I'd Rather Go Blind

Etta James penned this Southern blues classic during a visit to her friend Ellington "Fugi" Jordan in prison in 1967. The Detroit singer and songwriter had already outlined the song, in which he poured out his grief from being incarcerated not knowing when he would be released. He recalled to Allhiphop.com in 2006: "I got tired of losing and being down. I was in prison and didn't know when I was going to get out. I sat in a piano room and began to write." James and Jordan then completed the song, but for tax reasons she gave her songwriting credit to her partner at the time, Billy Foster, who was a member of the '50s Los Angeles doo-wop group The Medallions. It was a decision that she came to regret as the royalties accumulated over the years.

In 1967, during a brief intermission from her heroin addiction, James made an excursion to the FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama to lay down "Tell Mama." She recorded "Blind" for the B-side of the single and also cut a cover of the Otis Redding song "Security." The Alabama studios were perfect for James, since it was an isolated area with little access to drugs and alcohol, and home to some of the best backing musicians in the business. Aretha Franklin's "I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)" had been recorded at FAME, as well as songs by Percy Sledge and Wilson Pickett. David Hood, who played bass on the sessions, told us that they did the song in one take with FAME owner Rick Hall running the session. Said Hood, "It was a pretty simple song, but her performance was great and apparently our performances were good. They may have gone back and re-done some vocals. In 1967 Rick was just going multi track. It had been mono prior to that. And so fixing things in those days was a whole lot harder than it is nowadays. Sometimes if there was a missed note or something like that, you wouldn't do anything about it, you'd let it go. Nowadays you fix everything."

According to James' autobiography Rage To Survive, the lyrics were about being blind in her love life and addictions, though she discreetly replaced smack with booze.