Thread by @frodofied

I spent the day listening to #ArethaFranklin and getting emotional more often than I expected.

I have always loved Aretha Franklin. I even loved the eras that other fans would've preferred to pretend did not exist.

In tribute here are my favorite
recordings:

1/

"Don't trouble the water..."

My mom used to sing this song to me whenever I was upset as a child, which was often. Elvis performed her favorite version.

I loved the original, but for me it's Aretha rendition and it's incredible vocal arrangement .

2/

#Aretha was an instrument of the gods.

When she sang it looked both effortless and all consuming.

Like Tina, when Aretha covered a song the original often receded from your consciousness.

"Spanish Harlem" is Aretha's song.

3/

I have to listen to #ChainOfFools alone because it's impossible not to move when I hear it and I am very much the rhythmless white boy you would expect from a far.

I hope for future that no matter what happens to humanity that the tapes survive.

4/

"Who's Zoomin' Who?" was Aretha's thirty third album and the title track was the second single released from the album.

While "Freeway of Love" was the biggest hit from the collection this was my favorite

5/

While most lists of her greatest songs will ignore Aretha's post-Atlantic career, they do so at their loss.

I Knew You We're Waiting (For Me) is one of most moving, exuberant, and joyful vocal collaborations in pop history.

"I still believed..."

6/

I have no doubt that this song will top most lists of #Aretha's greatest records, and rightly.

It is one of the most incredible vocal performances in the history of the genre.

There will never be another...

(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman

7/

Only Mahalia Jackson and Shirley Caesar had voices so obviously suited for gospel music.

This collaboration with Mavis Staples takes me to church, and in all the right ways.

Oh Happy Day/The Lord's Prayer

#ArethaFranklin

Until You Come Back To Me ( That's What I'm Gonna Do) is one of the most restrained and whimsical vocal performances from the first half of Franklin's career. I adore it.

This song finds its way onto every road trip mix I produce.

#ArethaFranklin

8/

I love everything about "You're All I Need To Get By."

Love like this here.

Sending future hip-hop artists some cues she references herself and others throughout.

It is one of the most confident vocal performances of #ArethaFranklin 's career.

I learned of #ArethaFranklin's death via a tweet by @yashar. I did not react well.

I gravitated to two songs immediately, first the opening entry of this list, and then this lesser known album track from 1986's "Aretha."

"An angel cries in the sky..."

I don't know why, but this song just "feels me with the spirit" as my dear friend Betty used to call it when she'd take me to her church and I'd see her FEEL it.

#ArethaFranklin giving a man hell is everything

"You know that you lie."

Don't Play That Song For Me ( You Lie)

#ArethaFranklin held to a successful formula for album production throughout the second half of her career.

The single.
The ballad.
The spiritual.
The duet.

Aretha often confounded her famous collaborators, but still they come.

"Ever-changing Times"

When I was 15 and got my learner's permit to drive I used to steal my brothers car in the middle of the night and drive to the beach near our house along Lake Michigan.

"Another Night" was often my company

No words.

#ArethaFranklin

#ArethaFranklin's cover of The Beatles "Let It Be" is a raucous, moving, and altogether surprisingly restrained effort.

I just love it.

John is said to have love this version too.

"In my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me..."

I could do this all night and all day and still not tell you all of the songs and all of the ways that #ArethaFranklin moved me.

I'm not great with death.
Lacking any religious beliefs, except that religion is bullcocky I accept that there is no place we go after this.

With an us to dust and then to the stars belief system I do not take the losses of beloved figures well.

And this one smarts.

I'm going to finish this playlist with two of Franklin's most explicitly feminist recordings.

They were recorded over 20 years apart.

"Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves" was actually written by Lennox & Stewart for Tina Turner, but when Tina was unable to clear her schedule an impatient Stewart approached #ArethaFranklin who was working on her own album & agreed.

#QueenofSoul
#ICant

At the end we come full circle. #ArethaFranklin was simply a giant. One of the most famous and influential women to ever live, in this or any era.

With worldwide album sales over 75 million she is one the best selling music artists ever.

#ArethaFranklin won many awards over the course of a career that spanned six decades. These included 17 Grammy's, 3 American Music Awards, and in 1994 she was awarded the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors.

Aretha Franklin died yesterday at 76, leaving a legacy of true greatness.

I end this thread with the song most associated with #ArethaFranklin and her immense legend.

The song is an Otis Redding cover, but few would say so.

This song IS #Aretha.

It has been a feminist anthem for 51 years.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

#AllHailTheQueen