Growing up in Motown during her greatest years, I can't tell you how powerful a presence in and around the city she was. The greatest singer, in my opinion, to come out of Detroit. Greater than Diana Ross, greater than any of the male singers from that era or any other since. A sad day, indeed.

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

Boston Globe write up is exquisite: https://www.bostonglobe.com/...enul3hKzK/story.html

Definitely a voice that gives me goosebumps. She was amazing

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who's smarter than you're? i'm!

Sad. I would have expected her to be older than that too.

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Superlative, and the best of read of the young day for me, so far.

Though born in Memphis, Aretha Franklin was a Detroiter through and through, and she went to her greater glory in Detroit as well, though as music royalty and a true diva she really could have chosen to live anywhere. That she stood by Detroit's side through it all says a lot about her.

The era of Aretha broke big in 1967. She wasn't one of Berry Gordy's Motown stars, either, and her greatest successes took place at the Atlantic record label, where Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler proved geniuses at spotting and growing extremely talented musical artists time and time again.

Atlantic is my all-time favorite record label as well, and its history in all the varied forms of popular music is immense. To have superstars like Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin as well as Led Zeppelin sharing the same label, especially in an era (the late-60s) where racial barriers were just beginning to seriously come down, says something about both Franklin and her record company.

The Queen of Soul -- and Soul, to me, is secularized gospel music -- was more than just the greatest singer to ever come out of Motown and a true superstar in the firmament of superstars that included James Brown, Charles and many others. There was never a moment where the diva faltered in her push for black pride and accomplishment, for instance, but she could push for it all in a way that brought far more people than just blacks to her cause.

She was The Voice. And through her voice, The Cause became writ large on the American consciousness. Not a bad accomplishment for Franklin, I'd say.

Below, Aretha Franklin's "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man" (written by Dan Penn and Chips Moman). It's basically a peak of Western civilization, in my opinion:

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGXU7268Z50

That's one of the greatest songs in a movie full of great songs. She wrote it, arranged it, led it and performed it like the diva she was. She was a musical genius in every sense of the word and a fitting star for her times.

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

A true legend. RIP.

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"You can never win or lose if you don't run the race." - Richard Butler

Yep, RIP to an amazing talent and voice. Love that scene, and the rest of the music from the Blues Brothers. Sadly, Matt "Guitar" Murphy passed away just two months ago.

Spot

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Taco cat spelled backwards is....taco cat.

I read that the studio wanted Rose Royce to do that scene, and Aykroyd put his foot down for Aretha. That scene introduced her to a new generation and paved the way for some 80s hits for her.

freaking awesome: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1p92gQTQCg

Saw him years ago. He was touring small venues in New England and he came through Newport, RI (I was attending a Navy school at the time). An amazing guitar player. I remember his passing. He lived a good, long life and joined B.B. King, John Lee Hooker and the other masters at the ripe old age of 88. He looked younger than his actual years in the Blues Brothers movie. "Black don't crack," as one of my longtime friends, who's black and a true OG, remarks to me whenever he looks in the mirror. ;-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

What a lot of people don't realize is that she was one hell of a piano player, too. Self-taught (even though her father offered to pay for piano lessons for her) and perfectly capable of being her own accompanist, though she was an outstanding arranger with sublime instincts in that arena.

Aretha Franklin came from the age when, if you wanted to be a true musician, you had to know your craft, your instrument and your voice -- which was also an instrument on its own -- and you had to have boatloads of stage presence if you wanted to succeed. Many of her greatest recordings come from a time way before that damn Auto-Tune and well before digital multi-tracking and software like Cakewalk and similar programs.

As she herself referred to it, her so-called "afternoon voice" (her singing voice before warm-ups and exercises, which was a four-octave mezzo soprano) would have qualified as most other singers' Carnegie Hall voices, she was that good.

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

few would even attempt a song like Skylark:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHYDafTrpMU

Such a lush, sublime effort. Amazing. Rolling Stone wasn't wrong when it named her the greatest singer of all time. People around here are really going to miss her presence.

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."