Thursday, August 16, 2018

RIP Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin has passed away, she was 76. For a well done obituary, as always, check out The NY TIMES.  When she first fell ill some NYC artists decided to turn the Franklin St Subway into a impromptu tribute to Aretha.

The site Bowery Boogie pointed this out and while the MTA will surely take all of this down ASAP (because the MTA is evil), it is a nice moment for commuters and tourists alike to take Franklin into their thoughts.

RtBE was lucky to have caught The Queen of Soul live twice, and were frustrated when she always canceled on Jazzfest, but her music will live on forever as she is a force of nature when she steps up to the microphone. As Billy Preston put it:

“She can be hiding out in her house in Detroit for years. She can go decades without taking a plane or flying off to Europe. She can cancel half her gigs and infuriate every producer and promoter in the country. She can sing all kinds of jive-ass songs that are beneath her. She can go into her diva act and turn off the world. But on any given night, when that lady sits down at the piano and gets her body and soul all over some righteous song, she’ll scare the shit out of you. And you’ll know—you’ll swear—that she’s still the best fuckin’ singer this fucked-up country has ever produced.”


Also our friends over at Brooklyn Vegan has posted about an Aretha Franklin tribute concert to take place at MSG on November 14th so RtBE will be keeping an eye on those developments as it is sure to be a star studded show.

To remember the all-time great today here are a few of RtBE's favorite songs Aretha performed and we will take a suggestion from none other than President Obama, "Here’s a tip: when you’re deejaying a party, open with ‘Rock Steady.’ :










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