Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, died today at the age of 76.
“Aretha Franklin possessed one of the most distinctive and influential voices in the history of popular music,” BBC News writes. “In a 50-year recording career, she racked up 20 Top 10 albums, a dozen million-selling singles and earned no fewer than 18 Grammy awards. An artist of immense versatility, her powerful voice, trained in the gospel tradition, moved on to embrace jazz, soul and rhythm and blues. The influential Rolling Stone magazine rated her as the greatest singer of all time.”
World leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump, fellow artists, including Paul McCartney, and business leaders, including Apple CEO Tim Cook, mourned her death:
The Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, is dead. She was a great woman, with a wonderful gift from God, her voice. She will be missed!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 16, 2018
Let’s all take a moment to give thanks for the beautiful life of Aretha Franklin, the Queen of our souls, who inspired us all for many many years. She will be missed but the memory of her greatness as a musician and a fine human being will live with us forever. Love Paul pic.twitter.com/jW4Gpwfdts
— Paul McCartney (@PaulMcCartney) August 16, 2018
We mourn the passing of Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul. Her voice will keep lifting us, through the music she gave the world. Our thoughts are with her family, her loved ones and fans everywhere. Take her hand, precious Lord, and lead her home. 🎶 pic.twitter.com/I84HTEVZU1
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) August 16, 2018
Read more in The New York Times obiturary for Aretha Franklin here.
MacDailyNews Take: At the 1998 Grammy Awards, Franklin substituted at the last minute for the ailing Luciano Pavarotti by singing “Nessun dorma.”
R.I.P., Aretha, the Queen of Soul. pic.twitter.com/ZweBSVErMr
— MacDailyNews (@MacDailyNews) August 16, 2018
RIP Aretha.
Can’t imagine the shock of going from Barack Obama to Trump did any good for her health.
Keep gulping down that sawmp piss, while it’s still there!
@R2:
A much-loved and great singer passes away, and your only thought is a politically-motivated insult? Is that truly all you are?
Re-read your own post, and then go take a look at yourself in a mirror. Look hard.
The classless low life comment of the year …
Well you three are being predictably and childishly churlish at the very least.
Aretha Franklin was a registered Democrat, a personal friend and supporter of MLK, with ‘Respect’ she became anthemic to both the black Civil Rights Movement and women’s rights, sang at MLK’s funeral, sang at three presidential inaugurations…of course she was political and would surely have viewed Trumps election as a defeat.
Nothing wrong with that, except of course to those who can’t stomach facts with their ‘alternative’ revisionist history that denies how all facets of her life are part of the person she became.
Oh…and I find very little ‘class’ in any of your comments.
“would surely have viewed Trumps election as a defeat.”
So you don’t have a clue as usual.
“Oh…and I find very little ‘class’ in any of your comments.”
Oh…and am I suppose to care? … 😆
No GoeB, you do not care…about anything.
You do not care when presented with facts, the truth, civility, political reality, common sense, polite language or general discourse. You habitually lay brutal accusations at the door of any opposing argument – which is to say you lie with mendacious ease whilst running away from providing a smidgeon of evidence to back up your allegations. You care not that there even ‘is’ a legally constituted political opposition with the same rights and freedom of expression as your own cult. You do not care a fig for the victims of mass shootings so long as your right to ‘conceal-carry’ at all times is protected. You do not care about the planet or the future prospects of your offspring in a poisoned and needlessly polluted world.
So yes, I agree with you. You. Do. Not. Care. You are certifiably care free. In fact you are totally and 100% care-less and unburdened by any obligations to your fellow mankind.
Hey brainless, putting words in my mouth — I don’t care about YOU. Got it? …
MLK was conservative.
RESPECT was about a relationship and sex.
Quit trying to revise history….
Of course you could learn to parse the English language. Did I say MLK was not?
“…with ‘Respect’ she became anthemic to both the black Civil Rights Movement and women’s rights,” – note the use of “anthemic” which is to say part-of and representative of those movements and events at the time…which it did.
Quit trying to play dumb, meaningful dissembling is hard and you failed.
When you mention Democrat, the implication is the values they had then are what is practiced now. No way in Hell would MLK approve of the Godless Democratic Party of today. He may have voted Democrat back then, but like Kennedy he was closer to a Conservative than Nixon (a moderate republican) ever was. That’s not parsing, that’s making a distinction.
The only reason I brought up the song is because like many catchy tunes, only part is used as an anthem. For women’s treatment, a perfect choice. For the Civil Rights movement, you really have to cherry pick the lyrics.
Also you responded to GoeB’s reply to R2 for his political slant because of course you have this same view. That’s fine but I found your choice of words poor and the reply to me desperate.
All I’m askin’
Is for a little respect …
Respect
— Aretha Franklin, 1967
Wrong attribute. The song was from Otis Redding.
Being hell bent on correcting others, you should get your quotations right.
“Wrong attribute.”
Aretha Franklin released the song Respect in 1967.
Adeva released the song Respect in 1988.
Kelly Clarkson released the song Respect in 2002.
“The song was from Otis Redding.”
In 1964, so? In case you missed it, this is not Otis Redding day. This is mourning the great Aretha Franklin day in 2018.
“Being hell bent on correcting others, you should get your quotations right.”
I got my quotations EXACTLY ‘right,’ how clueless and obtuse can you be? … 😆
Traditionally the original composer is given credit for a phrase no matter how many times others repeat it, you argumentative little twat.
“Aretha helped define the American experience. In her voice, we could feel our history, all of it and in every shade—our power and our pain, our darkness and our light, our quest for redemption and our hard-won respect. May the Queen of Soul rest in eternal peace.” – Barack Obama
Interesting tidbit I’m sure many here know (and not to make this political, just surprising….) but most of her early R&B hits were recorded at Muscle Shoals studio over in Alabama….with all White studio musicians….many from the South.
Again, just an amazing fact to me when learned decades ago (as a former “musician”) that ‘those cats were so hip’. I had taken for granted she was at Motown, not Atlantic!!
Ahmet Ertugen knew great talent when he heard it — he & Atlantic were also the “cats” who bridged Ray Charles from supertalent to force-of-nature.
She was an amazing singer, and she had a sense of humor.
You see that in the movie, The Blues Brothers.
Also, her reputation in music was quite good. She was kind and charitable in a business which has a lot of inflated and damaged egos. The tributes to her which have now begun are for somebody quite deserving.
But it does make me wonder about Apple. Singers die and iTunes throws their pictures onto the screen and tries to sell us their albums.
It’s getting to the point that when Tim Cook tweets us about anything, I wonder who died and how Apple is going to make a buck from it.
“Without your dry white toast, without your four fried chickens, and WITHOUT. MATT. GUITAR. MURPHY.”
If he didn’t, then you or some petulant whiner would complain about him not acknowledging her death.
This is about honoring the stellar life of the great one, Aretha Franklin — the first female inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
This is not about Libtards like you and R2 interjecting politics and Apple fanboy BS. Get a life …
Don’t sink to their level. There’s enough name calling on MDN already.
Have not sunk an inch, but I appreciate your advice …
True. You’re already at rock bottom since every goddamn post from you includes immature name calling or politics. Enough already.
I’d actually be happier if Tim Cook did not tweet so much.
All those “terrific” meetings and “incredible” people. It wears thin, especially after a disaster when the mandatory “Thoughts & Prayers” are mentioned. But he’s a nice guy and that’s what nice people do.
My concern is the iTunes style of “celebrating” the life of this singer or that singer by nudging us to buy something. It’s a little like the lawyer chasing the ambulance. Or in this case, the music store chasing the hearse.
Aretha Franklin an American Icon… R.I.P.
Timmy.. an attention whore!
Hmmm. Who cares what Tim Cook thinks of Artha Franklin? It’s out of his lane, which is the CEO of a computer technology company. Tim, you seem to have really forgotten about the Mac. Forget Aretha and start thinking about the Mac, which is what you get paid to do.
FYI this performance is not from the Grammys
Trump sad that a black woman died? That’s a hoot.
Another fake guesture, like those he keeps throwing at his Mac customer base.