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| Aretha Franklin (1942-2018) |
As
many of you know, today, we lost a legendary singer of our time. The
"Queen Of Soul", Aretha Franklin passed away this morning
at 10:00am est. at age 76.
Can
you believe her career achievements?:
18
Grammy Awards, 8 Gold Albums ("I Never Loved A Man The Way
That I Love You", "Lady Soul", "Aretha Now",
"Young, Gifted, and Black", "Sparkle", "Jump
To It", "Aretha (1986)", and "A Rose Is Still A
Rose") 1 Platinum Album ("Who's Zoomin' Who?"),
112 charted singles on Billboard, including 77 Hot 100 entries, 17
top ten pop singles, 100 R&B entries and 20 number-one R&B
singles.
In
my opinion, Aretha was not only a legend, but also a role model for
men and women around the world. With her songs, "Respect"
"(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman", "Chain Of
Fools", "Think", "I Say A Little Prayer",
"Rock Steady", "Until You Come Back To Me (That's What
I'm Gonna Do)", "Freeway Of Love", among others,
she set the standard of how we deal with our lives everyday.
I
was thinking about what I could say about Aretha Franklin, and I kept
trying to search for something new that hadn't been said before.
After a couple hours, I realized that was impossible. Maybe that was
the greatest thing about Aretha, imagine getting to the end of your
life and there's no compliment that you haven't been paid. Aretha had
that special quality of grace, charm and dignity in the public music
arena. She was an incredibly polite woman and when you were invited
into her house, you knew you were an honored guest. The truth is, we
trusted Aretha. We trusted her to make us laugh, to entertain us, to
speak for us with what was a truly an American voice.
Aretha
was performing for 7 decades...Think about that, these days some
performers only last 10 years. What made Aretha such a unique talent
was that for 7 decades she was hip, but smart enough not to be so hip
that next year she was out of style. That was a fine, almost
impossible, line to walk and no one did it better than Aretha
Franklin. Aretha never went out of style. As a singer she taught you
that it was okay to be known for doing political messages, but never
making the mistake of thinking you're a political commentator. It's
okay to satirize the society we live in, just don't start believing
you're a social commentator.
You
know, people say this country is divided now, these people forget the
60s and early 70s. There were almost daily marches, there were race
riots, there were assassinations, there were anti-war demonstrations
all the time. We witnessed the most drastic cultural change in
American history. But, throughout it all, no matter what the state of
the world, it seemed to get its sanity back every day by putting her
Record/Tape/CD on your music player and play it.
As
good as Aretha was with celebrities and politicians, he was at
his best with ordinary folks. Because they didn't treat her as Aretha
Franklin, "The Queen Of Soul", they treated her as Aretha
Franklin from Detroit, Michigan. There was always a moment when she
would ask, "Do you ever listen to my albums?" And the
person would always say something like " No, I don't listen
unless there's something worthwhile to do." Well Aretha loved
that, she would laugh and laugh and she thought that was the greatest
thing in the world.
As
a singer I don't think I ever wanted you to impress anyone more than
Aretha Franklin. She had that effect on singers. When she gave you
that wave, or the wink, or the call over. Nothing before or since has
had as profound an effect on me as that one little gesture. And it's
strange, after all these years, once I put on one of her
songs/albums, I still feel like a guest in her house.... Because her
music inspires people to be successful. Aretha was the best, plain
and simple. The best way to sum it up is, you had to be there. If you
were fortunate to be listening during Aretha's 7 decade career,
consider yourself lucky, cause you're not going to see the likes of
her ever again.
She
will and always will be... The Queen Of Soul!
RIP
Aretha.
Until
we meet again.
