Whitney Houston: If I should stay I would only be in your way

Singer Whitney Houston's untimely death at the age of 48 today has derailed the political clown cars off Matt Drudge's top of the fold and filled the Twitter stream with currents of emotional angst revealing more about the twitterers than Houston herself. We'd never thought much about the legendary singer one way or the other till tonight, when we heard of her passing, googled and discovered the transcendence of her Gospel-trained pop sound: I will always love you. We'd heard it before, just never made the connection. Breathtaking.

It was going to be all about Mitt Romney's twofer tonight and tomorrow on the Sunday talk shows — winning the CPAC straw poll and then the Maine caucuses! — but now a transcendent singer has died at 48, and politics will just have to wait. It's Whitney Houston 24/7 till further notice:

Whitney Houston, who ruled as pop music's queen until her majestic voice and regal image were ravaged by drug use, erratic behavior and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown, died Saturday. She was 48.

At her peak, Houston was the golden girl of the music industry. From the middle 1980s to the late 1990s, she was one of the world's best-selling artists. She wowed audiences with effortless, powerful, and peerless vocals that were rooted in the black church but made palatable to the masses with a pop sheen.

According to tweeter vbspurs, who notes "Harris Faulkner admits on air that Fox News is reading tweets for breaking news," this is the "last photo of Whitney (a bit macabre, apologies): true Hollywood club, where she performed last night."

"It's a lifetime battle, just like alcoholics anonymous," Fox News forensic expert Michael Baden weighs in on the developing story of what may have happened to precipitate Houston's death "on the eve of the Grammy Awards." Lots of chatter about her allegedly abusive ex, Bobby Brown, who is said to be "beside himself" at the news. A lumper, not a splitter, we're not much interested in the gory details. It's the universal themes, what we can read about ourself in her words: 

The biggest devil is me. I'm either my best friend or my worst enemy.

Crossposted at Riehl World View.

Comments

[Teresa]

Very very sad to hear of anyone dying too young. I hope she can now rest in peace.

[Gayle Miller]

Perhaps the rumors about 2012 are true and God needed another powerful voice in His heavenly choir. Both Etta James and Whitney will be joining Amy Winehouse in the ranks of transcendant voices, while we can only remember what we had, while we had her. I'll never forget her rendition of the Star Spangled Banner at the Super Bowl in the 90s. It was magnificent. She didn't struggle through it as most do - she just belted it out with pleasure and pride and reduced me to emotional jelly!

[Pasadenaphil.wordpress.com]

It really is a shame that her life has to be added to the long list of cautionary tales. It shouldn't have ended this way but she was relentless in making very bad choices. Her problems were self-inflicted. It's not like she came from a humble and troubled childhood. She came from music royalty. Her talent opened to her an opportunity to do good in the world but she chose to live a self-indulgent life.

A real shame. We can and should remember and appreciate her talent but what was behind the voice was a life largely wasted.

[Pasadenaphil.wordpress.com]

I too place her "Star Spangled Banner" at the Super Bowl on my very short list of great renditions, possibly the best. We have all heard that song thousands of times but she made it sound like we were discovering it for the first time. Rather than stylistically mangling it like so many others do, Whitney just sang it better. THAT is talent.

[Pasadenaphil.wordpress.com]

Here's a video of Whitney's first recorded performance of her first lead at the New Hope Baptist Church at age 15.

Her talent needed no favors. You could have put her up against the best and she would have stood out, even at 15.

[Gayle Miller]

For the record, Whitney did an enormous amount of charitable work throughout her lifetime. The difference between her and some of her colleagues in the entertainment field is that she didn't make a big deal of her quiet charity - preferring to do so quietly and privately.

She was a deeply troubled woman who deserves our appreciation and compassion. And we need to pray with all our might for her daughter Bobbi Kristina who has already been seen indulging in cocaine and who, as the child of two drug addicts, has a few strikes against her already!