Remembering Dusty

Most of the queer boy bands of contemporary rock music, as well as such androgynous or sexually ambiguous women performers as Annie Lennox, Allison Moyet, Chrissie Hynde, and even Madonna, demonstrate the musical, visual or aesthetic influence of Dusty Springfield, one of the first women in rock who dared to "strike a pose."

– Patricia Juliana Smith
Excerpted from The Queer Sixties
(Routledge, 1999)

[Dusty died] on March 2, 1999, only six weeks away from what would have been [her] sixtieth birthday – but Dusty had always said she didn't want to turn sixty.

Dusty had missed seeing her induction into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame by a few weeks, but she lived long enough to receive her OBE, which was delivered to her a few weeks earlier at the Royal Marsden Hospital. . . . Her status as a national icon seemed cemented,
after a career that had included a long stretch when she had fled from her country, and the announcement of her death was greeted be wall-to-wall media coverage and an outpouring of public sadness.

. . . [At Dusty's funeral] after describing the ups and downs of Dusty's life, stretching back to their days together with the Lana Sisters, Riss Chantelle looked wistful, and said with simple poignancy, "You know, she did have a lovely voice."

– Karen Bartlett
Excerpted from Dusty: An Intimate Portrait of a Musical Legend
(Robson Press, 2014)

Related Off-site Links:
Woman of Repute – My (archived) website dedicated to the life and music of Dusty Springfield.
Let's Talk Dusty – An online forum.
Dusty Springfield: Soul Sister of the Swinging Sixties – Adrian Mullen (The Westmorland Gazette, February 11, 2018).
Sensual Sound of Dusty Springfield Is Set for the Stage – Joanna Davis (Dorset Echo, February 12, 2018).
Dusty's Moving Stage Biopic Will Open Your Eyes – Natalie Aldred (Henley Standard, February 26, 2018).
Dusty Springfield, Reluctant Queen of Blue-Eyed Soul – Jack Hamilton (Lit Hub, March 3, 2017).

For more of Dusty at The Wild Reed, see:
• Soul Deep
• Celebrating Dusty (2017)
• Celebrating Dusty (2013)
• Dusty Springfield: Queer Icon
• Remembering Dusty (2009)
• Remembering Dusty – 11 Years On
• Remembering Dusty – 14 Years On
• The Other "Born This Way"
• Time and the River
• Remembering a Great Soul Singer
• A Song and Challenge for 2012
• The Sound of Two Decades Colliding

Opening meme: Carole Gibson (featuring a 1967 photograph of Dusty from her second BBC television series).

Image at right: A portrait of Dusty from 1985, two years before her collaboration with the Pet Shop Boys and the resulting international hit song, "What Have I Done to Deserve This." (Photographer unknown)