What Are You Listening To?

[Tiggi]

If it's true that a life of trial and tribulation provide a well of emotion to draw on musically, then there can be few with a well as deep as Billie's.

Sent to a Catholic boarding school at nine, where she's reputed to have been molested, raped at 12, prostitute at 16, a life of alcohol & drug addiction, a liking for violent men who all ripped her off, dead by the age of 44 from addiction-fuelled organ failure, and vitually penniless with one bank account containing 70 cents, and 750 dollars in cash. Some life...

On the flip side, she delivered some dazzling vocal performances throughout her all too brief career.

This 10-disc box set compiles all the master takes from her first 11 years of recording, with a couple of discs given over to alternate takes.

Billie was a heartbreaking singer in her latter years, and some of that is evident here, but you also get some joyous songs along with a healthy portion of what the booklet describes as her liking for masochistic love songs.

An incredibly emotional singer, with an ability to sound completely world-weary, despite all the songs here being recorded before she hit thirty.

Record companies come in for a lot of stick these days, but this set contains 230 lovingly remastered tracks for the princely sum of £15 from Amazon. That's public service record production IMV. Should be mandatory listening !!

Quite brilliant...


AllMusic 5/5 stars.