Aretha Franklin - Queen of Soul, Documentary # 1

me royalty is not unusual in american music in jazz count basie and duke ellington reigned supreme in the blues bessie smith was a legendary empress but in seoul a unique afro-american blend of gospel passion and pop lyrics there's been only one queen her name aretha franklin in 1962 i was crowned the queen of souls with respect to maintaining my title as the queen of soul i it well it's second nature to me and i think just being myself uh the rest will take care of itself it's so it's exactly so it's what it is she's uh the queen of soul and uh if if i can i can't even describe but all i can tell you is i can feel it you know it's just that deep it's just right from there yeah is her voice is one of the great natural instruments i've ever heard and the way she uses it is just so instinctive and so beautiful she knows exactly what she wants i want you to know when she was like five years old i mean she could go to the piano and play nearly like she plays it now none of the rest of us could do that you know the rest of us could just go sit down and play the piano and uh and sing like that aretha was raised in the church and so was i i mean so i mean you know yeah uh i guess your music i mean what's in your body i mean what's in your soul or the way you came up is somehow another will come out through your fingers or come out through your your vocal cords or whatever the church certainly the gospel are my roots and um it certainly served as a testing ground for me as a singer as well as many other good things came from the church uh and it's just a feeling that you get there that you don't get anywhere else well i started in um the choir at my father's church to bethel baptist church um my father is a minister and from the choir i became a soloist along with the choir and i left the church at times to travel with my father reverend c.l franklin in the 1950s and 60s reverend franklin was a mighty figure in black america he was a powerful member of the national baptist church a group whose seven million members made it the largest black organization outside of africa but reverend franken was more than a religious leader he was one of the first ministers to have his sermons released on records and to host his own nationally broadcast radio show through which he reached millions and you know whatever your mental attitude is has a lot to do with what you're going to be and how successful you are in your efforts remember in black society the minister was bigger than the president if i'm in new york and my sister died in mississippi okay i have no place i can eat as i go down i have no place i can sleep so it was the baptist minister here that would call baptist ministers on the way down and so that black baptist church had a fantastic role in saving me from being dehumanized aretha born march 25 1942 was the third of four children her mother louise left the family when aretha was only six and died when she was ten left to raise the family by himself reverend franklin emerged as a constant source of strength and inspiration in aretha's life he was a very liberal minister which kept us in trouble because he knew all the performers in both realms you know pop blues gospel and then during that time during the 50s and all that was unusual for minister to have that kind of association outside of the church because of reverend franklin's fame stars from all branches of american music gravitated to his home sam cook clara ward and jackie wilson were just a few of the musicians who filled the franklin house with their presence and their music every time i think about my early childhood it would be waking up to the sound of a stand-up bass or someone's guitar or the piano and that might be the oscar peterson trio or that might be the art tatum group well you would drag her out of bed and she'd go down there and play for the stars and they you know considered her a star once they heard i think that my dad felt that i was gifted or uniquely talented as a child yes uh he would coach me in different things he would give me different records to listen to and to see if i could emulate them on the piano uh different vocalists to listen to such as claire ward and uh mahalia other artists right there we had services across the country i would travel with my dad i was about 14 15 on the weekends i could go and he would give me fifty dollars each time i would sing one or two songs and it was quite exciting i not only saw and heard and performed with the gospel greats but i also saw other artists that were in the pop film that i liked and whose whose records i bought as a child and as a teenager people like fats domino and bobby bland and many other artists that would be staying in the same hotel that we would be staying in and so i had the opportunity to meet them as well aretha and most instances were saying just before her father reverend franklin naturally being a minister was the headliner most times and then aretha would do a solo just before the reverend would do his sermon i gained a lot of experience on the road with him then i decided i wanted to change fields so i let him know and uh he felt that this was what i wanted to do and this is what i should do don't be afraid baby just ask me oh boy hey i think there was some some conflict in the church congregation concerning her crossing over they felt to some degree that she was turning her back on either the church or on god by singing secular music however my father played quite an instrumental role in in elevating the people's enlightenment aretha was a restless young woman who'd had two children by the time she was 17 and had gotten married in her early 20s just as aretha was maturing into womanhood she sought new challenges as an artist over the objections of some churchgoers reverend franklin arranged for her to record demo tapes of pop and jazz material in hopes of landing a recording contract we both liked columbia columbia was a major and well-known label at the time and so we went to new york i began to live in the big apple he's coming back to me well my first encounter with the writer was listening on on demo or to a demo record but i heard this voice and i said my god that's the greatest voice i've heard since billy holiday and i signed it to colombia even though uh sam cook was trying desperately together for rca and i i made i think some very good records with aretha at columbia and we i wanted to keep us to a degree as a jazz singer and but columbia wanted to make a big pop star out of her which i thought would ruin her integrity it didn't bother you i was crying and now you wanna break my heart twice is that why you got in touch with me i guess you must while everybody around her met well i think that those those who probably met more than well are the ones who were the distractors i i think that i used to argue with her husband ted white not in front of her but behind her back i would argue with him why can't you let her do what she wants to do and uh the moment she was able to do it uh the rest i mean you know she really became an international star at that at that point in time aretha had terrible luck with men now that was one of the awful positive and there'd be one quote husband after another handling her affairs you know and it was a mess and also they weren't picking the right material for her colombia was basically a white company

Channel: Silvano Mazzella

Views: 530,310

Keywords: Aretha Franklin (Musical Artist), Rhythm And Blues (Musical Genre), Gospel Music (Musical Genre), Documentation (Film Genre)

Id: RKfkvbOP1sc

Length: 15min 50sec (950 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 10 2015