Dusty time again ...

How we listened to music then - a nice shot of Dusty in 1965, used to promote a new biography on her, recycling all the gossip and myths. 

Britain's greatest pop diva, Dusty Springfield was also the finest white soul singer of her era, a performer of remarkable emotional resonance whose body of work spans the decades and their attendant musical transformations with a consistency and purity unmatched by any of her contemporaries (Lulu, Sandie Shaw, even Mariane Faithfull, or dear old Cilla); while remaining a camp icon of glamorous excess in her towering beehive hairdo and panda-eye black mascara.

I have done several items on  Dusty already, as per label - including seeing her record one of her 1969 tv shows for the BBC, when I was 20, at the old Golders Green Hippodrome. She was in a bad mood that day and was having a diva moment, as she had to re-record her first song. I can still picture her stomping around the stage. 

For when you have a spare hour, this compilation  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCcYTv6Evoc&list=RDoCcYTv6Evoc#t=3074

 of her BBC appearances is worth watching, particularly the later ones, and that last sad final one on the Jools Holland Show. I also like her doing "What Have I Done To Deserve This?" with The Pet Shop Boys at the Royal Albert Hall Brits Awards in 1987 see below - the only time they did it apart from the pop video. In their later shows the Boys used a back projection of Dusty for the number. She remains though for me up there with Joni, Barbra and Aretha, and her "Dusty In Memphis" remains an essential album. 

Song writer Gerry Goffin who died recently, is featured on the album too, as four Goffin-King songs are included:  the wonderful "No Easy Way Down" plus "Don't Forget About Me", "So Much Love" and "I Can't Make It Alone". There will always be so much love for Dusty - if only her last years had been better.