Life of the Singer, Songwriter and Actress,

¶ … life of the singer, songwriter and actress, Phyllis Hyman. In particular, we will discuss several themes from a selected song from her works, entitled "Living in Confusion," including the artist's belief in the person for whom the song was composed, her experience of pain, and the overall theme of confusion in her life, which inspired these lyrics.

Phyllis Hyman was an American singer, lyricist and actress, identified primarily for her vocal work in soul, jazz, disco and rhythm and blues styles of contemporary music. She was born in Philadelphia on July 6, 1949, and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her ancestry included African-American, Native American, and Italian bloodlines. Hyman committed suicide at age forty-five on June 30, 1995, one week before her forty-sixth birthday suicide and just hours before her scheduled final performance at New York's Apollo Theater. Hyman's singing career spanned from the early 1970's until her death in 1995. She was highly acclaimed for her talents, having recorded with labels such as Buddah, Arista, and Philadelphia International. She received accolades from the likes of Bill Cosby, Roberta Flack, Stevie Wonder, and numerous other notable figures during the course of her career. She was perhaps most famously known for her recording of the eponymous theme song for the James Bond movie, Never Say Never Again. This was Hyman's own favored recording of all her works and it is reputed that she recorded this piece in a single, flawless recording take with no rehearsal whatsoever (SoulLegends, 2002).

Hyman was nominated for a Tony award in 1981, and in 1987, Hyman recorded an album entitled "Living All Alone." The 1987 work was significant, in that the lyrics in this album were the first revelation of the depth of depression and loneliness which overshadowed Hyman's personal life and eventually led to her tragic, premeditated suicide eight years later. In 1992, Hyman was voted the best female Blues & Soul vocalist in the United Kingdom, defeating top contemporary stars such as Aretha Franklin and Whitney Houston. At this time, Hyman began suffering addiction to alcohol and weight gain, accompanied by tax-related financial difficulties. In the following year in 1993, she suffered the loss of both her mother and grandmother within the span of a single month. These combined stresses served to increase her self-destructive behavioral patterns and collectively accelerated her descent into depression. Hyman was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression. In addition, she had become involved in charitable benefit work related to the AIDS epidemic, and was deeply disturbed by the contrast between the positive relations she enjoyed with AIDS patients and the isolation she was experiencing with friends and family (Neal, 2011).

Hyman's suicide was a planned event, preceding which she contacted several close associates to explain her reasoning and alert them of her intention to end her life (her second suicide attempt) and the manner in which she planned to do so. In a telephone conversation with her former romantic interest, Danny Poole, Hyman confided that she had considered several methods, and had determined that an overdose of sleeping pills would be the least painful and most peaceful way to accomplish her exit. Poole reported that Hyman sounded distraught, but at the same time seemed calm and happy with her decision, indicating that she had been merely existing without living, and referred to her planned suicide date as "a grand day" (Johnson Publishing, 1995).

"Living In Confusion" was a track released with Hyman's 1991 album entitled Prime of My Life. The lyrics were co-written by Phyllis Hyman, Terry Burrus and Kenneth Gamble. It incorporates three closely intertwined themes, including betrayal in a prior romance, the pain of her personal life and the resultant feelings of inescapable confusion which dominated her existence, culminating in her eventual suicide.

The first of the three themes in "Living In Confusion" (Hyman, 1990) may be summarized as the betrayal Hyman experienced from a former lover, summarized by lingering feelings such as "I believed in you" countered by "until I saw one day that you were stringing me along." Over five verses of the song, Hyman details several aspects of the betrayal she experienced, including her initial faith in her partner which was repeatedly eroded as she came to the realization that she had been manipulated and inconsiderately used.

The second theme of "Living In Confusion" is pain. In this case, Hyman refers to the combined pain and sensations that she experienced, firstly as a result of the poor treatment by her lover and secondly, by the distressing overall sensation of endless change in her life which she could not master or control. Hyman says to her lover, "you build me up to let me down, got me spinning around." She summarizes her painful overall life experience with the chorus which follows.