40 Replies to “RIP Aretha Franklin”

  2. A time to be born, and a time to die.

    She was definitely one of the greats. A US singer we will be hearing on the radio for the rest of time.

    Just checked, Rolling Stone has her at the top of it’s 100 greatest singers. Number one.

    Ray Charles and Elvis are 2 and 3.

  3. I remember as a kid in Ontario, driving around town in my Dad’s convertible listening to my brand new Aretha 8 track tape (yes an 8 track).

    I can still hear “Chain of Fools” blaring with the top down even now.

    I thought I was cool not because of the convertible but because I was playing Aretha Franklin.

    The best!

    1. Chaa … chaai … chaiiiiinnn … Chayn of Fools
      Love that vocal riff.

      I’ve read the GREAT Brit vocalist Amy Winehouse (RIP … kids … don’t do drugs – or drink 5ths of alcohol in one sitting either – worse yet don’t do both simultaneously) spent hours listening to her big brothers collection of American Soul and R&B records as a kid. She says she learned everything about singing by listening and adopting much of the phrasing and shaping of words she heard from African-American greats … Aretha at the top of the list. And if you’re any kind of a fan of Winehouse … you can hear it in spades (oops). They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery … and I agree.

  7. I was living in Weyburn, Sask when I brought home “Aretha’s Gold” one Friday afternoon….stopped turning it over and over around late Sunday.
    There’s a great documentary about Muscle Shoals studio and how the lady came down to play with the good old boys, including a bit on when the piano player came up with the riff for Ain’t Never Loved a Man. I guess that was when white and black could work together to produce great music.
    Silly time, now we’re much more “woke”…./S

    1. I saw that Muscle Shoals documentary, where I also learned of their work with Aretha … but LOST the recording rights to her breakout record (despite laying down most of the music for it). What an amazing studio and group of WHITE studio musicians with Delta Soul.

  9. Aretha Franklin was a vocal powerhouse. She was a multiple Grammy Award winner and is the first female to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. (1987) She is not only the definitive female soul singer of the Sixties, she’s also one of the most influential and important voices in pop history. Franklin fused the Gospel music she grew up with, the sensuality of R & B, the innovation of Jazz and the precision of Pop. She is known for hits as “Respect”, “Freeway of Love” and “I Say a Little Prayer”. My personal favourite is “Until You Come Back to Me.” Aretha wrote some of her own songs but she also sang other artists’ songs as well.

    She was a great lady of style, class and panache. I loved how she proudly wore both long length and short length mink coats. I loved how she made her grand entrance on stage wearing them and proceeded to sing and then throw the coat on the floor – no apologies there. It was as if she was thinking that she earned that coat and was entitled to throw it where she darn well pleased! At President Obama’s 2009 Inauguration she wore a grey wool coat with a matching grey wool hat that had the biggest, most flashy and sparkly bow on it, one ever could ever imagine. She wore it well. She stole the show on the nightly news that night!

    R.I.P. Aretha Franklin …
    The world will always love her. We grew up with her music and it will always bring back memories. What a gift! A multitude of thanks.

  10. So Aretha’s gone to the other world, to be greeted, no doubt, by whoever thought he’d make a fortune driving the genuine folk music traditions of the western world into extinction and replacing them with a monoculture sourced from the scum of black America.

    There is nothing more expensive than cheap labour, and few things did more damage to civilization in the western hemisphere than first, the importation of Africans, and second, the decision to turn them loose rather than deport them when slavery was abolished. The cost of America’s Negro problem has been incalculable.

    Rock and roll was not worth it.

    To see what that alone cost us, go visit a country in central or eastern Europe where native folk music traditions are still valued. The cable TV in my hotel room in Romania had several folk music channels.

    There’s a world of wonderful popular music outside the black ghettos and godforsaken black peasant villages of the deep south. Good luck finding any of it on Rogers cable.

    1. You’re as insightful as you’re classy. Perhaps next time when that voice in the back of your cranium is whispering that this is a good occasion to STFU you could listen to it?

    1. Even Madonna just said … “all of today’s music sounds alike”.

      I thank God I was a child of the 60’s and was witness to the GREATEST explosion of musical talent EVER!

    2. Ya don’t figure Demi Lovato and Miley Cyrus can replace Aretha?

      RIP Ms.Franklin,one of the great talents of our age. Aretha saved that stupid movie that Belushi and Aykroyd made, the best part of that fiasco was her “Freedom”, by a country mile.

  14. @A Canadian-
    Aretha Franklin was an amazing talent, and from everything I’ve ever heard about her she was also a fine person. She was also an American, working in an American art form. While I can appreciate the talent of Romanian folk musicians, they are less relevant to me than someone whose music was developed in my own country. What makes you think that the music of people from central Europe should be valued more highly than that of my countrymen? If you think that those Romanians’ talent somehow rubs off on you because your skin is the same color as theirs, you’re mistaken. You are as bad as any of the identity-politics hustlers who try to shame white girls who wear hoop earrings as “cultural appropriators”. Culture and race are separate things. Just because I’m white doesn’t mean I have to appreciate Eddie van Halen more than Buddy Guy.

  15. A Canadian (racist)
    Taste in music is subjective but your repugnant racism aside, Black Americans were indispensable in the development of Blues, Jazz, Swing, R&B, Soul, Funk, and Rock and Roll. Rap too but that, like your rants, I could live without. Aretha was indeed the Queen of Soul. If there were such a thing as Heaven, she would not have to worry about ever encountering the likes of you there.

  16. Sorry to be contrarian but grossly overrated. Maybe because I’m 20+ years younger than most here but just like Anita Baker: does nothing for me.

    Before the “racist1!1!1!” chants, I’d take Jody Watley and Karyn White.

    1. D S @ 10:13 pm August 16
      Respect your entitled opinion. But……
      It has nothing to do with one’s age Sean, we all have different tastes. I love classical music and the big band sounds from the 1940s as well. Totally different eras.

      1. I worked for a (formerly interned) Japanese American who played big band in the office all day long. He loved Big Band … and American culture … and Japanese culture. He was NEVER bitter over his time in Tule Lake CA even though his family lost everything including their Salinas valley farm and Home. He gave me a great appreciation for big band. There were some great tunes from that era … which were all rooted in BLACK Jazz.

        Me? #1 is Rock … #2 is Hard Bop … neither would exist without the Black American music traditions. It is as impossible for a musician (or music lover) to be a racist as it is for a football player to be racist. Blacks are our teammates, friends, and musical/athletic inspiration (for my two examples … no, black folks aren’t limited to “minstrels and beasts of burden … don’t “project” any racism on me).

        1. @11:16 August 17 Kenji,
          Some of the comments here have been unfair and even disgusting. We have, together with the majority here, been ‘slaying’ it with these FUBAR contrarians. Glad you don’t hold these scathing comments against us Canadians, and take a few good slugs of your own. You have great team spirit!

          It’s all good music, if you like it. I guess that’s all that matters.

    1. @ 12:25 a.m, So What you are ill
      You are entitled to your opinion, and we respect that.
      You are not entitled to being rude.

      Get help.

    2. Ridiculous! Her voice is an instrument as fine as a Stradivarius violin. But I understand some people have tin ears … that’s why they invented ‘Rap’

  19. “So What”

    You’re not racist. You’re just a deaf, dumb and blind kid. Hopefully, at least, you have a talent for pinball.

  20. If some can’t see the difference between carving the path and walking it later, that’s too bad.

    And it was a damn wide path.

    Go back and listen to “I say a little prayer for you”, or “do right woman”

    Dionne Warwick, who was bacharachs muse, has a beautifully produced version of that song. The original.

    But I challenge anyone to listen to Aretha’s version 2 years later.

    It sounds like what you would assume would be the original.

    Just plain soul.

    And if you listen to “do right woman” by Etta and Dionne, fabulous versions, by superstars in their own right, they again don’t capture the essence of the song nor interpret as well as Aretha.

    Just a couple of examples

  21. To Aretha Franklin Fans
    If you wish to hear her music CBC RADIO 2 is playing all her music including covers tonight… happy listening.

Proudly powered by WordPress & Skyrocket Themes

MENU

Navigation