jahfin]

^^^That actually has been well-known news for quite some time now...the whole Whitney lip-synched the Star-Spangled banner came out shortly after the 1991 Super Bowl.

Perhaps but I still found it worthy of posting. Whether it's old news to you (or others) or not it's obvious lots of people aren't aware of it.

[dazedcat]

Best Superbowl result too as I recall. God I won a ton of money that day lol. Wide right. Thanks Scott wherever you are today.

Houston's version was the first to actually make it into the American singles chart.

[Strider]

Best Superbowl result too as I recall. God I won a ton of money that day lol. Wide right. Thanks Scott wherever you are today.

Houston's version was the first to actually make it into the American singles chart.

Hahaha, hope LedZepFan77 doesn't see this.

[planted]

In 1991, I was expecting my first child, and my only brother had just been deployed with the 2nd Marine Division to Kuwait. This rendition will be with me forever. (I am happy to report my brother is alive and well)

What also struck me is her attire. Anyone else remember her not wanting a lot of attention, hence the running suit?

[Juliet]

Whitney's funeral is today...to be broadcast and streamed on most networks and their websites.

CNN to start their coverage @ 11.. CBC to start @ 12 when the funeral begins..

Juliet

R.I.P. WHITNEY...Merci pour le musique magnifique..thanks for the magnificent music....

Edited February 18, 2012 by Juliet

[The Rover]

Tonight, on one of the hollywood gossip shows, Whitney's voice rehab coach said that Whitney was puhed to early go on tour (by Clive Davis) as her throat/voice was only 75% back according to the coach.

Clive's response was that "they only had Whitney's best interests in mind."

People, of all stripes, make mistakes.

[The Pagemeister]

http://youtu.be/vgFAq9Q8l8U

[dazedcat]

That was pretty epic, thanks.

[TypeO]

Chris Cornell makes everything cool.

I saw the vid of him singing Billie Jean - also cool.