Aretha Franklin (1942-2018)

When I was twelve-years-old, I was in the band and we were doing a magazine sales drive.  While the main goal was raising money for future band trips, we did get a free CD if we sold ten subscriptions, which meant that after I had fleeced my aunts and uncles by shoving Good Housekeeping and Reader's Digest down their throats, I got to pick a CD for my rather limited collection.  My classmates were choosing No Doubt and Puff Daddy as their selections, but perusing that catalogue of CD's, I knew my only choice had to be the Greatest Hits of Aretha Franklin.  It came a few weeks later, a red-and-black CD with "Atlantic" sprawled across the CD, and I quickly learned every song on that CD.  Alone in my room, I'd blast "Chain of Fools" or "Think," doing hand gestures and embracing what I'd later learn would be one of the gayer aspects of my personality, and loving every minute of it.  For the next twenty years, and likely for the rest of my life, Aretha Franklin has had a hallowed place in my musical catalog, to the point where she's one of only two artists I profiled in my "200 Favorite Songs" list three years ago on this blog to have 5+ songs listed.

Aretha Franklin had a powerful voice, no question, but it felt like her best songs came from deep within her soul.  The daughter of a well-known Baptist preacher, she started her career singing gospel songs on the road with her father, and would over her career develop a canon few others could rival.  Songs like "Ain't No Way" and "Drinking Again" are wrenching, seismic ballads that would lead to the emergence of everyone from Whitney Houston to Adele in future years, though she was equally at-ease with rocking beats, proclaiming "this is the house that Jack built, y'aaaaaaal" and "some time ago I thought, you'da run out of fools."  Franklin's career may have peaked in the 1960's and 70's, but she adapted to the musical scene as her career continued, not just relying on the old hits but instead creating new ones.  In the 1980's, she went riding on the freeway (in a pink Cadillac), and in the 1990's, she had the last Top 40 of her career with the terrific "A Rose is Still a Rose," working with Lauryn Hill on a superb late-career album that you need to check out immediately.  Franklin would become such a pillar for American music that she performed at the inauguration celebrations of three presidents (Carter, Clinton and Obama), and frequently celebrated her moniker as the Queen of Soul.  It says something that in over fifty years of performing hit after hit, no one ever challenged her for that crown, and it's likely no one ever will.  Aretha Franklin stands apart as a musical titan, alongside Elvis Presley and The Beatles as someone who became synonymous with popular music.  Her death is a tragic loss for the world, but her heavenly voice will always be with us, continually demanding our R-E-S-P-E-C-T.