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Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

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You are here: Home / Absent Friends / RIP / RIP, Whitney Houston

Reader Interactions

130Comments

  2. 2.

    cathyx

    I have been amazed at how much abuse the human body can take. Smokers smoking 2 packs a day for 40+ years, drinkers drinking to passing out nightly for the same. 48 is still young even with what she’s done.

  3. 3.

    khead

    Reposted from previous thread:

    Whitney was playing when I hooked up with my first real high school girlfriend.

    Bitterness.

  6. 6.

    YellowJournalism

    Whitney and Madonna are the singers that come to mind when someone asks me about my fav music from the 80s. Sis and I are heartbroken. I was so sad for her over these last years. RIP

  11. 11.

    khead

    Also…

    Bobby Brown is alive.

    Whitney Houston is dead.

    Someone out there is collecting some serious money from a bet right about now.

  13. 13.

    Jennifer

    Meh. I was never much of a fan of the showy vocals. She had a good voice but was not my cup of tea. Yeah, it’s sad for anyone to die that young, but she’d been working hard at it for at least 20 years.

  14. 14.

    Keith G

    She sang a few of my ‘go to’ songs from 88-93 ish. So sad. Self destruction is such a grizzly thing.

  15. 15.

    Trentrunner

    Dr. Drew said something interesting: That addiction + fame is particularly toxic because when you’re famous, you’re insulated from all but the most extreme consequences of your addiction. Unlike a working stiff with addiction problems, where your boss/friends/whoever won’t put up with it, when you’re famous–Whitney famous–everyone around you kowtows and excuses and masks and enables.

    Makes sense to me.

    Also, would have been interesting to see what Whitney could have done with that voice if she hadn’t gone pop/Hollywood famous. Such talent. Such a waste.

  17. 17.

    Mnemosyne

    @Jennifer:

    She had a great voice, but she never seemed to be interested in truly challenging it. It’s a style of pop singing that we now seem to be stuck with (see also Christina Aguilera).

    Since her mother was a gospel singer, I sometimes wonder if Houston had a touch of Preacher’s Kid syndrome — once she got out into the world, she had to rebel against what she came from. Sad, but not uncommon.

  18. 18.

    Raven

    Strange, we were in an antique joint in Atlanta today and I heard Dionne singing “Walk on By” and, for some odd reason, thought of Whitney.

  23. 23.

    Crusty Dem

    Very sad Turns out the greatest love of all is actually cocaine. Rick James called it first. RIP, Whitney.

  24. 24.

    rikyrah

    I am stunned. I mean, we all know about her demons, but I’m stunned.

    She was THE VOICE. People throw around ‘gift from God’, but, let’s be honest, Whitney Houston’s voice was a ‘gift’. SO many female ‘singers’ these days are mere poseurs, but Whitney was the real thing. RIP, Whitney.

  25. 25.

    Elizabelle

    From “The Guardian”‘s Houston obit.

    She sold more records and received more awards than almost any other female pop star of the 20th century, but spent most of her last years mired in a drug addiction that sapped her will to sing and left her in a shambolic state.

    Her death at the age of 48 will send her albums back into the charts, and introduce her music to a generation who knew her only as a troubled character whose commercial success peaked in the 1990s. Though never edgy as a musician – her skills were often wasted on bland adult-contemporary songs – she was more than just a purveyor of anodyne chart hits.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/feb/12/whitney-houston-obituary?intcmp=239

    They didn’t get the memo on writing with 5th grade level vocabulary.

    That said, what a waste.

    Did she have an addiction problem before she hooked up with Mr. Brown?

  26. 26.

    SmallAxe

    Sad just sad, you struck the right tone Cole thanks. Still one of the best National Anthems out there fantastic voice. and F Bobby Brown

  28. 28.

    Evolving Deep Southerner (tense changed for accuracy)

    @cathyx: Depressed people anti-depressing excessively … Just like your neighbor, the out-of-control one from the previous thread. Tell us more.

    Also, vices. Tell us about yours. Beyond being self-righteous as fuck.

  31. 31.

    Crusty Dem

    Raven – no argument there. Though if you could buy blow on every corner store, I’m betting that wouldn’t be the case.

    Saw her in concert once, 1987, terrible show.

  32. 32.

    lamh35

    Alright, let’s please seperate Whitney Houston’s recordings from her live performances.

    Yes recordings were extrremely pop, but get Whitney Houston at a church setting or see her live and she was ALL voice, her voice was a thing of beauty.

    I understand that some people only know her from the pop side of it and that’s fine, but please if you’ve never actually heard or seen her sing outside of her “pop world” then you really don’t know what you’re talking about.

    People really need to get past the current image of Whitney Houston and go back and remember that Whitney in her prime was fantastic.

    RIP Whitney Houston

  36. 36.

    khead

    Saw Whitney in Charlotte when she wanted to dance with somebody. 88 maybe? Damn good show.

    It was the opening act – some sax dude named “Kenny G” – that put me to sleep. Heh.

    Had to have someone wake me up for the headliner.

  37. 37.

    Raven

    @Crusty Dem: I lived in a time and place where it might as well have been legal. Know what we used it for? To be able to drink more. I’ve buried more than a few friends from booze but not one from peruvian marchin powder.

  38. 38.

    Jennifer

    @lamh35: I assume she had at least SOME control over what she chose to record, and most of it was forgettable. A great gospel voice perhaps, which makes it all the worse that she chose crap material. I’m just sayin’. Compare with another recently deceased singer with a great voice – Etta James. Her material showcased her awesome talent without being trite or overly-produced. That’s what I never could stand about Houston’s recordings – they were all so surface-slick that there was nothing underneath.

  39. 39.

    Raven

    @Jennifer: You know, I thought so too but when I went to the wiki:

    “Inspired by prominent soul singers in her family, including her mother Cissy Houston, cousins Dionne Warwick and Dee Dee Warwick, and her godmother Aretha Franklin, Houston began singing with New Jersey church’s junior gospel choir at age 11.”

  41. 41.

    Bruce S

    lamh35 – Whitney in a Jerry Wexler music industry world would have reached her true potential. “Clive Davis World” – not so much. She was an extraordinary talent with real cred in her roots, but the product was less than stellar.

  46. 46.

    Narcissus

    The story of Whitney and Bobby is not one that reflects well on humanity. I bet that dude lives to be 95.

  49. 49.

    gex

    Bobby’s getting too much credit for her troubles. The same demons that drove her to drugs drove her to Bobby.

  51. 51.

    suzanne

    @rikyrah:

    She was THE VOICE. People throw around ‘gift from God’, but, let’s be honest, Whitney Houston’s voice was a ‘gift’.

    Damn straight. What a loss of a great talent.

  53. 53.

    Mnemosyne

    @Jennifer:

    I assume she had at least SOME control over what she chose to record, and most of it was forgettable.

    To some extent but, let’s face it, we don’t have amazing pop songwriters like they did in the 1940s when “At Last” was written. There’s no Carole King/Gerry Goffin or Burt Bacharach/Hal David teams out there writing pop songs today.

    When she did have a great song available, she could be amazing.

  57. 57.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @lamh35: It happens on almost every RIP thread; someone always needs to come in with the contrarian view. I have a short list of people whose deaths I will view with equanimity – Dick Cheney heads it up; for the rest, even if the person wasn’t my favorite for whatever reason, I will respect the feelings of those who feel deeply about the deceased.

  58. 58.

    Genine

    I just read about this five minutes ago and came here to see if it was covered.

    I’m shocked. I mean I know she had her problems and her career would never be what it once was but… damn. I wasn’t expecting this.

    And while her music may have been bland pop, she did have an amazing voice. I remember when she first hooked up with Bobby Brown- I was…. disappointed. She was quite a role model for African-American girls in the 80’s and 90’s. She had soul and gospel roots but enough polish and… something else that made her cross over into “mainstream”. I was only 12 when her first pop album came out but I remember all the adults in the neighborhood talking about what a role model she was.

    Anyway, whether you liked her music or not, I think few would argue she was talented.

    RIP, Whitney Houston

  61. 61.

    Mnemosyne

    @Jennifer:

    IMO, that trite material was more the fault of the era that Houston was singing in than a conscious decision by her. Ever since pop music bought into the cult of the singer/songwriter, great singers have gotten screwed because the material just isn’t out there like it used to be.

  62. 62.

    Bruce S

    Jennifer – I don’t think a comparison with Etta James is fair. First of all, there was a period when Etta was very young when her material wasn’t all that great. Or uneven at best. Second, she came up in an era when the company she was recording for in her prime – Chess – was deeper into the black market and their producers had more connection to the roots. And in her comeback years her appeal was clearly going to be to a more mature audience that craved some respite from pop. Whitney likely didn’t have the kind of control over her material that you assume. The pressures are intense on artists who are signed to mega-contracts when they’re young to produce pop hits. I can’t blame the artist – I blame the industry. Also the demographic shifts in presumed audience, which – for most younger African-American artists is a positive change, given the shit that their forebears had to put up with. I love what is for me the real deal, but I wouldn’t wish on anyone most of the crap the folks who I revere had to put up with in terms of contracts, royalties, etc.

    Nostalgia needs to be tempered with the knowledge that there really weren’t any “good old days” unalloyed with a lot of retrograde bullshit that also took it’s toll.

    Just saying, etc. etc. Don’t want to downgrade the person. We are all prisoners of our time, of commercial push/pull, the media, etc. etc. It just seems even more of a shame when one contemplates the depth of her talent.

  63. 63.

    sfinny

    Just watched and listened to a YouTube of her star spangled banner. It was lovely. She certainly had a set of pipes and could knock it out of the park.

  64. 64.

    bystander

    @ABL 2.0:

    Yes, thanks for that. Others may experience it differently, but without the video glitter, glitz and instrumentation, her Gospel background resonates.

    Hard to know, if she had been able to take a different fork in the road, what that amazing instrument that was her voice might have chosen to wrap itself around.

    Gone too soon.

  66. 66.

    eemom

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    What puzzles me is exactly how, and when, we got to the point where corpse-pissing became a cool thing to do on blogs.

    Because even on fucking FDL, of all places, I remember when Tim Russert died, Jane Hamsher of all people posting a polite eulogy and insisting that the discussion be respectful. That wasn’t that long ago.

  67. 67.

    suzanne

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    It happens on almost every RIP thread; someone always needs to come in with the contrarian view.

    It’s fucking obnoxious. It would be nice if for, say, seventy-two hours of the death of a major public figure, people could just shut up if they didn’t have anything nice to say*. I promise that I don’t think those naysayers have discerning taste, I just think they’re rude.

    *Cheney, bin Laden, and other major fuckwads exempted.

  68. 68.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @eemom: IMO it is a hipper than thou thing.

    @suzanne: I would say 48 hours. On a related note, I have been working on adapting the lyrics of Elvis Costello’s “Tramp the Dirt Down” to fit Cheney; I have not succeeded with a version I like, but the sentiment is there.

  69. 69.

    Trentrunner

    Who gets to decide who’s exempted?

    Mourning etiquette applies to close family and friends, not blog commenters for cripes’ sake. For us non-relatives, what’s up for discussion is the dead person’s life, legacy, and what they meant for our culture.

    I think anyone insisting on certain manners–in blog comments–out of “respect” for the dead is, dare I say it, concern trolling.

    If you feel deeply about Whitney/Michael Jackson/Amy Winehouse/whoever, might I suggest you spend time at a fansite and mourn properly, if mourning is what you need.

    Here, however, the importance of the deceased’s life is absolutely all fair game.

  70. 70.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Unquestionably a great talent, often not stretched to the limits, obviously left us far too soon.

    Yup, it’s very sad. But when she was on, man, was she ever on. And fantastic.

    Rest in Peace, Whitney.

  71. 71.

    Jennifer

    Such outraged sensibilities. I wasn’t aware that critiquing something that wasn’t your cup of tea while still acknowledging the talent behind it was the equivalent of “corpse-pissing.” When my own father died, we didn’t observe a 72-hour period of pretending he was a completely unflawed person. Because, you know, he wasn’t.

  79. 79.

    JC

    Why does every fucking blog on the internet feel the need to write a blog post every time a celebrity dies?

    I doubt you are a “huge” fan or that you added anything to the discourse.

    WTF does a political blog need to publish the same recycled info everyone else is posting right now?

    At least if you dove into a sub piece on drug use, drug war,etc… I could understand.

    But, simply posting a link to a celebrity death with no real added info is the same as the jackasses that post “1st” every time a comment thread opens up.

  80. 80.

    Schlemizel

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    A great movie & another one in which Fred MacMurray plays the bad guy. He was so good at it how did he ever get The Nutty Professor and My Three Sons?

  81. 81.

    Trentrunner

    I’m not one to give too much sympathy to the very, very famous, because the privileges are obviously enormous.

    Still, being superfamous must be really fucking strange. And if your fame and livelihood depend on something as mercurial and vulnerable as the human voice…well, I can see how that might drive you into unhealthful coping mechanisms.

    And everyone should listen to ABL’s link above where you can hear Whitney solo without playback. Makes you wonder.

  82. 82.

    pseudonymous in nc

    That Clive Davis is turning his pre-Grammy party into a “tribute” seems pretty fucking shabby. The music industry made a fuck of a lot of money out of her, and it’s probably going to cash in on her death.

    RIP.

  84. 84.

    Shut up, that's who

    When the commenter Jennifer kicks it I’m going to say, “Meh, what a crackpot. It was always about her own ego and need for attention. She was not my cup of tea. She was so needy she’d even complain sometimes if nobody laughed at some joke she made. I’m not kidding” I’m sure I’ll piss some people off with such a comment but they just can’t handle the kind of truth I throw down, man.

  85. 85.

    Bruce S

    “I remember when Tim Russert died, Jane Hamsher of all people posting a polite eulogy and insisting that the discussion be respectful.”

    This has nothing to do with the tragedy of Whitney Houston dying at 48, but I don’t think anyone could pay proper respect to Tim Russert without acknowledging his journalistic mediocrity. That doesn’t mean he didn’t love Luke, et. al. or wasn’t a great neighbor. But he did what he did in the public sphere. That’s really all I know of the man. I always found him to be likely a genial guy in context of family and friends, but I didn’t ever see him as a beacon of great journalism and wouldn’t have pretended he was just because his corpse was still warm. This is simply a fact. I don’t believe in being mean-spirited and certainly hope I haven’t come across as such, but proper obituaries, remembrances, etc. should honor something approximating truth. Personally, there are few people I would go all “FDL” on while they’re alive.

  88. 88.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Bruce S:

    The day after Russert kicked it, my dad passed.

    So I missed a lot of the unbelievable public wallowing that took place for the next week…I was too busy with my own more personal grief.

    But frankly, Russert was a shitty journalist. He was the prototypical stenographer, who sucked up to those in power, particularly the vile war criminal Cheney, who should not be allowed to die a natural death, unless it’s long and painful.

  89. 89.

    WyldPirate

    @Raven:

    The alcohol that is such a big laugh kills way more people than blow ever will.

    Yup, and an even bigger killer is tobacco.

  91. 91.

    Trentrunner

    From the LA Times:

    [On Thursday night] The visibly bloated singer displayed erratic behavior throughout the afternoon — flailing her hands frenetically as she spoke to Brandy and Monica, skipping around the ballroom in a child-like fashion and wandering aimlessly about the lobby. It was mentioned by a Grammy staffer that security personnel received calls of the singer doing handstands by the pool.

  94. 94.

    Mnemosyne

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I dunno, I don’t think Jennifer is saying anything so completely out of bounds that she has to be shut down. I think we all agree that Houston was enormously talented but rarely had material that was worthy of her talent. As I said, I blame that more on the extreme crappiness of 80s pop music thanks to Clive Davis than any fault of Houston’s.

  95. 95.

    Billy Beane

    This sucks. NYTimes reports during grammy reharsals she was acting erratic and smelled of booze and cigarettes.

    I grew up with her voice. Even though I was never a huge fan of her music I could appreciate her gift. To see it all just wasted away like this. Even though the decline was going on for some time….to see it end like this still sucks.

  96. 96.

    amorphous

    Whitney Houston

    R. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIeeeeeeeeeIiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii. P.

  101. 101.

    TooManyJens

    @JC: …because maybe Cole thought that the people who hang out here would like to discuss it with the other people who hang out here, the people they talk to every day, instead of having to go to TMZ or some fucking place?

    How is this difficult to understand?

  102. 102.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @TooManyJens: No, this is a purely political blog. No pet posts. No music posts. Nothing at all ever gets posted here about anything other than political issues. Where the fuck did you some other impression?

  106. 106.

    Shawn in ShowMe

    I’m thankful that in a culture rife with cynicism and selfishness occasionally we receive gifts we don’t deserve: Jimi Hendrix’s guitar mastery, Donnie Hathaway’s ballads, Whitney Houston’s voice. In her day, Whitney could belt out “Mary had a Little Lamb” and make the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. She could make me “Wanna Dance With Somebody” even though she couldn’t dance.

    If the personal demons of some folks on this thread became public knowledge, I’m not sure they would be able to survive the scrutiny. I refuse to consider Whitney Houston’s life “a waste” when she performed to the best of her ability, had a reputation for kindness, and brought joy to millions of people. That’s an achievement to be celebrated.

  107. 107.

    Rawk Chawk

    The delicate flowers here…as always trying to control the discussion.

    Whitney had an amazing instrument/gift. It was used well at times. At others not so much. She was obviously self destructive. Drugs suck. Addiction sucks more. She was beautiful, talented, and I’m glad I was on the planet at the same time. She was a mess and she was a goddess.

    All these things can all be true, at the same time even. And different people can even say all these things in the same thread on a blog on the Internet at the same time, without various, tender commenters having their lives destroyed.

    Far too many of you are far too emotionally focused on BJ. Offline, meatspace living is recommended.

  111. 111.

    Satanicpanic

    Not a fan of her music (great voice- too bad she got famous during the awful 80’s), but still a shame to see someone self destruct so completely.

  112. 112.

    boss bitch

    @JC:

    This blog posts recipes, pet pics, music videos, art, etc. Why not write a blog about a singer who many of us grew up listening to? This IS Whitney Houston not some lead singer of a local band.

  117. 117.

    amk

    @JC: ‘cos whining about what the rethugs & media do everyday gets kinda boring some times and politics isn’t fucking everything (although it is)?

  118. 118.

    Mike P

    @lamh35: This. Whether she was your cup of tea in terms of style of music or not, her voice was titanic…just short of a force of nature at it’s prime. Even in teeny-bopper (yet still danceable) stuff like “How Will I Know” you can hear her voice literally leaping out of virtually every line…she brought it. Yes, she became a sad, tragic punch line in many ways in the years leading to hear death, but this was one of THE voices of the 20th century.

  119. 119.

    HeartlandLiberal

    Ms. Houston will forever be remembered on the InnerTubes for her contribution to great memes of American Popular culture.

    As seen on Joel McHale’s “The Soup”, I give you Whitney Houston’s “Kiss My Ass” moment (the 35 second mark):

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR7CCQ2QAKE

    Try googling “Whitney Houston Kiss My Ass”.

    Deeply embedded.

  120. 120.

    bob h

    It seems that pop stardom just gets you premature death in the end. So many of them die much too early.

  121. 121.

    CarolDuhart2

    @bob h: I’ve begun to think that part of it is the way we do health care in this country. An ordinary schlub has it, at least in fits and starts, and can get the counseling one needs to shuffle through life. But a musician gets moralism instead of counseling, and can’t always get the help needed to pull oneself out of a tailspin.

    BTW, isn’t it time we upped reaearch into the biochemistry of addiction? People are dying too early because doctors don’t have the tools needed to really help addiction on a molecular level. AA is fine for some, but a lot of creative people have undiagnosed bi-polar and schedules not inducive to steady meetings or steady treatment.

  122. 122.

    Patrick Bateman

    Did you know… that Whitney Houston’s debut LP called simply Whitney Houston had four number-one singles on it ?

    It’s hard to choose a favorite among so many great tracks.

    But the “Greatest Love Of All” is one of the best, most powerful songs ever written about self-preservation and dignity.

    It’s universal message crosses all boundaries and instills one with the hope that it’s not too late to better ourselves.

    Since, Elizabeth, it’s impossible in this world we live in to empathize with others, we can always empathize with ourselves. It’s an important message. Crucial, really, and it’s beautifully stated on the album.

  125. 125.

    skippy the wondermule

    She had more success and talent than most people, and instead of becoming a raging egomaniacal alcoholic like Sinatra, she became a self-absorbed drug user. And?

    Sinatra is arguably much sadder than her, funny how nobody even thinks that.

    Most people end up with addictions and don’t live up to their potential. She lived up to hers in spades, she was once the greatest singer in the world.

    What, is she supposed to be that forever? WE are sad folks, NOT her.

  127. 127.

    Arclite

    @rikyrah: I’m pretty impressed by Kelly Clarkson, but I agree: Whitney had a truly amazing voice, even if I didn’t like her song style.

  128. 128.

    Bruce S

    “Sinatra is arguably much sadder than her, funny how nobody even thinks that.”

    Uh, dude was an asshole but he lived to 82 and by the mid-50s was totally in control of his own career, material, production, etc. A shitty person but one of the greats who in terms of a stellar, long-running career probably did better than even he deserved. It’s not really “funny” that nobody ever thinks that Sinatra’s story is sadder than Whitney’s. It wouldn’t make any sense at all. You’re engaged in a pretty bizarre stretch with that “arguably.” Also, IMHO when Marion Williams was on this earth in tandem with Whitney, no way was Whitney “the greatest singer in the world.” Not to mention that Aretha is still alive. That’s actually an absurd concept, all comparative opinionizing and dueling personal aesthetic preferences aside.

  129. 129.

    Catsy

    @Omnes Omnibus: The reflexive contrarianism is annoying, yes.

    But equally so IMO is the self-righteous crusading of people who think there’s some kind of objectively-defined line you can’t cross when discussing recently deceased celebrities on the Internet. As if there’s some universal law of nature that decrees that in all cultures and in all circumstances, it is Objectively Polite to observe a 24-72 hour waiting period before posting anything that is not a glowing eulogy, whereas it is Objectively Rude to discuss the good alongside the bad and express one’s sincere opinion.

    There is nothing objective about it. What is polite varies from person to person and none of them have any claim on being right. These crusaders are “barbarians; for they believe that the customs of their tribe are the laws of nature.”

    If I’m at your mother’s funeral, I’m going to keep my opinions to myself and be properly respectful. On blog comments, though, I’ll say what I like about public figures, thanks.

    If you are one of those people who gets bent out of shape by reading criticisms of recently-dead famous people you didn’t even know personally, you might want to avoid conversations about said celebrities in public places where you might be exposed to the opinions of people who don’t share your notions of what is polite and what isn’t.

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