"Respect" and "Think" were songs we pulled out every time one of us broke up with some varmint of a boyfriend. She would rip the hearts out of our skinny white girl chests, bounce them around, stretch them out, and show us that we were a lot more elastic than we thought.
What we didn't understand at the time was the deep well of a confident faith that informed Franklin's music, that made her drag words like "temptation" and "Jesus" and "heaven" up from a place deep in her gut, up through her lungs, and out into the air so that the Spirit fairly vibrated in your ear.
Like Ray Charles, there was not a song Aretha could not make better by singing it. I wonder if I might have approached the Feast of the Assumption differently yesterday if I had first listened to this:
Thanks for noting her death on the forum. Didn't know much about Aretha but the music and her appearance on "The Blues Brothers". Great music that came from the soul and imprinted on the soul. Makes one feel alive.
ReplyDeleteMy home town parish actually used that song for a Marian hymn back in the '70s. We had these green plastic binders full of pirated music that had been run off with purple mimeograph ink. There were some other slightly baptized pop and folk tunes also. That was before we wised up about stuff like copyrights and liturgical appropriateness. We had some burlap and tacky banners around too.
ReplyDeletePaul McCartney always said the song was inspired by his mother, Mary, who died when he was quite young. But there is something about "Mother Mary" and "let it be/all shall be well" that resonates with me as a nominal Catholic.
DeleteNo offense to Ms. Franklin, who was one of the really great ones, but when I find myself in times of trouble (or nostalgia or glee) I still turn to Ella Fitzgerald. Who could signal she was going to do something outrageous, do it, and make it sound like the song couldn't have existed without it.
ReplyDeleteFitzgerald was great, too! Somewhere around here, we have a vinyl copy of her Berlin concert recording.
DeleteWill never forget her singing and moving to "Think" in that great Chicago movie, "The Blues Brothers." And the Hat!!! at Obama's inaugural.
ReplyDelete"The Blues Brothers", a great musical and I loved the Chicago stuff. Aretha was superb.
ReplyDeleteI thought Cab Calloway was great in that movie, too.
ReplyDeleteThe Boy was a huge fan. Possibly because of this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JGKdGov-lmA
Plus who doesn't admire a man who can pull off a zoot suit?
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ReplyDeleteJust in case - and I realize/hope this isn't likely - any of you are as retarded as I am when it comes to the internet, I've got great news about something I've discovered (maybe you discovered it years ago): it's very easy to hear these songs again. You simply do a Google search with the basic elements:
ReplyDelete"youtube.com" "Aretha Franklin" "Think"
Then you hit "Enter" and, boom!, a menu pops up on your screen, offering various versions of Aretha singing the song. Here's one that also has the excerpt from the film:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vet6AHmq3_s
Lest Tom Blackburn feel left out, here's a second trial run, this time with
"youtube.com" "Ella Fitzgerald" "Cheek to cheek"
Here's a version in which she's accompanied by a guy who could also do a thing or two with a trumpet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtiF01XhkPw
And if someone sends in a follow-up comment characterizing mine as the latest in the series "Internet by Dummies," I won't take it personally.
Enjoy!
You really think that guy can play the trumpet? Try this, from his very early years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W232OsTAMo8
ReplyDeleteThat opening can still make jaws drop.
Then there's this. The solo beginning at 1:50 gives me goosebumps. Magnificence.
ReplyDeleteSorry. Forgot the link.
Deletehttps://youtu.be/BUuI3oHQfm8
Stanley, Agreed!
DeleteWatched the Blues Brothers last night. We had a Disk (CD?) from some long ago Christmas.
ReplyDeleteStill an amazing, surrealistic goofy movie (1980). Not just Aretha Franklin,...Cab Calloway, James Brown...etc.
The chase scenes are choreography in extremis (Wacker Drive, over the draw bridges while open, pile up of police cars).
The final chase to the 11th floor of the civic building to pay the tax on the orphanage has the elevator taking forever while police, fireman, pursuers raise up the stairs. The Blues make it...stamp on the receipt as the pursuers smash in the door (btw, county clerk played by Stephen Spielberg).
Note: prison scene at the end highly integrated...
Question: Would Belushi and Ackroyd be accused of cultural appropriation today?
Cultural appropriation is inevitable, even when a dominant group does it. Jazz itself appropriated European musical structures. It makes for creativity. Probably not fair in many cases but is there such a thing as "fair" art?
DeleteI question to what level Flannery O'Conner, with her black characters, appropriated. But her black characters were always seen from the outside by white protagonists. She never went inside their heads. I would say she was politically correct even by today's standards by not pretending to know what black people think.
I think cultural appropriation is something like when Christians do a Seder. You want to go to a Seder, wangle an invite from your Jewish friends, but don't incorporate it into Easter and pretend it was always part of Christianity. And don't get me started on St. Patrick's Day.
DeleteThat said, harmony in America depends on some level of cultural fusion, mutual admiration, and shared experiences. That's how I see the Blues Brothers. That's why their common enemy is Henry Gibson and his Aryan brotherhood.
But one man's cultural harmony, I suppose, is another's cultural appropriation.
I hate Illinois Nazis.
DeleteThen I guess you won't be appropriating their culture.
DeleteWell, there is appropriation and then there is appropriation. There would be no "Hamilton" if it hadn't been for "The Desert Song" and the creation of rap. Double appropriation, if you will. With a touch of Agnes deMille. Is any current art un-appropriated?
ReplyDelete