WWTBAM Bored

From Paul McCartney on Twitter:

Let’s all take a moment to give thanks for the beautiful life of Aretha Franklin, the Queen of our souls, who inspired us all for many many years. She will be missed but the memory of her greatness as a musician and a fine human being will live with us forever. Love Paul

R E S P E C T In Perpetuity

She was the TRUE Diva. Mariah, XTina, Ariana, and other modern day pretenders to the throne just don't get it. They have the TECHNICAL skills, but don't have the SOUL. They're so busy cramming 274 notes into one line, showing off how awesome their vocal runs are, that they don't seem to have a clue about the meaning of the words they're singing. Excellent VOCALISTS, lousy SINGERS. Aretha could break off an overdone run now and then, especially in later years, but in her prime she usually picked her spots, and could do more with a couple of seconds of silence than these current stars do with a million vocal runs.

The phrase "often imitated but never duplicated" comes to mind.

You will always have my "Respect", Lady Soul...

She was a rose in spanish harlem. That is my favorite Aretha song.

Not totally unexpected... but, man, this news hurts a lot.

Expected for a few days but still sad to hear.

I loved her in the Blues Brothers:

She'll forever be doing that "very early music video", in the streets of Detroit, in my mind.

(Ella Fitzgerald's even early music video was in an NYC subway car, I believe with Sinatra among the passengers.)

And when Aretha got pregnant as a young teen, way before she was a recording star, her preacher father did *not* throw her out of the house. She was still his little girl.

Been listening to "The Electrifying Aretha Franklin" for the last couple of days.

Aretha singing old chestnuts like "Ac-Cen-Tchu-ate the Positive" and "I Surrender Dear" and, my personal favorite, "Rockabye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody."

I had that album and "The Tender, the Moving Aretha Franklin." I used to play them for TLAF and THFD, so they could hear that the younger singers appreciated the old chestnuts. I would match Aretha's version of "I Apologize" to Billy Eckstine's any day of the week - grittier versus smooth, but just as legit.

And FABULOUS jazzy version of Lover Come Back that has long been a favorite of mine.

In this area in the 1960s, you could count on RadioDudes for Country or Western or Country-Western or American Top 40.

Somehow, You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman made it into the Top 40, and I was an Aretha fan for life. I like Respect better now, but I'm sure she never sang a bad note.

As President Obama said (more or less), condolences to all of us who loved her songs.

This is my favorite Aretha song, but not because of Aretha - what makes this song for me is Cissy Houston's angelic descant in the background (she sounds like she’s in the next room, in a great way!).

The song was written by Carol Franklin, Aretha’s sister, and the production is just stunning, with kick-ass horns, and the whole thing is SLOW … you have to earn every note and chord resolution.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=PB2Mu2zBzjw

Donald J. Trump wrote:The Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, is dead. She was a great woman, with a wonderful gift from God, her voice. She will be missed!

We can all agree about that.

Sad news indeed.

I think I'll break out my DVD of the "Muscle Shoals" documentary tonight, in which she was a major participant.

It also occurred to me that yesterday was the 41st anniversary of Elvis Presley's death. And, as Vandal noted in another thread, yesterday was the 70th anniversary of Babe Ruth's death.

A very sad coincidence that August 16 will go down as the day that we lost the Queen, the King, and the Sultan.