Stars line out to pay Respect to Aretha
Ariana sings Franklin hit
BY any standards, this was one hell of a send-off.
America had come to say farewell to Aretha Franklin at Detroit’s Greater Grace Temple with a service that was already scheduled to last for six hours at the outset.
It then started an hour and a half late because of the sheer number of mourners. As a result, the metropolis of music and motors began its exhaustive tribute to the Queen of Soul yesterday morning and was still going strong long into the afternoon.
Detroit was determined to show the world its own version of a state funeral – with a cavalcade of pink Cadillacs (a homage to Aretha’s 1985 hit Freeway Of Love, in which she sang ‘riding in my pink Cadillac’), an ex-President, whole pews of charismatic preachers plus numerous celebrities swaying selfconsciously to the Gospel vibe.
What we all really wanted to hear, of course, was the music. For a talent of this magnitude – a prodigy who had her first record deal at 12 and was still packing halls in her seventies – there was going to have to be some pretty exemplary music.
No pressure, then, on the lengthy line-up of musical mourners including Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and Ariana Grande.
First, however, came the tributes. Dozens of them. And they did not hold back. Aretha had been the daughter of a famous preacher, the Rev Dr CL Franklin. She was raised on fiery Biblebashing and Sunday choirs.
Representatives of what seemed to be every church and denomination in Detroit lined up to honour one of their own. Two hours passed before the performances finally kicked off courtesy of country music star Faith Hill singing What A Friend We Have In Jesus.
Soon afterwards, the youthful Ariana Grande skipped on to sing (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman, a Franklin hit decades before she was even born.
The best seats in the house were reserved neither for musicians nor clergy but for politicians. As many speakers pointed out, Aretha Franklin’s role as a pillar and symbol of the civil rights movement was every bit as important as her musical attributes.
America was, after all, laying to rest a woman who had performed at the funeral of Dr Martin Luther King and the inauguration of Barack Obama. Her body – in a sparkling full-length gold dress with sequined heels – had been brought to the church in the same hearse that carried the great civil rights protester Rosa Parks to her final farewell.
In pride of place was a rather wobbly looking Reverend Jesse Jackson alongside Bill Clinton. The ex-president was doing his awkward best to clap along and show that he was suffused with the spirit while not overdoing the head-shaking, the gyrations and the ‘Amens’. Another giant of the civil rights movement, the Reverend Al Sharpton, launched into an effervescent riff attacking everyone from President Trump to the Grim Reaper – with plenty of ‘Hallelujahs’ from the congregation – before reading out a message from Barack Obama.
‘From a young age, Aretha Franklin rocked the world of anyone who had the pleasure of hearing her voice,’ Obama wrote. ‘In the example she set, both as an artist and a citizen, Aretha embodied those most revered virtues of forgiveness and reconciliation, while the music she made captured some of our deepest human desires – namely affection and respect.’ A similar message from George W Bush was received with generous applause. He told the congregation: ‘Aretha was a woman of achievement.’
Bill Clinton went on for more than twice his allotted five minutes. ‘She had the voice of a generation,’ he reflected, ‘maybe the voice of a century.’
Every strand of American society seemed united in solemnity yesterday. By sheer coincidence, Aretha Franklin’s grand departure coincided with the funeral of Vietnam hero-turned-Republican colossus Senator John McCain.
One person conspicuously absent from both events was Donald Trump. The local politicians were not going to miss out, however. Detroit’s mayor took to the stage to announce that the city council would be renaming its most famous park ‘Aretha Franklin Park’. The city council rose as one to deliver an impromptu vote to ratify the decision, prompting applause. Noting that a major highway would bear the singer’s name, another civic worthy stood at the lectern and demanded that America issue an Aretha Franklin postage stamp. The Governor of Michigan even suggested that her voice should be registered as an official natural resource. There is not the remotest chance that future Detroit generations will not have heard of the very great Aretha Franklin.