RIP Aretha Franklin

[dropforge]

Her catalog is a primer for female soul/r &b singers and that will never change.

A perfect one-line summation.

[chescorph]

RIP. Totally one of a kind, amazing voice, soul, and a great pianist.

Side note: am I the only one who did not know that Ralphe Armstrong has been her bassist...for over 30 years?

[Vic2012]

I've never owned any of Aretha's albums. I think I had the 45 of Chain Of Fools in the 60s, so I'm only familiar with her radio hits. I wasn't aware that she was a Beatles fan and covered their songs. Just heard her cover of Eleanor Rigby. Wow, totally different take on that classic. Not better, but very, very good. What a voice. I'll play all her other Beatles covers throughout the weekend.

[kid_runningfox]

A tremendous loss of a fine human being and truly astonishing singer. RIP.

[JJ88]

I've never owned any of Aretha's albums. I think I had the 45 of Chain Of Fools in the 60s, so I'm only familiar with her radio hits. I wasn't aware that she was a Beatles fan and covered their songs. Just heard her cover of Eleanor Rigby. Wow, totally different take on that classic. Not better, but very, very good. What a voice. I'll play all her other Beatles covers throughout the weekend.

If I remember rightly she sang the first verse of that one in first person, as 'I'm Eleanor Rigby...', which I always thought was curious!

In my experience I'd have said a fair amount of her Atlantic albums were typical soul albums of the time- a mish-mash of material which might hang together, but it might not. Later Atlantic/Rhino anthologies tend to gather together these recordings with a little more coherence.

[ronmac]

Every time I hear a modern female R&B artist singing in a nasal voice like a chipmunk on helium, I say, "Sing it like Aretha would. Belt it out like you mean it."

But, they can't because the overwhelming majority of them are mimicking. They're not feeling it. They wouldn't know how.

I heard Berry Gordy last night say that Aretha could sing the alphabet and make it her own. I truly believe that.

[nosebone]

The best tribute I can think of is to quote from one of my all time fav songwriting duos, who definitely understood her huge impact on music:

Hey Nineteen
That's (A)'Retha Franklin
She don't remember the Queen of Soul.....

That's the first thing that came into my head when I heard she passed.

[Staun]

Whatever anyone says, just doesn't seem enough. RIP Miss Franklin.

[Jerjo]

I find it fitting that the Queen of Soul died on the same date as the King of Rock n' Roll.

[nycsteve]

Almost 4 pages in the New York Times today. A fitting honor for a legend.
NPR was playing an interview from 1990 last night. It was a very personal interview, adding some depth to an understanding of who she was and humanizing an icon. She was the real deal.

[SteveSly]

I happened to be in Detroit last night for a show. Everywhere we went there were Aretha tributes. We took a shuttle bus to the gig and the bus driver was playing Aretha music. At the arena they had tributes on video boards in various parts of the complex. She was very important to Detroit and it was cool to see.

[ronmac]

[DocProgger]

^^^
wow, interesting pairing doing a great tune

[Vic2012]

Yeah that was a nice cover. That was pre Allman Bros. with the Muscle Shoals studio cats.

[mozo-pg]

^^^^^^^ Two musical prodigies.

[rapidfirerob]

RIP. Totally one of a kind, amazing voice, soul, and a great pianist.

Side note: am I the only one who did not know that Ralphe Armstrong has been her bassist...for over 30 years?

I knew Ralph played with Aretha, but didn’t know it was thirty years worth. He posted photos on FB of the two of them.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Vic2012]

NP: Rock Steady

Been binging all weekend on Aretha on Youtube.