As a talented pianist and skilled arranger, Aretha could see paths to emotion that weren’t solely through her voice – something very underused during her Columbia tenure. She wasn’t shy of expressing her musical and political opinions, and while she would never devalue entertainment as an end in itself, she also knew that there was so much more her music could deliver than simply being a nice song sung well. There are many gems from these years, but Aretha herself felt frustrated that her personality wasn’t coming through. With the exception of her storming version of Won’t Be Long, Aretha was at the supper club for most of this record – a pattern repeated on her other Columbia recordings. Her first album, Aretha, recorded with the Ray Bryant Combo in New York City, announced her arrival on its sleeve: “a magnetic new artist… saucy, teasing… rocking, shouting…” but the music inside was mostly genteel, graceful, tasteful. The grit of those early recordings was tempered when Aretha signed with Columbia Records in 1960. It won’t be long: Columbia Records and early albums This voice was the result of practice, of experience and of channelling her life into her words. As a young teen, she was a soloist at her father’s church CL Franklin installed recording equipment, and the recordings from this time are of Aretha sounding enormously seasoned already. How could it not? Her experiences brought conviction into her delivery greater than any vocal coach could ever do. The complex field of her young life – the losses, the strains on her body and mind, her faith, the pride in her Black identity, the joys that music brought to her – all came to bear on her voice. The impact of Aretha bearing children from what was essentially her own child’s body was another premature adult experience, opening up a world in front of her eyes that was closed to most. Now we are likely to see Aretha as a child being exploited or coerced Aretha described herself in her autobiography as “a red-blooded African-American teenage girl” who was in love with her babies’ father. She was also sexually active from a young age, first becoming pregnant at 12, and again at 13. This primal pain forced the young Aretha to confront adult emotions before her time. Aretha lost someone who nurtured her she was also denied a future with her mother, the chance to develop an adult relationship with her (something Aretha clearly valued with her father as the years went on). Knowing trauma like that as a child is a scarring experience. “I cannot describe the pain, and nor will I try,” Aretha said of her mother’s death. A natural woman: life-changing experiencesĪretha’s mother, Barbara, died young, of a heart attack, when Aretha was just ten. Since some of North America’s finest mid-century musical innovators and Black political thinkers were part of Aretha’s childhood tapestry, it’s not hard to see how she might have joined the dots between civil rights, musical genius and showbusiness from a young age. Soul-music innovator Sam Cooke and gospel icon Clara Ward, among others, were also close to the Franklin family. The cigarette ash was incredibly long, yet it never fell as the pianist tilted his head to avoid the smoke floating into his eyes.” It was jazz virtuoso Art Tatum. Aretha, born on 25 March 1942 as one of five Franklin siblings, remembered one time, as a child, “seated behind our grand piano was a heavyset man, a cigarette dangling from his mouth. Sometimes this even meant a private audience with musical pioneers. Over the years, he released more than 70 albums of his own, mostly of his sermons, embracing the celebrity it brought.ĬL Franklin didn’t prevent his children from listening to secular music, so pop, jazz and R&B were also in the air. He knew the power of the medium as well as the message for celebrating The Word and advancing the cause of civil rights. Listen to the best Aretha Franklin songs here.įranklin’s father, the Reverend CL Franklin, was a minister and a proud African-American man. It’s down to a life, a lot of work, and a set of mental and musical circumstances that meant the sound Aretha Franklin made was hers alone. Aretha’s title is down to more than a voice. Of course she was an astonishing singer, but so are many others – none of them, however, were crowned the “Queen Of Soul”. As if it were something magical that fell from the heavens and blessed her. Aretha Franklin’s voice is often described as a “gift”.
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