Prestige Star Spotlight

Home / updates

Please tell me more about Joan Osborne?

Daniel Martin |

St. Teresa is spectacular!

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 35May 31, 2019 11:22 PM

I liked her album 'Relish' and the lesser-known 'Righteous Love.' She's bluesier than one would think based off of 'One of Us.'

by Anonymousreply 1February 12, 2019 11:22 PM

I've seen her in concert twice. She's fantastic live. She hit at just the right moment in the mid-90s, but then music shifted at the end of the decade and she was sort of forgotten thereafter commercially speaking. 'Righteous Love', the follow-up to 'Relish', was just as good as her debut but didn't get nearly the attention it deserved.

by Anonymousreply 2February 12, 2019 11:28 PM

I was obsessed with ‘Right Hand Man’ as a foetus-dyke. She looked too cool in the vid.

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 3February 12, 2019 11:47 PM

Still a vital and terrific singer - a real treat live and criminally underrated...

by Anonymousreply 4February 12, 2019 11:47 PM

Loved when Johnny Rotten dissed her on some awards show, calling her part of the 'B' league.

by Anonymousreply 5February 13, 2019 12:20 AM

I lost respect for her when she ripped off Dr Evil

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 6February 13, 2019 12:27 AM

I remember buying the cassette single of her "One Of Us" song back in the 1990's. Big hit, good song.

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 7February 13, 2019 12:46 AM

After the success of Relish, which I love, her label dropped her when they heard songs from what was supposed to be her sophmore release. They said it was "unlistenable."

by Anonymousreply 8February 13, 2019 12:52 AM

I did enjoy the fact that Joan achieved fame and made money off of a quasi-religious song, while being rather atheistic herself. Or at least a fellow lapsed Catholic.

by Anonymousreply 9February 13, 2019 12:57 AM

I loved Relish and listened to it all the time. Crazy Baby was my favorite probably because it was about being in love with an addict which is what I was going through at one point. Notice how she sounds live and with out back up or auto tune. Music now sucks.

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 10February 13, 2019 1:05 AM

When I worked local news in Austin she appeared on our morning show to promote a concert or maybe her Lilith Fair appearance. Off the record she told us she hated "One of Us" and didn't want to include it on her album. At the time I thought she was trying to be cool by dissing a pop hit but I can see where it would be frustrating to suddenly be famous for a song you didn't write and didn't represent the kind of music you wanted to make.

by Anonymousreply 11February 13, 2019 1:27 AM

I was just listening to The Man in the Long Black Coat last night.

by Anonymousreply 13February 13, 2019 1:44 AM

I like 'Lumina.' I remember Meadow playing that song on an episode of The Sopranos.

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 14February 13, 2019 5:13 AM

She was considered edgy because of her nose ring.

by Anonymousreply 15February 13, 2019 5:29 AM

Righteous Love was an incredible album. Shame it didn't do well. My favorite from it was "If I Was Your Man".

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 16February 13, 2019 6:00 AM

I checked out “St. Teresa” (and the rest of the album) again because of this thread. I bought it when it came out in the mid-90s. Didn’t like it much except for the singles, but listening last night I’m struck by how unusual a lot of it is. There’s a song in 7/8 time. “St. Teresa” is in 6/8, and it is a fantastic song. Wow. Could listen over and over. Such a great melody, great singing, good lyrics and arrangement.

Just so I’m clear: she’s saying “she balled as the streetlight darkened sweet as hash”, as in “she fucked as the streetlight...”, right? Teresa is a drug addicted prostitute, yes? And she means “ball” in the Led Zeppelin, “I got a woman wanna ball all day” sense, right? And not in the “bawling like a baby” sense? I really hope it’s the former. I like the idea of Teresa turning a trick in the back of a car under a dim streetlight.

by Anonymousreply 18February 13, 2019 11:11 PM

It's an excellent song. I guess it was a little too out there for mainstream radio success.

by Anonymousreply 19February 13, 2019 11:17 PM

I think it’s “bold” not “balled” but art is subjective so go with it!

“Sit down on the corner just a little crime When I make my money got to get my dime Sit down with her baby wind is full of trash She bold as the street light dark and sweet as hash Way down in the hollow leavin' so soon Oh St. Teresa higher than the moon Reach down for the sweet stuff when she looks at me I know any man sees you like I see Follow down the side street movin' single file She say That's where I'll hold you, sleeping like a child Way down in the hollow, leavin' so soon Oh, St. Teresa, higher than the moon Just what I've been needin', feel it rise in me She say Every stone a story, like a rosary Corner St. Teresa, just a little crime When I make my money, got to get my dime Way down in the hollow, leavin' so soon Oh, St. Teresa, higher than the moon You called up in the sky You called up in the clouds Is there something you forgot to tell me Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me Show me my Teresa, feel it rise in me Every stone a story, like a rosary”

by Anonymousreply 20February 14, 2019 3:26 AM

Love Strength in Numbers, off her second album. Fantastic lyrics.

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 21February 14, 2019 3:45 AM

[quote]It's an excellent song. I guess it was a little too out there for mainstream radio success.

You can say that again! Found this comment on a YouTube video about St Teresa. Wow...

- - - Osborne once gave an interview saying she wrote this song while living in Alphabet City, looking out her window at a woman with her baby selling smack on the street corner, out of her baby carriage. Osborne watched Teresa often, she was mad beautiful and Joan wanted her. The song, then, can be seen as an imaginative fantasy in which she goes down to the corner and buys a dime, then follows Teresa to a place where they can use together. But there is so much more to it than that. Osborne wrote lyrics that sidled right up along the story of St. Teresa de Jesus, whose ecstatic raptures during meditation lifted her to states of complete union with Jesus. These two things--heroin use and mystical union--are not equated. But their similarities, or the similarity of the very human need for transcendent connection, are mined brilliantly. There is so much here that can only be seen if you know things not many people do--what the LES was like in the 80's, what it's like to do heroin and how you do it, and St Teresa 's accounts of her ecstasies, which the Inquisition forced her to write down so they could scour them for heresy (the punishment for which would have been death.)

Maybe you knew all this, RIDETHESUNSHINE, because your Sanchez quote is perfect. Teresa de Jesus had a vision of Jesus once. She said to him "I am Teresa of Jesus." He took her hand and replied. "And I am Jesus of Teresa." - - -

I’m still listening to this song on repeat. My appreciation for it just grows & grows.

by Anonymousreply 22February 14, 2019 6:06 PM

[quote]I think it’s “bold” not “balled” but art is subjective so go with it!

Damn. I like my version better! But I’m hopelessly devoted to accuracy, so whatever the official lyrics are, that’s it. I also used to think the last line of the chorus was “every stoner story”. Now I’m pretty sure the “stones” are referring to crack cocaine. (Am I wrong about that too?)

by Anonymousreply 23February 14, 2019 6:09 PM

This song was a gem. About climbing a ladder up to redemption.

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 25February 14, 2019 6:54 PM

My favorite song on that album was Crazy Baby. I related to it because of having been in love with addict.

by Anonymousreply 26February 14, 2019 7:50 PM

For my tastes, Joan records noise, not music. Just because she caterwauls with people abusing musical instruments one is not making music.

by Anonymousreply 27February 14, 2019 8:04 PM

Do tell us more about your delicate tastes, R27. I would love to find out what some of your favorite music is.

by Anonymousreply 29February 14, 2019 9:08 PM

I am pretty sure the official lyrics are, “she’s bald as the streetlight/dark and sweet as hash.”

In that couplet, she’s painting the picture of the woman physically. She’s a bald, dark-skinned woman selling drugs—just a little crime—while sitting next to her baby on a street corner. The wind is full of trash. The song is very multisensory, which is what makes it so vivid.

by Anonymousreply 30February 14, 2019 9:08 PM

From Louisville area (actually Anchorage, KY which is a very wealthy, very rural town by design).

“Papa John” Schnatter lives there in a huge mansion.

by Anonymousreply 32May 31, 2019 10:18 PM

Many of those familiar with her work may have seen this already but for those who haven't - voilá! A very talented woman!

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 33May 31, 2019 10:20 PM

She's amazing. Relish is one of my favorite albums. She has worked/recorded music all these years since.

She recently released a blues covers album called Bring it on Home which I liked almost as much as Relish.

Some of her better songs (not on the above two albums) Baby Love, Hallelujah, Hurricane, Who Divided, Shake that Devil, Pretty Little stranger

by Anonymousreply 34May 31, 2019 10:28 PM

Her and Janeane Garofalo were listed as "Worst Dressed" by People in 1996.

by Anonymousreply 35May 31, 2019 11:22 PM

You Might Also Like