(Keeping) Aretha Franklin (in our prayers)

Aretha Franklin Has Pancreatic Cancer  Sending Aretha best wishes and prayers. I had the fortune of meeting her in 1998 when I was doing janitorial work at the Marcus Center For Performing Arts in Milwaukee, WI. She was performing there that night and I met her while cleaning her dressing room. I can't express enough how incredibly polite she was. We only talked for abnout 5 minutes, but she was very impressed with my knowledge of her career. She autographed me an expensive bottle of champagne. Like an idiot, I drank it rather than saved it, but I got soooo giddy hah. Anywho, Aretha is an amazing woman with a heart of gold and I pray she gets through this.

Yes, she's had an impressive life, and an impressive voice. Get well soon

Apparently she's on the mend, and has been home for 3 days

In 2010, Franklin suffered a pain in her side which she said, "was so hard it almost brought me to my knees." After continuing a concert tour, the pain recurred, and she subsequently underwent surgery for an undisclosed ailment. At this time, rumors surfaced that she was suffering from pancreatic cancer. In discussing the events in 2011, she has said that this was not the case and that her doctor told her, "the surgery that you just had is going to add 15 to 20 more years to your life."

She got engaged last Sunday, and is planning to marry in the Summer

That's great news! It was sure looking touch and go there for a while .... as was with George Michael. Very glad they're back on their feet.

Heh, we spoke too soon, the wedding's off

I guess describing her as "going from strength to strength" is tempting fate, but nevertheless:

Aretha Franklin Receives Honorary Degree From Harvard, Sings National Anthem

George H.W. Bush, Aretha Franklin, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and five others were honored at Thursday's commencement.

 

Recently had a critical success on the David Letterman Show:

Rolling In The Deep

Still got it

She seems to have been quiet lately, and now plans to be quiet permanently:

Aretha to retire after final album with Stevie Wonder

Or partial retirement, anyway... "my last year in concert".

She's died at the age of 76. RIP

Inevitably, the tributes and tribute shows flowed...

Music Icons: Aretha Franklin
The "Discovering" team here, or 3 of them, retold the Aretha story, from teenage motherhood, several fruitless years recording for Columbia, before striking gold at Atlantic, winning 8 consecutive Grammys, singing at Martin Luther King's funeral, looking after her father after he was shot twice, appearing in The Blues Brothers film, duetting with Eurythmics and George Michael, getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, being the first woman into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, singing Nessun Dorma at the Grammys as a substitute for Pavarotti, singing at the inauguration of President Obama, having streets in Detroit named after her. A full life.

Aretha Franklin: Respect
This was starrier, if Tom Jones, Beverley Knight, Laura Mvula, Trevor Nelson and Jools Holland are your idea of stars. At least some of them had met and sang with her.

Buried yesterday. Among those at the ceremony were Smokey Robinson, Chaka Khan, Ariana Grande, and music-loving ladies' man Bill Clinton 

Video Killed The Radio Star: Aretha Franklin
Profiled back in 2013, as journalist Robert Elms sang her praises, whilst various directors were somewhat less impressed. She had a diva turn about Freeway of Love, nixing the planned shoot at the 11th hour, and then ending up with a b&w shoot that made little sense to the song. Her tendency to make directors come to Detroit because she wouldn't film anywhere else caused strife. Worse came with I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me), where she turned up with an entourage of dozens, and then refused to look at George in the final part of the song, until the director boxed clever and made her entourage stand behind George, so that she could look at them and achieve the right result.

There was a major auction of stage outfits on Saturday night:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/nov/11/aretha-franklin-clothes-auction-new-york 

A public exhibition of her outfits was held at the Hard Rock Cafe last week before going under the hammer.

Highlights of the Julien’s Auctions collection included the red ruffled dress Franklin wore for a Radio City Music Hall concert in 1993, the denim crew jacket from the 1980 Blues Brothers film, in which she played Mrs Murphy, and the regal cream gown she wore to Bill Clinton’s nomination ball.

House sales news: 

A historic Detroit mansion owned by late singing legend Aretha Franklin has been sold.The Detroit News reports that, according to public records, the 5,600-square-foot brick home adjacent to the Detroit Golf Club fetched 300,000 dollars (£234,000) in a sale last month. It was built in 1927.
The newspaper reports that Franklin bought the home in 1993, but nearly lost it in 2008 due to unpaid property taxes.
Franklin estate personal representative Sabrina Garrett-Owens said “there are no other Detroit properties” that were owned by the Queen of Soul.
Her 4,148-square-foot Colonial-style house in suburban Detroit’s Bloomfield Township still is listed for 800,000 dollars (£624,000).

She's been awarded a Pulitzer Prize 

The reading of the will is proving a little tricky... they've got 3 wills 

Aretha Franklin - The Story of the Songs
The choices this time being Respect, I Say A Little Prayer, and Sisters are Doing It for Themselves, none of which she wrote. The legendary Steve Cropper added usual sparkle to his bits, but there was a lot of other dubious contributors, though I'm sure a horn arranger and bassist and organist were all vital to the magic.

Amazing Grace
Previously lost footage intended for documentary but shelved. Covers two nights filming with the Southern California Community Choir, often under the direction of Reverend James Cleveland, as Aretha plugs gospel material to a full congregation. Her father got a chance to give a talk too.

A new biopic series, care of National Geographic, has not been well received by her family:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-56482684

It's called Genius, and runs to 8 episodes.

Coincidentally, an impending big screen biopic, starring Jennifer Hudson, DOES have the family's approval. Funny that.

Aretha Franklin: Duets
A special from 1993, as Aretha was joined by Elton John, Rod Stewart, Smokey Robinson, Gloria Estefan, Bonnie Raitt and (spot the odd one out) PM Dawn. They variously did songs of hers, or songs of theirs. It helped that all the more troublesome persons were clearly on good behaviour for once.

BBC Proms '22: A Tribute to Aretha Franklin
Jules Buckley conducted his very own Jules Buckley Orchestra, whilst someone called Shelea did the singing and piano playing. She did Bridge Over Troubled Water as an encore.

Surprising story this week, as a hitherto lost will has come to light, and been fought over in court by different parts of the family. The will has been ruled as legit, so that will have knock-on effects.

misery guts wrote:Surprising story this week, as a hitherto lost will has come to light, and been fought over in court by different parts of the family. The will has been ruled as legit, so that will have knock-on effects.

An update this week on the battle of wills:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-67565918

Aretha Franklin at the BBC
A shorter collection than some in this series, and managed to omit Who's Zooming Who? and Pride: A Deeper Love, but did include a couple of chat moments from profiles on her.

Aretha Franklin and the Sweet Inspirations in Concert
A short-ish show from 1968 in Amsterdam. She did some numbers on the piano, but it seemed a pretty fair example of her 1960s heyday.