I was not exaggerating when I tweeted that I was crushed to hear about the loss of Teena Marie. One of my favorite childhood memories is of racing to Small Town Sounds, the little record store in our town to get her "Lady T" album just for one song: "Behind the Groove."
I remember asking for the album and when the owner pointed it out to me I said,"Wow, she looks white." The owner laughed and said, "She is white!" Like 99.99% of the black population, I didn't care and I have been a devoted fan ever since. Teena Marie was not just a great singer, she was a true all-around musician: a songwriter, a guitarist, a producer. She was also a poet who famously shouted out two poets (Nikki Giovanni and Maya Angelou) in one of her biggest hits, "Square Biz."
I was only ten when I raced into that record store to get "Lady T," but Teena's music carried me throughout my teenage years on my Walkman, through my twenties on my CD player and my long-past-twenties on my iPod playlists. Like Michael Jackson, I have been listening to her all along, so it did not take her death for me to go back and remember but, it still hurts just the same.
I was thrilled to be able to follow her on Twitter and I had noticed that she had been excitedly tweeting about her daughter Alia's upcoming 19th birthday party on Christmas day. I am so saddened that Alia has to endure this loss at any time, but especially at this time.
There have been many lovely tributes to Teena and her music, but one of my favorites came in this morning from Paris, via a self made video Lenny Kravitz made on his iPhone.
After hearing about it for many years, it was great to finally see Teena's television debut - at age 8 in 1964 on "The Beverly Hillbillies."
Teena, I will miss you and your gift. Rest peacefully.
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