Aretha Franklin, 1942-2018

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/08/16/aretha-franklin-1942-2018.html

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God I love her version of Let It Be. It was originally written for her to perform, and it shows. Glad it made its way out of the archives eventually when she changed her mind about releasing it way back when.

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Back in high school there was a kid in my gym class with the last name “Arreas” and every time the coach took roll call I had to suppress the urge to yell “…P-E-C-T! Find out what it means to me!”

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Really? I’d never heard that. Where did you hear that?

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Encores never end in the spirit world.

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A brilliant performer; I never heard her sing without feeling an emotional impact, and emotion is the heart and soul of music.

RIP Dr. Franklin.

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Not surprising, because she’s been sick off and on for a while now, but its still very sad.

RIP the Queen of Soul.

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She’s one of those artists who you could sort of go along in the stream for years with her obvious and universally acknowledged greatness but then, one day, you’d sit down and start really listening to her stuff and realize just how deep that greatness was. I had the same sort of epiphany with Dolly Parton in my 30s. The talent is so universally understood it’s a cliche and you can miss the opportunity to really dig in… but it’s a cliche because it was true.

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If you can spare 4.22 minutes, this will change your day…

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Both Aretha Franklin and Joe Cocker recorded it before the Beatles released it as a single.

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Aretha was an incredible talent and an amazing performer; as others have noted, her career spanned decades without ever really letting up and she’ll go down in history as one of the true greats. I was lucky enough to get to work with Aretha for a short time a few years ago, and she was as larger-than-life and colorful a person as I imagined she would be.

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Here you go!

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Well, here’s my moment of overpowering envy.

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Wow, I’ve read far too much about The Beatles, but somehow missed this entirely. Thanks!

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This track has fascinated me since I was little. The guitar tone, the atmosphere, her powerful vocal delivery. What a talent she was, and how wonderful it is that she existed in the first place. RIP.

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This.

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:cry:

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It always amazes me that this is only two minutes.

Two great minutes.

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