Remembering Aretha: An Appreciation by Scott Galloway

Commentary, Entertainment — By Scott Galloway on August 16, 2018 at 11:31 pm

Aretha Louise Franklin

(March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018)

By Scott Galloway

I was born in America AND had a Queen. For this, I shall be forever grateful.

I watched Memphis-born/Detroit-raised Aretha Louise Franklin ascend the throne from Lady Soul in `68 to Queen of Soul four years later in `72 upon the peerless releases of Young, Gifted and Black, and Amazing Grace. That’s the way it went down, people – following years of honing her gift in her father Reverend C.L. Franklin’s New Bethel Baptist Church and early forays into cabaret and jazz – and she has resided on the throne ever since.

Her voice soaked up every drop of the emotional rainbow and dispatched powerful balms of healing for every human crack and crevice it found needing. Her love songs could run you through the ringer yet leave you floating on clouds. Her spirituals sent icy spiky chills, giving clear crystalline glimpses of glory and the price that’s owed to get there. Across the decades, she proved she could sing anything and make you feel it but Rhythm & Blues is the sweet and salty spot where Lady Soul found her signature and reached royalty status around the globe.

It was divine growing up in the years of my queen…in her afro, headwraps and unforgettable fashion statements. I cherished her appearances on “The Flip Wilson Show,” “Soul Train,” “The Midnight Special,” the Grammys, American Music Awards and the many sundry places she would grace my television set. Oh, the hours and miles of white marked byways I traveled with the voices of Ree, her sisters Carolyn & Erma and The Sweethearts of Soul whispering in my ears, “Hey Baby, let’s get away, let’s go somewhere, huh….Baby, can we” (which she penned pining over the late, great Dennis Edwards of The Temptations) and its sequel “Just My Daydream”…the soulful stillness of “All the King’s Horses”…the magic carpet ride of “Until You Come Back to Me” with Donny Hathaway boppin’ us along on our way…the finger-poppin’ “A Brand New Me” (Mom’s singalong favorite)…the funk of “Rock Steady”…the southern rock pump of “Chain of Fools”…the uptown swing of “See Saw”…the bedrock book of love primer “Do-Right Woman, Do-Right Man”…raising the sands of time soul-shouting “Mary Don’t You Weep” (gloriously immortalized within Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s enduring “Revelations”)…raisin’ hell sangin’ at the piano with Rolling Stones guitar god Keith Richards on a searing remake of “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”…lifting Sondheim & Bernstein’s “Somewhere (from ‘West Side Story’)” to new jazz heights conducted by Quincy Jones with Phil Woods sittin’ in on alto…catchin’ the “Spirit in the Dark (Live)” with Brother Ray…scattin’ and lovin’ up on some George Benson swoon-crooning “Love All The Hurt Away”… spilling tea all over her glorious Luther-produced Jump to It LP…taking us on a whirl through Motown on the “Freeway of Love”…holding court with her friends across the pond in the MTV `80s with George Michael on “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)” and Annie Lennox on “Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves”…showing love to troubled composer/producer/arranger Lauryn Hill on “A Rose is Still a Rose”… “Ain’t No Way” and “Angel” (both penned by her sister Carolyn)…“Call Me” (which ‘Ree’ penned herself)… “Baby, Baby, Baby” (which they wrote together)…“Dr. Feelgood” (penned with former husband Ted White)…“Respect” (which she snatched up from Otis Redding who wrote and recorded it first)…sprinkling some soul sauce on Dionne’s Bacharach & David gem “I Say a Little Prayer” (“Did I do that…Oops”)…

For the holidays, “O Christmas Tree” which reunited her with arranger Marty Paich and his son David Paich of Toto. And when the industry wasn’t inclined to roll the dice on a dream project, Sister Franklin minted Aretha’s Records and produced 2011’s 12-song A Woman Falling Out of Love her “so damn happy” self! Add personal favorites here that my friends have already been pensively sharing and it is easy to see: our Queen was a generous one who gave much more than she received.

Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin, a Kennedy Center Honoree, is also in possession of a Presidential Medal of Freedom Award (presented to her in 2005 by George W. Bush), is a member of the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, was the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and a member of the U.K. Music Hall of Fame, has had 20 #1 songs on Billboard’s R&B chart, one multi-platinum album, 5 platinum-selling albums and 13 gold singles, 18 Grammy Awards, 3 “Special” Grammy honors, 3 American Music Awards, 3 NAACP Image Awards, a BET Lifetime Achievement Award, 2 MTV Awards, and a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

However, when you get down to the nitty gritty of true royalty, it’s all about those moments when one stands up above and beyond the call of duty to Represent to the fullest measure of their iconic, one-of-a-kind gifts. For me, Miss Aretha Franklin most memorably accomplished this on the following five occasions:

5. When red hot songwriter Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds composed and produced an all-female soundtrack for the film “Waiting to Exhale” featuring young divas such as Whitney Houston, Toni Braxton, Mary J. Blige, Faith Evans, Brandy, Chante’ Moore and more plus peers Chaka and Patti, Aretha showed them ALL how it’s done wailing the heart-wrenching “Hurts Like Hell.”

4. When she controversially re-sang all of the songs that Curtis Mayfield composed and produced for newcomers Lonette McKee, Irene Cara and Dwan Smith to perform in the now classic film “Sparkle” (robbing them of a proper soundtrack album that could have launched their singing careers earlier) and had one of the biggest hits of her chart tenure with the evergreens “Something He Can Feel,” “Look Into Your Heart,” “Hooked On Your Love,” “Jump” and the main title theme, “Sparkle.” Showing Mayfield much love and respect (she had already recorded “People Get Ready” in the `60s), Aretha had him produce a subsequent album, the underrated Almighty Fire, then in the `90s paid tribute to the master with a deeply touching reading of “The Makings of You.”

3. When film director Spike Lee needed a closing song for his epic “Malcolm X” biopic, Aretha delivered in diamonds and aces with an Arif Mardin-produced remake of Donny Hathaway & Edward Howard’s “Someday We’ll All Be Free” arranged in two hair-raising and spine-tingling parts that went from church to soul-pop Heaven soaring on the wings of Aretha’s impassioned refraction of the prophetic lyric. “Hallelujah…Hallelujah…Hallelujah!!!”

2. President of the United States of America Barack Obama consistently brought out the very best in Aretha as she proudly served him with a reverent performance of “America, My Country `Tis of Thee” at his 2009 inauguration as well as in the White House. She also brought him to tears at the Kennedy Center Honors when she took the stage in her fur, placed her purse on top of the piano and proceeded to prove why she will forever be the queen, singing and playing “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” in honor of the song’s feted composer of the hour that night, Carole King (who was also in the audience boo-hooing up a storm).

1. In the 11th hour when the great Italian operatic tenor Luciano Pavarotti conceded that he would not be able to perform as scheduled at the Grammy Awards, Aretha boldly and graciously stepped in and stepped up, singing “Nessum Dorma” in Italian and English with an authentic operatic delivery also richly informed by her roots in the Baptist church. Aretha brought the entire house to its feet in shock and awe, proving once and for all that the mantle Queen of Soul wasn’t just about a “style of music” but the connection and propulsion with which one is ready, willing and able to deliver the essence of any song in full context.

Giving honor where honor is due, Aretha – who insisted on being paid in cash upfront that she put in her purse or in her bosom before taking a stage – put her money where her mouth is in civic duties and for The Movement, most notably when she put money on the bail books to free Angela Davis from prison. But my personal favorite Aretha act of generosity is when she won her umpteenth in a series of Grammys in 1973 and decided to give her Best Rhythm & Blues Vocal Performance – Female award to Esther Phillips who had been up for “From a Whisper to a Scream,” the title track of what many consider to be the finest album of her career. This profound gesture is made even more so when you consider that Aretha won for “Young, Gifted and Black” that year, additionally beating out Betty Wright (“Clean Up Woman”), Candi Staton (“In the Ghetto”) and Merry Clayton (“Oh, No Not My Baby”). If ever there was a noble royalty-level deed done in the artform of Black Music, this was it.

Unlike territorial queens whose crowns are handed down by family, matrimony and sometimes bloodshed, there simply will not be an heir to Aretha’s Queendom. Even in her hour of transition, she will always wear the crown and woman the throne. Part of her might have warmed to wanting there to be some deserving woman to relieve her of the responsibilities of her royalty…but a greater part of La Diva surely would throw down the gauntlet, singin’ “Think…TWICE!!”

Aretha Franklin, who ascended to Heaven on August 16, 2018 at age 76, did not travel on airplanes but her voice has circled the globe a zillion-times. What she stood proud and mighty for to women, Black women, Black people and all people – particularly Children of God – is a pillar of pride on which all worthy can forever stand. Her spirit will remain in our spirits for as long as we, too, shall live – especially those of us blessed to live while she lived…and her timeless recordings of love, strength and faith will ring in ears and hearts for generations to come.

“Like a warrior that fights and wins the battle / I know the taste of victory.”

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Scott Galloway
August 16, 2018

Los Angeles-based A. Scott Galloway is celebrating his 30^th year as a Music Journalist. The former Urban Network Music Editor and KUTE-FM “The Quiet Storm” Music Librarian has interviewed thousands of entertainment creatives with a specialty niche being composing liner note essays for classic CD reissues and anthologies, including “Petals: The Minnie Riperton Collection,” “Brenda Russell: Ultimate Collection,” “Tony Williams’ “The Joy of Flying,” “Bill Withers’ “+Justments” and the deluxe 25^th anniversary edition of Curtis Mayfield’s “Superfly.”