RIP, Phoebe Snow.

The day just got sadder. In Edison, NJ singer-songwriter Phoebe Snow has also died. She was 60.

Though Snow is best known for her 1974 self-titled debut album, she’s had enduring fan appreciation, due in no small part to her classic single, “Poetry Man.”

If you’ve ever had a crush on a soulful, artistic, or—scandal of scandals—taken(!) guy, this song has probably earned repeat listens in your dorm room, apartment, car, or on a boom box held over your head, under some poor potential paramour’s window.

The LA Times has a great obit on the singer, who was preceded in death by her only daughter, Valerie Rose Laub, in 2007. Laub was born with severe brain damage, and Snow put her then-thriving musical career on the back burner to care for her. Snow herself suffered a brain hemorrhage early last year.

Let us be grateful for the end of their suffering.

slb

slb (aka Stacia L. Brown) is a writer, mother, and college instructor in Baltimore, MD. Check her out here: http://stacialbrown.com and here: http://beyondbabymamas.com.
  • grace

    Ouch. *sniff* Phoebe Snow was my older sister’s best friend’s favorite singer in the world. I can hear her music through my big sister’s closed bedroom door now: me, little, confused by the funny sounding voice but stuck in the hall by the sweetness and hypnotic phrasing. Me, older, loving that voice immensely. I love Phoebe Snow, a singer who shined when voices had to be special — Chaka, Stephanie, Deniece, Whitney — to get contracts and get noticed; before there were video directors to keep the light on the titties and the open legs. RIP, Ms. Snow.

  • Ash

    I must honestly say I’ve never heard of her, which is unfortunate because I’ve been missing out on some beautiful music. What a lovely song. Sad to hear she’s gone.