Saturday, December 29, 2018

Aretha Franklin's Heritage



(March 25, 1942- August 16, 2018)

    
As any child born into a musical family will tell you, getting such breaks in the music industry is prodigious and legendary and often, quite necessary. Aretha Louise was born at home on 406 Lucy Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee when Germany occupied most of France. By the time she turned 5 years old, her family had settled in Detroit and France had been liberated. Her extended family support included famous individuals that most musicians would envy. The auspicious difference is not only priceless to a successful musical career but also, life-saving, at times. Nevertheless, Aretha has permanently left the stage a bit earlier than she should have- given different circumstances regarding her health. She has passed on at 76 years of age, leaving behind a wealth of soul music that is put to much use- especially in present times- and her vocal style is mimicked throughout the world. I have often wondered how many people understand what they are mimicking, quite honestly. When people say the name Aretha, one only thinks of Ms. Franklin. I’ve never met a single other person with that name. Who could claim it but her?  
     As the consummate soul singer of the Sixties (and beyond), Aretha fused a unique approach to gospel music, a style which she grew up on, with her own brand of soul, eventually becoming a sensational (and sometimes sensual) R & B artist. Over the decades her music crossed borders into other genres of pop music and finessed into her unique style. Even by 1967, when she made over a dozen different, million-selling records before the next decade, her song lists showcased a distinct musical maturation and diversity which wouldn’t have made sense for any other soul singer. For the times, her financial success was unprecedented and even now she is still the best-selling musical artist ever, with over 75 million records sold worldwide. Aretha progressed into pop mainstream over the airwaves with continued success throughout the Seventies, despite strong competition, and continued to be a commercial success by scoring hits well into the Eighties. By that time her style and vocal sound had become instantly recognizable. While going through her lists of song titles I discovered only one- the ethereal Day Dreaming !- which brought out some other unrecognizable voice that I would never have associated with her. I don’t remember who I thought it was but it blew me away to think she could whisper a song that lingered in my childhood memories. Aretha had a broad appeal for many people!
    
During her career she recorded 112 charted singles on Billboard, including a total of 77 Hot 100 entries, 17 top-ten pop singles, 100 R & B entries and 20 #1 R & B singles becoming the most charted female artist in history. She won 18 Grammy Awards of which the first 8 were awarded for Best Female R & B Vocal Performance from 1968 through to 1975. But financial success and awards alone can’t really cement a place in history, necessarily. Her versatility began to show through by the time the Eighties rolled around and she’s been a household word since that time surpassing even her predecessors in every category she has sampled but especially in soul music. Her gospel music, although eclipsed sometimes by her commercial success in secular, had concurrent record sales success that rivaled much of the music for which she was best known by the general public but my personal opinion is that gospel informed and reformed her secular musical success and promoted everything she did as a singer and musician.
     Her entire life revolved around music and she began her career very young as a gospel singer along with her father, Clarence LeVaughn Franklin, who led the way as a pastor of a Detroit church which boasted thousands of members. The New Bethel Baptist Church was famous, being nationally known, and the music it propelled included Aretha’s mother, Barbara and both of Aretha’s sisters, Carolyn and Erma. (Erma, born 1939, and Carolyn, born 1945, had been professional singers as long- or longer- than Aretha but only Carolyn gained a bit more success than Erma and on a much smaller scale than Aretha, of course.) By the time Aretha was 14 she was touring the gospel circuit with her father and had already recorded much of her early gospel solo song list- singing and playing the piano! During this time she was introduced to and became good friends with others in the gospel circuit such as Clara Ward, Mahalia Jackson, Jackie Wilson, James Cleveland and Sam Cooke all of whom were close friends with her father. She occasionally toured with The Soul Stirrers. I imagine that many of these well-known musical artists took Aretha under their wings because of the brokenness of her family. Barbara abandoned her marriage by the time Aretha had turned six years old and died four years later, two and half weeks before Aretha’s tenth birthday. Clarence ended up raising three daughters, more or less on his own, which was a tall order for a man committed to the church.
     Aretha turned 18 in 1960 and made the decision to cross over into secular music which must have created a bit of an uproar in the church. It would not have been taken lightly by her father, under the usual circumstances. Before signing any recording contract Sam Cooke tried to persuade Aretha’s father to sign her with his label RCA but his request was turned down. Even Berry Gordy approached both Aretha and her elder sister Erma to his label Tamla  but Clarence didn’t think Gordy was established well enough and turned him down flat as well.
     Aretha moved to New York City to get closer to the action for popular music and signed a 5% contract with Columbia Records with the help of John Hammond and was immediately steered into Rhythm and Blues (with Clyde Otis at the helm) most likely because of her gospel style. Hammond later said he felt Columbia did not understand her early gospel background and failed to bring out that aspect of her voice during her period there. Steering her toward R & B was the best decision, in retrospect. Songs like Today I Sing the Blues (her first R&B single which reached the top ten in September 1960), Won’t Be Long and Operation Heartbreak shot to the top of the R & B charts as soon as they were released. Her big hit during this time turned out to be in the genre of Swing with Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody in 1961 but only made it to #37! Many singers have cut their teeth on this song to either success or failure. It requires great pipes. Within five years of signing her contract Aretha was pulling in $100,000 per live performance in nightclubs and music theaters.
      Interestingly, she didn’t seem to garner the kind of recognition, at the onset, as she would eventually. By 1966 when her contract expired she opted to leave Columbia for Atlantic Records and started working with producer Jerry Wexler, arranger Arif Mardin and Tom Dowd who was a recording engineer and began to make the kind of music which is considered soul music today. People don’t refer to Aretha as the Queen of Soul for no reason!  She was among the inventors of the genre.
     With the new team and musical maturity underway she began to produce #1 hits in abundance. The first session produced I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You) which shot to #1 on the R & B charts and remained there for a year. Respect sold in the millions and stayed #1 for a year as well and it’s her signature tune. There was also Baby I Love You, Chain of Fools, Since You’ve Been Gone, Think, The House that Jack Built and I Say a Little Prayer- among which the latter song is more closely associated with Dionne Warwick (who was strictly a pop singer and purveyor of all things written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach). All were number one hits and I remember hearing Chain of Fools on ‘white radio’ when I was ten years old and knew that it almost made it to #1. For two straight years her records sold in the millions!
     Aretha practically stole Respect  from Otis Redding and borrowed more material from Don Covay and Ronnie Shannon for much of the R & B she recorded. Redding wrote the song Respect in 1965 and recorded it, even though he could neither read nor write music. Within two years, at the age of 26, he went down in flames when his Beechcraft H18 airplane crashed in Wisconsin and his signature song The Dock of the Bay climbed to the top of the charts several months after his death. Even Aretha couldn’t have guessed then, that Redding’s song would become her most lucrative and successful recording (reaching #1 on both R & B and Pop charts) and ignite her singing career beyond all expectations. Carole King and Gerry Goffin were just beginning to take over pop radio with hits and really began to make it on their own by the Seventies but Aretha galvanized some of their Rock and Blues sizzlers into fireworks. When I think back to the music of Carole King, all I can hear in my head is I Feel the Earth Move (Under My Feet) probably because it was a true fusion of pop rock and R & B and because King’s flair for pop rock was unequaled at that particular time. Aretha recorded her song (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman, made it dynamic and after that, the song belonged to her and no one else. If anyone doubts that, they need to see the video clip when she got a standing ovation at the Kennedy Center in 2015 during a live performance of Carole King’s classic- even as Carole King was being honored that night! Ms. King clapped every bit as much as the Kennedy Center attendees! Aretha could take the songs she borrowed, rearrange and use her fabulous dynamics on them and they were never the same again. This was her legacy and she did it time and time again! It would explain her capability of taking an opera aria meant for a tenor (Nessun Dorma) at the age of 56 and turn it into a heart wrenching three-octave soul solo at the Grammies in 1998! (That’s a subject for another time!)
     What she didn’t borrow was co-written with her husband and manager, Ted White, and their collaborations were numerous and among her greatest hits. During her New York debut into pop music she recorded with the Muscle Shoals Sound Rhythm Section in Alabama and also a New York band conducted by King Curtis. Aretha’s vocal arrangements were hers alone and she also employed her own gospel call-and-response choruses for her backups with Sweet Inspirations (her younger sister Carolyn was counted among the members).  
     Her fast success never waned. The year 1968 was a milestone year in her life where she became internationally known as Lady Soul- a title suggested by her first LP out that year. Her first two Grammy awards came to her in February. She toured outside the country to great acclaim. It was truly a symbol of black pride in which she was presented an award by Martin Luther King Jr. and appeared on the cover of Time magazine, which was a rite of passage for anyone seeking media coverage. Who could have known that same year she was presented an award by this enigmatic leader that she would be singing for his funeral before the summer began? It must have been heartbreaking to know that this same man she went on tour with when she was sixteen would be taken with a gunshot blast just as her career was taking off! Her personal life was kept more secret than it should have been and the turbulent nature of it is almost a cliché now for many entertainment stars, including Tina Turner.
     That same year, Ted White turned on Aretha, publicly battered her and also shot one of her new production managers. After her divorce in 1969 she was arrested, one time, for drunk driving with resulting disorderly conduct. Even her father was arrested for possession of marijuana which could have ended his ministry. Somehow, she managed to pull through these trying times but perhaps at a great cost to her health. Of the many books written about her life she was most critical about David Ritz’s Respect title which ran away with the negatives like a hellbound train, digging up dirt about her that went all the way back before she was old enough to drive! Much of it, most likely, is untrue, unfair and unwarranted information and did not receive her authorization in the end. She discredited the book with strong and blunt words. Considering that this book came out at a time when nearly all of Aretha’s family had pre-deceased her it must have been difficult, to say the least, and stand alone in deference to what had been written about her and her family.

     As with most people in the entertainment business back then, the show had to go on and her million selling hits continued into the Seventies. She was the first female R & B performer to headline at Fillmore West and at the end of 1971 she released a live recorded album from her performance at that northern California venue. Franklin’s debut album for Atlantic Records was I Never Loved a Man the Way that I Love You which eventually became a gold record. These were all R & B number one hits: Don’t Play that Song, Bridge over Troubled Water (written by Simon and Garfunkel), Spanish Harlem, Day Dreaming (And I’m Thinking of You), Until You Come Back to Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do) and Rock Steady reached #2 in 1971. Even so, she got lost in the fray during the Seventies but given the climate of the era, it’s not only understandable but almost legendary for anyone who lived then- no matter your age, color, weight, sex or proclivities. If she seemed rather aimless we can truly point to the wigged-out culture for a clear reason. Perhaps she felt a little alienated and grasped for her roots because she did an about face in 1972 by releasing one of the most amazing albums of her career with Young, Gifted and Black and then socked it to everyone with her Gospel release Amazing Grace the same year which sold over two million copies! The title song for Young, Gifted and Black was originally written and recorded by singer Nina Simone in 1969 with Weldon Irvine. Amazing Grace was recorded live in Los Angeles with her father officiating and playing the piano and also conducting the choir. This was the last album co-produced by Wexler who moved on to Warner Bros Records in 1976. Both albums sold equally and profusely with Amazing Grace becoming her most financially successful gospel album. After that time she started experimenting with new producers and the list is like a who’s who of record producers. In 1973 Quincy Jones produced Hey Now Hey, Curtis Mayfield produced Sparkle, a soundtrack LP, in 1976, Lamont Dozier produced Sweet Passion in 1977 and in 1979 Van McCoy produced La Diva. At this time she amped up her stage style to the level of a Las Vegas revue and her shows became costume extravaganzas that could’ve made Beyonce’s eyes pop out with envy. That same year her father was shot at point-blank range in his Detroit home by a burglar and was put into the hospital but never came out of a coma, holding on to life for five years before he passed away in a nursing home in 1984.
     By the time 1980 rolled around Franklin had left Atlantic and signed on with Arista with an eye to keep control over her career and finances. All her record company moves were probably made on legal advice after a showdown with the IRS. This proved to be a pivotal comeback year for the lady of soul when she visited England for the first time and gave a command performance for Queen Elizabeth at London’s Royal Albert Hall which is a true rite of passage for any singer or musician whether they are British or not. Adding ‘actress’ to her resume, Aretha made a movie that same year which starred John Belushi and Dan Akroyd as The Blues Brothers. Her part entailed singing her best hits with Respect and Think and her sassy style in the film is unforgettable as a soul food restaurant proprietor and wife of Matt "Guitar" Murphy with the lines, “…leave, leave and don’t come back…without your four fried chickens!” She had crossed over into another era with two of her best sixties hits and made them sound so fresh that her career was off and running again. She didn’t have to position herself as the grande dame of pop music because she already had that prize. The sass she exhibited in that role set the record straight and there wasn’t a thing anyone (who wanted to) could do about it. That’s when Aretha officially became the Queen of Soul and no one has taken her crown yet. I never heard anyone actually say it but in 1981 it was confirmed to me in a Steely Dan song of the title, Hey Nineteen which contained the lyrics: “That’s ‘Retha Franklin. She don’t remember the Queen of Soul.” (Aretha turned forty the year that Steely Dan album, Gaucho, was released!)  
     Her experience with Arista was another story, compared to the previous record companies. First of all, this was her longest relationship with any record company spanning over two decades thanks to Clive Davis. She brought Arif Mardin back in for her first two albums with the new label and her old pal included some old soul standards along with mainstream pop music which was referred to as MOR (middle of the road) in those days. The first two Arista recordings were Love All the Hurt Away and Jump to It, with the first being a collaboration with George Benson going to #6 on the R&B charts in 1981 and the second- which reestablished Aretha as a hit maker- reached #1 on the R & B charts in 1982. Her song hits during the Eighties hit new highs on the pop charts with (I’m Giving Him)Something He Can Feel, Freeway of Love, Who’s Zoomin’ Who, and I Knew Your Were Waiting (For Me) , the latter a duet with George Michael which went international. She put out seven albums that decade and also garnered some very impressive accolades which were numerous. Her gospel music continued with the 1987 release of One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism and Through the Storm in 1989 which did not succeed financially but exhibited the true beauty of her voice.
    
In 1987 she was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame being the first female to be given this honor and had received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame before she’d ever even been filmed in a movie. She received many formal accolades and honors through the years but the most profound one she received came in 2005 when she was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom alongside Alan Greenspan and Robert Conquest. She was an activist that preferred to stand with the people she was standing up for, rather than use her fame to gain attention. Being inducted into the United Kingdom Music Hall of Fame in the same year made the world aware of a star they had largely overlooked for too long. Only a few years later she stood at the inaugural podium in Washington, D.C. to sing My Country, ‘Tis of Thee for Obama’s swearing in and got international media attention for the second time in her long career for her amazing performance. Interestingly, it wasn’t until 2012 that she was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. In my estimation, this should have happened much sooner because her dedication to Gospel music never waned through all the years she sang secular music, also. It was a true rite of passage, nevertheless, and well earned. A crowning achievement for her was receiving the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1994 and returned to the top 40 with the song Willing to Forgive during a seven year absence from the charts in the nineties. Her final induction came in 2018 into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame. 

     Before the turn of the century she made the top 40 yet again when she released the Lauryn Hill-produced song "A Rose Is Still a Rose", later issuing the album, and it went gold! As a matter of fact 1998 seemed to propel her back on the stage singing when she may have been considering retiring. That was the year she sang Pavarotti’s song at the Grammies and brought down the house with her version. Over one billion people worldwide saw the performance and she received an immediate standing ovation. She would go on to record the selection, and perform it live several more times in the years to come eventually singing the song in Philadelphia for the Pope (Francis) in September of 2015! In 2017 Aretha canceled scheduled concerts due to health reasons and during one of her hometown shows she asked the audience to keep her in their prayers. Her last full concert was given at the Ravinia Festival on September 3, 2017.
     After the turn of the century her output returned, albeit a bit slower but she never sacrificed the quality- whether it was the music itself, her singing or her musicianship. Since the inception of the 21st century Aretha had released only five secular long players- in 2003, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2014 and 2017- one being a Christmas album but her live performances proliferated while accolades poured in from everywhere, seemingly. It has been almost virtually unknown that  Ms Franklin received honorary degrees spanning across 39 years of her career beginning with her Doctor of Law degree by Bethune–Cookman University in 1975 to degrees from Yale (2010), Harvard and NYU in 2014- mostly doctorates from U.S. universities and conservatories in music, numbering 12 in all !    
     With a tempestuous but successful life behind her I’m certain that Aretha clung to her rightful Christian inheritance of salvation. Even as she faced departure from this world, where she is sorely missed, she had to know that her sixty year long legacy lives on in so much wonderful music and in our hearts as one of God’s true divas. Music begins in the heart before we create it in any form and Aretha had a lot of music in her. The best tribute to her in my estimation occurred at the American Music Awards on October 9, 2018, when the ABC show was closed by bringing Gladys Knight, Donnie McClurkin, Ledisi, Cece Winans, and Mary Mary together to pay tribute to her by performing various gospel hits mostly from her 1972 blockbuster Amazing Grace. It was inspiring to see these singers support a faith that was closest to her heart with genuine faith and equal talent. It will certainly never be forgotten by me and I’m sure that many people felt the same as I.

     
First single:
 1956- Never Grow Old   (J.V.B. Records) recorded at New Bethel Baptist Church
LPs:
1961- Aretha (with the Ray Bryant Combo) (Columbia)
1962- The Electrifying Aretha Franklin
& The Tender, the Moving, the Swinging Aretha Franklin
1963- Laughing on the Outside
1964- Unforgettable: A Tribute to Dinah Washington
Running Out of Fools
& The Gospel Sound of Aretha Franklin (Checker) reissue1972
1965- Yeah! Aretha Franklin in Person (Columbia)
Songs of Faith (Checker) orig. rec. 1956 by J-V-B live at New Bethel Baptist Church
1966- Soul Sister
1967- Take It Like You Give It  
 Greatest Hits
 I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You (Atlantic)
& Aretha Arrives
1968- Lady Soul;
Aretha Now;
Aretha in Paris
1969- Soul’69;
Aretha’s Gold;
Soft and Beautiful
1970- This Girl’s in Love with You;
Spirit in the Dark
1971- Aretha Live at Fillmore West; Aretha’s Greatest Hits
1972- Young, Gifted and Black;
Amazing Grace
1973- Hey Now Hey (The Other Side of the Sky);
The First Twelve Sides (Columbia)
The Best of Aretha Franklin (Atlantic)
1974- Let Me in Your Life;
With Everything I Feel in Me
1975- You
1976- Sparkle, soundtrack  
Ten Years of Gold
1977- Sweet Passion
1978- Almighty Fire
1979- La Diva
1980- Aretha (Arista)
1981- Love All the Hurt Away
1982- Jump to It
1983- Get It Right
1985- Who’s Zoomin’ Who?
( song Freeway of Love gave it platinum status)
1986- Aretha
1989- Through the Storm
1991- What You See is What You Sweat
1998- A Rose is Still a Rose
2003- So Damn Happy
2007- Jewels in the Crown: All-Star Duets with the Queen
2008- This Christmas, Aretha  (DMI )
2011- Aretha: A Woman Falling Out of Love (Aretha’s)
(upon release, sang a 2-night engagement at Radio City Music Hall in NYC)
2014- Aretha Franklin Sings the Great Diva Classics  (RCA)
2017- A Brand New Me (w/ The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra)

www.arethafranklin.net  and click on Queen of Soul
"American history wells up when Aretha sings. Nobody embodies more fully the connection between the African-American spiritual, the blues, R&B, rock and roll- the way that hardship and sorrow were transformed into something full of beauty and vitality and hope.”
President Obama, 2015 for the Kennedy Center Honors


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