Respect: The Life of Aretha Franklin by David Ritz

Author:David Ritz [Ritz, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Famous, Autobiography / Women, Biography &#38, Biography &#38, Autobiography / Composers &#38, Autobiography / Rich &#38, Autobiography / Entertainment &#38, Musicians, Biography &#38, Performing Arts, Biography &#38
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Published: 2014-10-28T00:00:00+00:00

To watch the raw footage of the Amazing Grace film shot by Sydney Pollack is an illumination. Alan Elliot, a former Atlantic producer, showed me a copy in 2010. For years, he had painstakingly labored to save, restore, edit, produce, and release the film. Long before I saw the images, I had memorized the record. To see it, though—to actually witness the performance—was not only thrilling, on every aesthetic and emotional level, but shocking. I hadn’t thought I could ever appreciate the music more. But watching the film caused me to do just that.

First there is the image of Aretha herself. She glows with soft confidence. There is no swagger in her gracious self-assurance, but rather a sweet humility. In the presence of her dad and Clara Ward, that humility is easy to understand. She is there not to outdo them, but to honor them. She is completely comfortable, totally in control of her surroundings and her material. James Cleveland’s strong presence is reassuring.

When her father is asked to speak, the emotions behind his words match the emotions of his daughter’s music.

“This music took me all the way back to the living room at home when she was six and seven years of age,” he says. “I saw you crying and I saw you responding, but I was just about to bust wide open. You talk about being moved—not only because Aretha is my daughter, Aretha is just a stone singer.”

When Aretha hears her father’s praise, a sweet and bashful smile breaks over her face.

“Reverend James Cleveland knows about those days. When James came to prepare our choir… he and Aretha used to go in the living room and spend hours in there singing different songs. She’s influenced greatly by James. If you want to know the truth, she has never left the church!”

After her father speaks, Aretha replaces James at the piano, where she plays and sings “God Will Take Care of You.” At one point, seeing his daughter’s brow wet with perspiration, C.L. gets up, walks over, takes his handkerchief, and gently dries her forehead. It is an exquisite gesture, a touching moment—a father caring for a child.

The high points are many: During the “Precious Memories” duet with Cleveland, teacher and student both cry out sacred secrets in voices that chill the blood. Just as riveting is her reading of “Mary, Don’t You Weep.” The quirky 12/8 time signature creates a ferocious groove that sharpens the edge of Aretha’s biblical storytelling. When Mary chastises Jesus for allowing her brother Lazarus to die, Aretha voices her grief in terms of a stammer. She addresses Christ as “my master” followed by “my my my my my my my my my my my sweet Lord.” As Billy Preston once told me, that stutter might be the greatest riff of Aretha’s career. The church explodes. But that’s only the pre-climax. The full weight of the story comes when Christ summons Lazarus from the dead and gives him new life. Jazz singer Dianne

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