Jump to content

Recommended Posts

@Cynique I guess you remember went Aretha first emerged what was that like? 

 

I saw her perform once -- long past her prime,  See was complaining about the audience not having white castle hamburgers, which she said she ordered for everyone.  I think she was serious too 🙂 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Troy said:

I guess you remember went Aretha first emerged what was that like? 

Welll, Aretha, although she was a Detroit girl,  was signed with Atlantic Records during the Motown era back in the early 60s.  She didn't make a big splash on the scene because back then R&B music had a galaxy of stars all making waves.  Some were one-hit wonders, others like, Diana Ross and Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson endured to this day, like she did.  I guess "Respect" was what propelled her forward in the company of other divas like Tina Turner and Patti LaBelle and Dionne Warwick and Gladys Knight and Natalie Cole.  Gradually, after regularly turning out hits,  she just became a permanent fixture in the world of soul music. She was among the first musicians to be identified simply by their first name. "Aretha" was all fans had to hear, and in time, typical of black folks, Aretha was further shortened to just Rhee-Rhee.  Her public watched her go through a lot of transformations as her weight fluctuated and she alternated between slim and buxom, always glamorous and glitzy.  To me, she was like an old friend  who i just took for granted.  There was always an Aretha song out for me to sing along with.  Altho, her powerful voice was  what people were riveted by, she was also a great self-taught pianist.  She started lessons as a child, but her teacher advised her parents to let her just develop on her own because she was a prodigy who needed no lessons. She had roots as a gospel music like many black singers and her earliest performances were in the church.   

 

She led a very interesting as well as tragic life which i learned about after reading one of the several biographies about her. Her father, Reverend C. L. Franklin, was a well known Baptist minister and civil rights activist who was a friend and contemporary of MLK.  She will be missed but her music lives on. 

   

Link to comment
Share on other sites

She was briefly married to Glynn Turman

 

“I had to scratch my head and ask myself, How the fuck did that bitch do that? I remember running into Sarah Vaughan, who always intimidated me. Sarah said, ‘Have you heard of this Aretha Franklin girl?’ I said, ‘You heard her do ‘Skylark,’ didn’t you?’ Sarah said, ‘Yes, I did, and I’m never singing that song again.’” -- Etta James, from David Ritz’ Respect: The Life of Aretha Franklin, 2014

  • Like 1
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I didn't know she had cancer.
The first time I heard about it was when she was close to dying a couple weeks ago.
I guess she's gone to be with her father C.L. now.

I've been to the church she grew up singing in....New Bethel....several times.
They must have redone it because the church they're showing in the media looks nothing like the old brownstone church I remembered going to the few times I went there.
And it's in a GHETTO...lol.



 

Although I didn't actually MEET Aretha I will never forget the time I was actually NEAR her presence.
Ahhhh man........

I was a teenager and working in a mall.
I heard a lot of people yelling and screaming and foot stomping and things crashing and being knocked over, THEN I saw droves of people running in the same direction.....grown people.
I wasn't sure if they were running TO something or running FROM something....lol.
I thought it was one of those massive mall brawls that happen when you have too many highschool kids there on the weekends.
I asked a security officer what was going on and he said Aretha Franklin was in one of the department stores shopping and her fans spotted her.
The was one of my first introductions at a young age of how much power and influence celebrities have over the masses.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...