Aretha Franklin, Queen of Soul

[Michael OConnor]

http://www.tmz.com/2018/08/16/aretha-franklin-dead-queen-of-soul/

ARETHA FRANKLIN
QUEEN OF SOUL
DEAD AT 76

109 8/16/2018 6:59 AM PDT
Aretha Franklin Dead at 76
BREAKING NEWS
Aretha Franklin, known for having one of the greatest voices in music history, and for hits like "Respect," and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" ... died Thursday after a long battle with advanced pancreatic cancer.

Aretha passed away in her Detroit home where she was under hospice care. She'd been in failing health for many months and she was down to 86 pounds. One source told us he was informed more than a week ago that Aretha could go at any time.

She was surrounded by friends and family when she passed. Her family released a statement, saying, "In one of the darkest moments of our lives, we are not able to find the appropriate words to express the pain in our heart. We have lost the matriarch and rock of our family."

She had appeared incredibly frail in recent years, and rarely performed live. Her most recent appearance was last November for Elton John's AMFAR event.

Aretha's career is just incredible. Born in Memphis in 1942, her family eventually relocated to Detroit where she began singing in her father's church. She was such a powerhouse gospel singer, she landed a Columbia record deal in the early '60s.

Her string of chart-topping hits began with her Atlantic Records deal in 1967.

Aretha's achievements in the late '60s were remarkable for any artist, but especially so for a black woman in the midst of the Civil Rights movement. She held the record for the most entries on the Hot 100 list of any female artist for nearly 40 years, only to be dethroned in 2017 by Nicki Minaj.

She won 18 Grammys and was the first woman ever inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

Aretha delivered a powerful rendition of "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" -- while wearing that unforgettable hat -- at Barack Obama's 2009 inauguration.

Throughout her career, Aretha was known for delivering incredible one-off live performances, including at the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors show where she sang 'Natural Woman' in honor of the song's co-writer, Carole King.

The Queen of Soul was 76. She is survived by her 4 sons.

RIP

[Travoltron]

D.E.C.E.A.S.E.D.! That word now applies to me!

[Michael OConnor]

Post by Travoltron
D.E.C.E.A.S.E.D.! That word now applies to me!

I was thinking she was dead 20 minutes and nobody posted her death here. When was anybody around here going to give her any R-E-S-P-E-C-T?

Hey Nineteen,
That's 'Retha Franklin.
She don't remember the Queen of Soul.
It's hard times befallen
The sole survivors.
She thinks I'm crazy,
But I'm just growing old

"Hey Nineteen" - Steely Dan

[Terry del Fuego]

One evening during my teenage years in the mid-1970s I was sitting in
my room listening to the local hippie radio station. A very
distinctive deep guitar bit started up and I immediately recognized
the beginning of "Chain of Fools".

But something was wrong...it didn't go straight from that guitar bit
right into "Chain, chain, chain!" It was clearly Aretha Franklin, but
she was doing...something else. It went on for a while and eventually
finally went into the beginning of the song as we all know it and (if
we're not barnyard animals) love it.

I had no idea where it came from and it bugged me for at least 25
years before I finally found out what it was: When Atlantic put out
the quadraphonic "The Best of Aretha Franklin" compilation, they used
a completely different edit of what may or may not have been the same
take (it has other differences as well).

40+ years later, whenever I hear the normal version of that song I
can't *not* hear the incredibly obvious, blunt, clumsy edit between
the guitar intro and the opening vocal. But it's still one of the
greatest songs of all time in either version.

She was incredible.

[Terry del Fuego]

<https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/index.php?threads/aretha-franklin-dies-at-76.25247/#post-382808>

this is truly sad news, but here in detroit we saw it coming, she has
been battling several health issues for the last couple of years.
Aretha is a very special lady, not many outside of detroit know just
how much she has been helping the hungry and the homeless here. The
church where her father was pastor and she began singing is in a
depressed area, she has continued support to that church over the
years in it's vigorous shelter and food programs, donating thousands
every year towards relief efforts. she personally funds a weekly meal
program where she was regularly seen up to about a year ago actually
helping prepare and serve the disadvantaged. detroit is a big city
that is still small enough to where nearly everyone living here knows
someone who has been in contact somehow with Aretha. She is the kind
of person who can see the importance of everyone who is lucky enough
to come in contact with her. She will be greatly missed not only for
her enormous talent but for the genuine humanitarian and the truly
fine person that she is.

my own Aretha story: I run a medium sized plumbing and heating company
here and have been her plumber for many years up until about 5 years
ago when she sold her last house at the detroit golf club and moved
into a condo on the riverfront. She always called in service under the
name Cunningham, not sure why and never really asked but before anyone
was dispatched to her house she always wanted to talk to me to make
sure either i was going to personally supervise the job or send
someone good. in One of my very early dealings with Aretha she had
gone on an extended tour and left the house in the care of one of her
sons. well he turned out to be somewhat undependable in shutting off
the heat in the winter and going off on vacation. she had multiple
frozen and broken pipes throughout the house and we are not talking
about a small house. After Working late in the house one day i could
not resist sitting down at a beautiful red enamel full size grand
piano she had in her music room that sat right in the middle of giant
rug with a big red rose. I lost myself playing that piano, the
acoustics were so good in this room and the action on that piano was
so incredible that i could not help myself and never having access to
a full size concert grand was just too much, anyways there i was
banging away some elton john on this thing and when i finished i
suddenly realized that she was standing right there in the doorway for
i don't know how long. She started clapping, and I was completely
embarassed, apologizing excessively. She just looked at me and said "I
knew today was going to be a good day when I got up but I didn't think
I was going to get treated to a concert by my plumber". From then on
she always wanted to talk to me before she scheduled. A beautiful
person and I will miss her very much.

[a***@gmail.com]

She walked right out that door without her dry white toast and without her four fried chickens.

[Michael OConnor]

Post by a***@gmail.com
She walked right out that door without her dry white toast and without her four fried chickens.

I haven't watched "The Blues Brothers" in about 20 years, but I think she might have been the last survivor of the classic musical stars who appeared in the movie. At a cursory glance of the cast from IMDB.com, Dan Ackroyd is the only cast member of any note from "The Blues Brothers" who is off topic in this forum, although there were a lot of cameos by people who are still alive - Frank Oz, Paul Reubens, Steven Spielberg to name a few.

[That Derek]

Post by a***@gmail.com
She walked right out that door without her dry white toast and without her four fried chickens.

How long did it take to THINK that one up?

[l***@yahoo.com]

Post by That Derek

Post by a***@gmail.com
She walked right out that door without her dry white toast and without her four fried chickens.

How long did it take to THINK that one up?

Years ago - in the 1980s, I think - someone wrote an article on Aretha for Ms. Magazine. The author was practically SEETHING with contempt for a teenage girl of her acquaintance who ONLY knew of Aretha because of "The Blues Brothers." (Thankfully, as I remember, the author didn't actually insult the girl to her face.)

I mean, if the girl didn't have parents who cared enough to play Aretha's music, casually and regularly, so the girl could become familiar with it, how is that HER fault? And since when is it the job of kids to learn any music that was before their time if the parents don't consider that to be important - AND if their peers don't teach them about the golden oldies?

I was blessed to come from a very musical family - with a deep love of classical, pop and soul on both sides. Yes, Aretha's music was played often.

I had no idea she was so ill until this month.

RIP.



Lenona.

[l***@yahoo.com]

Just found this:

https://www.theringer.com/music/2018/8/16/17698206/aretha-franklin-obituary


Aretha Franklin, a Pop Star Who Could Make You See God
Remembering the Queen of Soul, who died Thursday at the age of 76
By Rob Harvilla Aug 16, 2018, 10:09am EDT


First paragraphs:

“This is a song that a girl took away from me.” That’s Otis Redding onstage at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival introducing “Respect,” which he’d written and released just two years earlier, and which already no longer belonged to him. “Good friend of mine,” he adds through deep, wheezing breaths, as though he’d never quite recovered from his good friend knocking the wind right out of him. “This girl, she just took this song. But I’m still gonna do it anyway.”

Redding’s original version is, of course, fantastic, propulsive, and exuberant even in its pleading. But that pleading—“All I’m askin’ / Is for a little respect when I come home”—was maybe a little too bringing-home-the-bacon pedestrian. Where he’d been, and what he’d been up to exactly, was nowhere near as compelling as where the housebound woman patiently listening to him might’ve wanted to go.

Aretha Franklin, who died in her home in Detroit on Thursday at 76, went there. Her “Respect,” the leadoff track on 1967’s I Never Loved a Man the Way I Loved You, was an act of god every bit as holy as the gospel staples she’d grown up on. (She cut her debut album, 1956’s Songs of Faith, at 14 years old, right there in her father Reverend C.L. Franklin’s New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit.) Compared with Redding’s live version, Aretha’s pace slows a little, but the swagger increases exponentially, with every striking new detail—from her booming “R-E-S-P-E-C-T” breakdown to the deft “Sock it to me” chant taken up by her sisters and backup singers, Carolyn and Erma Franklin—spawning its own vibrant universe. (“Sock it to me” was not a sex thing, Aretha was forever quick to point out.)

He made it a hot song; she made it the national anthem...

(snip)




Lenona.

[Terry del Fuego]

Post by l***@yahoo.com
I mean, if the girl didn't have parents who cared enough to play
Aretha's music, casually and regularly, so the girl could become
familiar with it, how is that HER fault? And since when is it the
job of kids to learn any music that was before their time if the
parents don't consider that to be important - AND if their peers
don't teach them about the golden oldies?

I learned a long time ago that it's easy to miss even the hits
sometimes if you blink or live in the wrong part of the country/world.
There are songs I remember from my youth that my contemporaries don't
and vice-versa. It happens even more often with those who grew up in a
different part of the country.

Current project involves digitizing dozens of my 70-something year old
aunt's 45s that she bought herself between 1955-1963. For every song
I've heard a million times there are two or three I've never heard in
my life, but when I Google them I find out they were hits (#1, even)
when they were new and have simply been forgotten since. The same
happens with performers: I'd never heard of (just to name one) Jill
Corey in my life, but if Wikipedia is to be believed, she was a big
deal at the time.

Remember "Master Jack" by Four Jacks and a Jill? I sure do...and
absolutely no one else in my circle of music-obsessed friends or
family does.

[RHDraney]

Post by Terry del Fuego
Remember "Master Jack" by Four Jacks and a Jill? I sure do...and
absolutely no one else in my circle of music-obsessed friends or
family does.

It's a strange, strange world we live in....

About a year or two ago, I started collecting the CD compilations made
by a now-deceased collector of 45rpm records, distributed under the
title "The Lost Jukebox Collection"...225 volumes of roughly 20 songs
each, all of them records that failed to chart, although many of the
artists were familiar to me for other things...I went through the list
of records included and out of several thousand I was actually familiar
with about twenty of them, many because they'd been played at some point
on the Dr Demento Show....

But somehow, a hit had snuck into the compilation...on one of the discs
was "Don't Say You Don't Remember", by Beverly Bremers...sure that this
had been a hit in its day (1971-72 or thereabouts), I looked it up, and
sure enough, the song had gotten as high as #15 on the Billboard Hot
100...not an earth-shaker by any means, but also not deserving of
inclusion in the LJBC....r

[Terry del Fuego]

Post by RHDraney
It's a strange, strange world we live in....

Yes! At least in my world, there was a little window where it got
played a lot and then it just fell off the earth. I've never
encountered it on oldies stations or compilations or anywhere else. I
finally got myself a vintage mono RCA 45 of it for a quarter a couple
years back.

The song itself has a far more interesting backstory than I'd ever
suspected, too.

Well over 20 years ago I was listening to the Sixties channel on DMX
(a digital music service that used to be available via cable but I
think is defunct now) and they played an obscure song that I
remembered from childhood and hadn't heard since. I was stunned...and
immediately forgot what the song was and have never been able to
recall it since. Maybe it will finally come back to me as I draw my
dying breath.

Post by RHDraney
But somehow, a hit had snuck into the compilation...on one of the discs
was "Don't Say You Don't Remember", by Beverly Bremers...sure that this
had been a hit in its day (1971-72 or thereabouts), I looked it up, and
sure enough, the song had gotten as high as #15 on the Billboard Hot
100...not an earth-shaker by any means, but also not deserving of
inclusion in the LJBC....r

Listening to it now via YouTube and I Say I Don't Remember. Kind of a
perfect example of what we're talking about.

[RHDraney]

Post by Terry del Fuego
Well over 20 years ago I was listening to the Sixties channel on DMX
(a digital music service that used to be available via cable but I
think is defunct now) and they played an obscure song that I
remembered from childhood and hadn't heard since. I was stunned...and
immediately forgot what the song was and have never been able to
recall it since. Maybe it will finally come back to me as I draw my
dying breath.

A few I've had this sort of experience with:

Thirty years passed between consecutive hearings of a song that was
being played regularly on the radio when I lived in the Seattle area,
but was unheard of when we moved to New Mexico...no idea at the time
what the artist or title might be, and the only line of lyrics I
recalled was so generic it was useless for searching...suddenly one day
it turned up on an anthology box-set at Borders which I had just brought
home: "As the Years Go By", by Mashmakhan....

Also about thirty years span, first heard in a book-with-record of
different classical and jazz music styles as an example of "modern
artificial music" loaned to me by my eighth-grade chorus teacher, and
ultimately found on YouTube: "Piece for Tape Recorder", by Vladimir
Ussachevsky....

Heard occasionally in the years since its airplay period, mainly because
I'd bought the single at that time, I thought this one was a bigger hit
than it was, but Billboard says it was only in the Hot 100 for four
weeks, during which time its highest placement was #90: "Cat's Eye in
the Window", by Tommy James (formerly leader of the Shondells)....

And one I'd *like* to forget ever existed...got sick and tired of it
being played in the early 70s, but it showed up on an online oldies
streaming station I now use as my alarm clock, and as #2 in a book of
"The Worst Rock n' Roll Records of All Time": "Once You Understand", by
Think....r

[Michael OConnor]

Post by RHDraney
And one I'd *like* to forget ever existed...got sick and tired of it
being played in the early 70s, but it showed up on an online oldies
streaming station I now use as my alarm clock, and as #2 in a book of
"The Worst Rock n' Roll Records of All Time": "Once You Understand", by
Think....r

I've never heard of the song but pulled it up on youtube. I got about 45 seconds into the song, and I'm not sure I'll ever get it out of my head. There are bad songs that inexplicably become hits for reasons I will never understand; the one that always stands out to me is 1985's "19" by Paul Hardcastle, where he used actual news footage and narration listing statistics about casualties in the Vietnam war, put it to electronic music, produced the hell out of it, and presto, you have a song that hit number 15 on the US pop charts and number one on US dance charts and also hit number one on the British pop charts:

[Bermuda999]

Post by Michael OConnor
http://www.tmz.com/2018/08/16/aretha-franklin-dead-queen-of-soul/
ARETHA FRANKLIN
QUEEN OF SOUL
DEAD AT 76

Fox News Channel Apologizes For Using Patti LaBelle Photo In Aretha Franklin Tribute

https://deadline.com/2018/08/fox-news-channel-aretha-franklin-patti-labelle-tribute-photo-1202447001/

[Kenny McCormack]

Post by Bermuda999

Post by Michael OConnor
http://www.tmz.com/2018/08/16/aretha-franklin-dead-queen-of-soul/
ARETHA FRANKLIN
QUEEN OF SOUL
DEAD AT 76

Fox News Channel Apologizes For Using Patti LaBelle Photo In Aretha Franklin Tribute
https://deadline.com/2018/08/fox-news-channel-aretha-franklin-patti-labelle-tribute-photo-1202447001/

heh heh. They can't even get that right...

[m***@gmail.com]

Post by Michael OConnor
http://www.tmz.com/2018/08/16/aretha-franklin-dead-queen-of-soul/
ARETHA FRANKLIN
QUEEN OF SOUL
DEAD AT 76
109 8/16/2018 6:59 AM PDT
Aretha Franklin Dead at 76
BREAKING NEWS
Aretha Franklin, known for having one of the greatest voices in music history, and for hits like "Respect," and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" ... died Thursday after a long battle with advanced pancreatic cancer.
Aretha passed away in her Detroit home where she was under hospice care. She'd been in failing health for many months and she was down to 86 pounds. One source told us he was informed more than a week ago that Aretha could go at any time.
She was surrounded by friends and family when she passed. Her family released a statement, saying, "In one of the darkest moments of our lives, we are not able to find the appropriate words to express the pain in our heart. We have lost the matriarch and rock of our family."
She had appeared incredibly frail in recent years, and rarely performed live. Her most recent appearance was last November for Elton John's AMFAR event.
Aretha's career is just incredible. Born in Memphis in 1942, her family eventually relocated to Detroit where she began singing in her father's church. She was such a powerhouse gospel singer, she landed a Columbia record deal in the early '60s.
Her string of chart-topping hits began with her Atlantic Records deal in 1967.
Aretha's achievements in the late '60s were remarkable for any artist, but especially so for a black woman in the midst of the Civil Rights movement. She held the record for the most entries on the Hot 100 list of any female artist for nearly 40 years, only to be dethroned in 2017 by Nicki Minaj.
She won 18 Grammys and was the first woman ever inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
Aretha delivered a powerful rendition of "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" -- while wearing that unforgettable hat -- at Barack Obama's 2009 inauguration.
Throughout her career, Aretha was known for delivering incredible one-off live performances, including at the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors show where she sang 'Natural Woman' in honor of the song's co-writer, Carole King.
The Queen of Soul was 76. She is survived by her 4 sons.
RIP

What a voice. What memories. What a loss.

But apparently Scumbag Trump thinks of her as his employee:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/08/aretha-franklin-trump/567760/

[Sarah Ehrett]

Post by m***@gmail.com

Post by Michael OConnor
http://www.tmz.com/2018/08/16/aretha-franklin-dead-queen-of-soul/
ARETHA FRANKLIN
QUEEN OF SOUL
DEAD AT 76

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/08/aretha-franklin-trump/567760/

"So, too, it turns out, did Franklin perform on several occasions at
Trump properties. "

So you dopey shithead, who paid for the lovely Queen of Soul to
perform at the Trump properties? Trump or not?


From the Washington Post:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/08/17/aretha-franklin-worked-for-me-claims-trump-did-she/?utm_term=.26fe48e8298a


"Aretha Franklin hadn’t ventured far from her adopted hometown of
Detroit for three years. But in the final weeks of 1988, the “Queen of
Soul” boarded a custom-made bus, foregoing more traditional modes of
transport, and set off for Atlantic City.

On short notice, and with little fanfare, she had been booked to
perform at Trump’s Castle, a casino opened three years earlier by
Donald Trump in the garish Xanadu of sun and slot machines on the
Jersey Shore."

<snip>

"So, too, it turns out, did Franklin perform on several occasions at
Trump properties.

Her appearance at Trump’s Castle in 1988 — for which she journeyed
across the country by bus — was documented by The Morning Call. The
daily newspaper in Allentown, Pa., said the casino “redeems itself”
with the much-anticipated appearance of “the once and future Queen of
Soul” following a disappointing debut by singer Latoya Jackson the
previous season."


Always good to see you marcus, standing knee deep in your own pile of
steaming scat.

[David Carson]

Post by Sarah Ehrett
"So, too, it turns out, did Franklin perform on several occasions at
Trump properties.
Her appearance at Trump’s Castle in 1988 — for which she journeyed
across the country by bus — was documented by The Morning Call. The
daily newspaper in Allentown, Pa., said the casino “redeems itself”
with the much-anticipated appearance of “the once and future Queen of
Soul” following a disappointing debut by singer Latoya Jackson the
previous season."
Always good to see you marcus, standing knee deep in your own pile of
steaming scat.

Marcus's real problem, like the writer of the article he linked, is
that they think the phrase "she worked for me" is degrading, because
the idea of someone buying the time, labor, and talents of another
person at a price they both agree to in a competitive marketplace
offends them.