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Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin
Listen, you don't get the title "Queen of Soul" by singing like Dudley-fuckin'-Doo-Right. It's still hard to write about her, our queen, in the past tense. It's also hard to even scratch the surface with a legend like Aretha, but by golly, I'm gonna' try my best. Aretha's voice was bred from gospel, blues and jazz, and other Americana traditions. Perhaps the Obama's said it best with their statement shortly after her death when they said, "Aretha helped define the American experience. In her voice, we could feel our history, all of it and in every shade- our power and our pain, our darkness and our light, our quest for redemption and our hard-won respect." Aretha's career could be divided into five acts...
ACT I: The Beginning... To get to know Aretha you must get to know her father, Rev. Clarence LaVaugh Franklin. Although Aretha had an itching to record the new rhytm and blues songs that were gaining popularity, her father had her pegged as a gospel singer. She released her first album as a 14-year-old, 1956's Songs of Faith. So this first Act is Aretha in the church and refining her voice.
ACT II: The Breakthrough... After a false-start signing with Columbia Records, Aretha signed to Atlantic Records in 1966 and reached her breakthrough, thanks in part to producer Jerry Wexler who helped produce some of her biggest hits. The 60's were good for Aretha in terms of popularity.
ACT III: The Gospel Years... 1972's live album Amazing Grace saw Aretha take it back where it all started- the church- her gospel singing. Amazing Grace will convert the most jaded athiest. Her voice gives anyone with a beating heart chills. As of 2020, it stands as Aretha's biggest selling album as well as being the highest-selling live gospel album of all time... if that means anything at all to anyone.
ACT IV: The 80's and 90's... After her Atlantic deal ran out, she signed with Clive Davis and Arista Records. She would stay with Clive for the rest of her career. Where most 60's acts saw a decline in the 80's, Aretha somehow flourished and cranked out even more hits and awesome collaboartions with James Brown, Whitney Houston, Elton John, George Michael, and on and on.
ACT V: The Final Act... The diva finally gets the respect she deserves.
So there you have it- her career in five acts. Let's just put things in perspective: Before Patti LaBelle, before Gladys Knight and Natalie Cole, before Chaka Khan, Whitney Houston, Alicia Keys and Beyoncé there was ARETHA! She laid down the blueprint for all divas to come. No-one can or will ever sing like her. Have you seen her singing "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" at Obama's inauguration? NUFF SAID. Anyone who's heard "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" knows what I'm talking about. Aretha was so many things... amazing performer... Aretha could sing anyone's song but when she was finished with it- it was her song. Let's put her voice aside for a second, I know, no easy feat, but just imagine Aretha the musician not the singer. Aretha's piano playing often gets lost in the shuffle of her amazing voice but she was an amazing pianist. Although she quit playing piano live in her later years, she broke that mold and dusted of her piano playing & hit the ivories in a very special moment when she performed a Carole King song she helped make famous as Carole King was receiving her Kennedy Center Honors award in 2015. Check out that video here. (If you go to a minute and four seconds into that video you will see Carole King's shock of Aretha busting out her piano playing for the occasion.) I could go on but I'm afraid a blog post is not going to do our queen enough justice. I could write about her fling with Sam Cooke at a young age or the old wive's tale that she was Whitney Houston's godmother... but those are all stories upon themselves. Plus, there are plenty of better writers who have written about her life. Her music, her voice... HER EVERYTHING- it all just means so much to me and many others. Very few can stay in the limelight for a half-of-a-century- but sho'nuff- Aretha can. She brought so much joy while expressing so much pain she experienced as a black woman. Her music is so pure and honest... I would deflect back to the Obama quote from earlier. Few had a bigger impact on popular music than Aretha. Her funeral was fit for a queen, which she was. Her funeral was such a national spectacle you would have though a president died- but they didn't- someone much more important did. Who is more important than dead presidents? Aretha mother fuckin' Franklin. Her funeral spanned eight hours, three days, multiple cities, but ultimately our Queen of Soul could only be laid to rest in one place: Detroit. Where it all began and ended. It's the queen... It's...
Aretha Franklin
My Top Five Favorite Aretha Franklin Albums
5. Through the Storm
4. Aretha
3. Amazing Grace
2. Lady Soul
1. Aretha Now
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin
Listen, you don't get the title "Queen of Soul" by singing like Dudley-fuckin'-Doo-Right. It's still hard to write about her, our queen, in the past tense. It's also hard to even scratch the surface with a legend like Aretha, but by golly, I'm gonna' try my best. Aretha's voice was bred from gospel, blues and jazz, and other Americana traditions. Perhaps the Obama's said it best with their statement shortly after her death when they said, "Aretha helped define the American experience. In her voice, we could feel our history, all of it and in every shade- our power and our pain, our darkness and our light, our quest for redemption and our hard-won respect." Aretha's career could be divided into five acts...
ACT I: The Beginning... To get to know Aretha you must get to know her father, Rev. Clarence LaVaugh Franklin. Although Aretha had an itching to record the new rhytm and blues songs that were gaining popularity, her father had her pegged as a gospel singer. She released her first album as a 14-year-old, 1956's Songs of Faith. So this first Act is Aretha in the church and refining her voice.
ACT II: The Breakthrough... After a false-start signing with Columbia Records, Aretha signed to Atlantic Records in 1966 and reached her breakthrough, thanks in part to producer Jerry Wexler who helped produce some of her biggest hits. The 60's were good for Aretha in terms of popularity.
ACT III: The Gospel Years... 1972's live album Amazing Grace saw Aretha take it back where it all started- the church- her gospel singing. Amazing Grace will convert the most jaded athiest. Her voice gives anyone with a beating heart chills. As of 2020, it stands as Aretha's biggest selling album as well as being the highest-selling live gospel album of all time... if that means anything at all to anyone.
ACT IV: The 80's and 90's... After her Atlantic deal ran out, she signed with Clive Davis and Arista Records. She would stay with Clive for the rest of her career. Where most 60's acts saw a decline in the 80's, Aretha somehow flourished and cranked out even more hits and awesome collaboartions with James Brown, Whitney Houston, Elton John, George Michael, and on and on.
ACT V: The Final Act... The diva finally gets the respect she deserves.
So there you have it- her career in five acts. Let's just put things in perspective: Before Patti LaBelle, before Gladys Knight and Natalie Cole, before Chaka Khan, Whitney Houston, Alicia Keys and Beyoncé there was ARETHA! She laid down the blueprint for all divas to come. No-one can or will ever sing like her. Have you seen her singing "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" at Obama's inauguration? NUFF SAID. Anyone who's heard "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" knows what I'm talking about. Aretha was so many things... amazing performer... Aretha could sing anyone's song but when she was finished with it- it was her song. Let's put her voice aside for a second, I know, no easy feat, but just imagine Aretha the musician not the singer. Aretha's piano playing often gets lost in the shuffle of her amazing voice but she was an amazing pianist. Although she quit playing piano live in her later years, she broke that mold and dusted of her piano playing & hit the ivories in a very special moment when she performed a Carole King song she helped make famous as Carole King was receiving her Kennedy Center Honors award in 2015. Check out that video here. (If you go to a minute and four seconds into that video you will see Carole King's shock of Aretha busting out her piano playing for the occasion.) I could go on but I'm afraid a blog post is not going to do our queen enough justice. I could write about her fling with Sam Cooke at a young age or the old wive's tale that she was Whitney Houston's godmother... but those are all stories upon themselves. Plus, there are plenty of better writers who have written about her life. Her music, her voice... HER EVERYTHING- it all just means so much to me and many others. Very few can stay in the limelight for a half-of-a-century- but sho'nuff- Aretha can. She brought so much joy while expressing so much pain she experienced as a black woman. Her music is so pure and honest... I would deflect back to the Obama quote from earlier. Few had a bigger impact on popular music than Aretha. Her funeral was fit for a queen, which she was. Her funeral was such a national spectacle you would have though a president died- but they didn't- someone much more important did. Who is more important than dead presidents? Aretha mother fuckin' Franklin. Her funeral spanned eight hours, three days, multiple cities, but ultimately our Queen of Soul could only be laid to rest in one place: Detroit. Where it all began and ended. It's the queen... It's...
Aretha Franklin
My Top Five Favorite Aretha Franklin Albums
5. Through the Storm
4. Aretha
3. Amazing Grace
2. Lady Soul
1. Aretha Now
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