RIP Aretha

[Drunk Monk]

Never saw her live but much respect.  
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Another US tourist told me right after she got the alert on her phone as we sat in an Italian fashion shop Odica while our daughters tried on cute stuff.  'She was the queen' we both said to each other.

[El Dingo]

This bothered me more than I thought it would. I love pop music (BTW anything not Classical is pop in musicologist world) and gobble up as much history as I can. From European folk combining with African rhythm to give birth to Blues and Jazz, to Blues and traditional spirituals to become black gospel. Black gospel and Jazz evolved into R&B and Aretha Franklin (originally a Gospel singer) became the Queen of Soul.

Otis Redding wrote "Respect" but Aretha quickly owned it. She owned any song she sang, taking the lyrics and giving them just the right tone and inflection to convey her interpretation (see Johnny Cash's "Hurt" for how hard this is to do). She was a vocal activist for the Civil Rights movement, even supporting  the controversial Black Panther movement.

Then fucking Trump saying "She worked for me" because she played a couple of shows at his casinos made me so angry.

R.I.P. Aretha, your name will live long after the orange menace is a toxic footnote in history.

[Drunk Monk]

I feel ya, ED.  Did you ever see her perform?  Did any of you here?

They were playing Aretha at this cool bookstore in Roma where Stacy and I hung out while Tara shopped at Bershka (a Spanish women's apparel brand she likes).  That mall was spectacular, btw.  There were even tour groups going there to admire the architecture.  

So many bookshops in Europe. All over. General and specialty.  Even tho we have a fine bookshop here in the Cruz, I really miss bookshops.  And I miss Aretha.

[The Queen]

The performance of “Natural Woman” at the Kennedy Center Honirs for Carole King was one of the most uplifting pieces of video I’ve seen or heard in a long time.