HER SOUL IS IMMORTAL
Singer, composer, social activist and “Queen of Soul” Aretha Franklin died last week. She was 76 years old. I was spinning vinyl last week at a DJ night when the news filtered through. I didn’t have any of her music with me but nonetheless let everyone know that one of the greats had gone; cue to clubbers quickly searching on their smart phones for news on the First Lady of Soul.
Like many music fans who grew up in the 60s and 70s, Aretha Franklin’s music formed part of the soundtrack of my youth. And I have to thank Otis Redding for the introduction; I was curious about her version of his 1965 song Respect, and when I heard it as a teen I was blown away. That song, which she characteristically made her own, had a tempo to dance to and words to inspire (as many obituaries of Franklin have written, this song has since become a civil and women’s rights anthem). And through those early Atlantic singles, I also learned about Muscle Shoals, which was (I found out) a small studio in Sheffield, Alabama. Nice coincidence, as I come from the original Sheffield in Yorkshire, England.
Most of my school chums at the time were rockers with long hair, flares and Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath albums, but a few of us were “soul boys”, more interested in the music from US music labels like Stax and Kent. At around the same time, various soul revues arrived in England, led by a Stax/Volt tour in 1967, with lots of star soul musicians and singers. As with the blues tours of England in the late 50s and early 60s, these musicians would not only entertain, they also influenced a new generation of English bands and singers.
Sheffield was a stop on their tours, so I had the great fortune to see among others The Four Tops, The Temptations, Stevie Wonder and David Ruffin in their prime. Sadly, I never got to see Aretha but by the time I reached my mid-teens in 1970, I was a big fan of Aretha and, with the help of the City library I began to read about some of the background to soul music. It opened the door to other connected musics from Africa, the Caribbean and the rest of the Americas. You can find some of these links in John Storm Roberts’ excellent book Black Music Of Two Worlds.
After her Atlantic releases, which made her into an international star, I began to seek out her other recordings, as I’d been told that she had grown up singing gospel in her father’s choir. Her 1972 gospel album
Amazing Grace is the one you should have in your collection — it’s awe-inspiring. I checked out her Columbia recordings, which were an effort to make her into mainstream crooner of classic American songs and cross-over to white audiences, as Sam Cooke had done so successfully. And then, of course, Aretha had moved on with the times. She starred in movies and collaborated with pop musicians like the Eurythmics, but for soul fans I think it is her work in the 60s and 70s that defines her as a great singer, and pianist (a much underrated one, too).
Any tribute to Aretha Franklin should also consider her work as a social activist and her commitment to social justice for African Americans. She grew up with civil rights leaders and financially supported Martin Luther King’s office for several years. Her music, particularly the song Respect, was an inspiration during civil disturbances in the USA in the late 1960s. It is important to remember, as several commentators have noted, that Aretha Franklin sang first and foremost about the African American experience.
If you take a look at her concert at Fillmore West in 1971 on YouTube you can see her in full flow (with a wonderfully manic version of Respect), at the height of her career. Her voice is commanding, going from a sensual whisper to that characteristic scream she jolted out. If you’re not sure as to why people rave about her voice and music, this film will change your mind.
Here are some of her best albums. Start with her first classic album, I Never Loved A Man The Way I love You (1967), and
then seek out Lady Soul (1968), Aretha
Now (1968), Live At Fillmore West (1971), Young Gifted And Black (1972), Amazing Grace (1972) and the 1992 compilation,
Queen Of Soul. If you have the cash, you could always get the 19 CD The Atlantic
Albums Collection on Rhino, which should keep you going for a while.
There is so much more to add on the life and work of this global star — her four octave range and sonic finesse, the ability to “live” a song, make it her own and express the emotions she is feeling as she performs and her unique and compelling piano playing, just for starters. But I think her childhood friend, soul great Smokey Robinson, who first saw her as a five-year-old child playing the piano and singing along said it best: “Aretha could sing the phonebook.”