Natural woman

At the time of writing, all we know is that Aretha Franklin is very ill. The nature of the illness is unspecified; she’s 76 years old and had started backing off touring last year.

At any rate, I’ve been thinking of the woman whose music has been somewhere in my life since the 60s. I have nothing profound to say; just for the past couple of days I’ve been poking around my stash of the Queen of Soul, and letting her voice roll around me. From Bacharach to Puccini, she puts her inimitable stamp on everything, and she holds back nothing.  Lordy, what a treasure she is.

Well, as I (and thousands the world around) hold Aretha in our thoughts, I’m just going to share a couple of her standards.

The first is one she wrote, and although it’s from the 60s, this rendition is from The Blues Brothers. It gets me every single time—not only the words, but her. In those slippers. In a greasy spoon.

The second is also from the 60s, written by Carole King, but this performance is from 2015, at the Kennedy Center Honors for King. Watching Aretha’s command of the song, of King and of the audience is absolutely amazing. She is electrifying.

Natural woman. Queen of Soul. National treasure.