HOME IS WHERE THE HATRED IS - esther phillips

What's home for you? A place of peace, love and tranquility? Or...
...a misery because you share it with a slob?
Is it soured by some ethnic idiot's obnoxious music, stinking cooking, or screechy collection of repulsive semi-human brats?
Is it scarred by the constant barking of a neighbor's stupid dog?
Is it spoiled by a landlord that won't fix the leaks or keep the place heated?
Got some bitch upstairs with high heels? Some heel downstairs who spends his time tinkering stuff together with the constant tap-tap-tap of a hammer? How about retired old people with diverticulitis who have the TV volume FULL BLAST all day?
Maybe you've got fratboy retards upstairs who boogie till they puke...which isn't until 4am after they've finished the 12th sing-along to "Bohemian Rhapsody."
Or is your home just a place to hang your head because it's got a lousy view, is in a high-crime location, or is a money pit?
You should love being home, in your "castle," in your refuge from life's aggravation. If you're not, then home is where the hatred is, and your only escape might be drugs...enough of them to make you forget where you are, and possibly even who you are.
Try imagining a place where it's always safe and warm, and where there's shelter from the storm. Maybe it's only in your imagination during a drugged dream, and you know in reality that "Almost Home," is nothing but the name of a chemical-filled brand of cookie.
Singing "Home is Where the Hatred Is," is Esther Phillips.
Born Esther Mae Jones (December 23, 1935-August 7, 1984), the teenage "Little Esther" was a sensation, and in 1950, was signed by Herman Lubinsky to his Savoy label. She had a string of R&B chart hits including "Wedding Boogie," "Misery" and "Deceivin' Blues." Her huge success in 1950 led her to leave Savoy and sign with Sid Nathan's rival Federal...where she had almost no luck at all. She made it back but it took a turbulent decade of work, touring, drug abuse and a name change ("Esther Phillips," using a last name borrowed from a petroleum product she saw at a gas station.)
Her Beatles cover version "And I Love Him" led the Fab Four to invite her to play the U.K. in 1964. Substance abuse once again became a problem, but Esther emerged at the turn of the 70's stronger than ever, with critics raving over her Grammy-nominated album "From a Whisper to a Scream," and her cover of Gil Scott-Heron's "Home is Where the Hatred Is."
A few years later, she was even mainstream enough to appear on "Saturday Night Live." But Esther paid a price for the years of drug and alcohol abuse...at only 48, she was dead of liver and kidney failure. Her home is now Morning Light section, Lot 2591, Interment Space 2 at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles.
HOME IS WHERE THE HATRED IS