by Angela K. Durden, Fan
August 16, 2018 the Queen of Soul
died from pancreatic cancer exactly 41 years after Elvis died from a heart
attack. I
mentioned this to my friend, an old, old, old former radio guy from the
mid-1960s to early 1970s who remembered Elvis and Aretha well. He hastened to
change the subject to a more upbeat topic.
He said, “Hey, Angela, the reason
I remember when Elvis died is because he and Aretha both died on my birthday.”
I said, “What? Today is your
birthday?”
“Yep. Guess who else was born on
this day?” He looked all eager for me to guess but I just couldn’t and looked
at him like I really wanted to know and then I said, “Who?” “Madonna!”
Let it be made perfectly clear
that my friend has never once heard a song by Madonna because my friend stopped
listening to the radio on the very day he quit the radio station. My old, old,
old friend is one of those people who is thrust into a situation where he must
remember massive facts and figures then spew them out again quickly and
accurately. Which is why he made such a great DJ. He is also one of those
people that never forgets data. So that the fact that he even knew Madonna’s name
and that she was a singer, actress, and all-round glamourous material girl has
nothing to do with his interest in her but more to do with her team’s marketing
expertise and damn, they are experts at it.
Of course, even Madonna’s team is
having trouble with marketing these days because a lot of their efforts
centered around Madonna’s outrageous and ever-increasing scandalous behavior.
All this is quite opposite from
Aretha Franklin who is not known for swirling scandal, but for her massive talent.
Granted, Aretha had drama in her life, but she did not use it to get free
column inches. Instead, she did not want to talk about the drama, often
refusing to speak of it when asked by reporters.
While I was not there when reporters
got pushy in digging for scandal, I can bet the Queen of Soul put them in their
place real fast, and I can bet they didn’t try it again for fear of finding out
what “or else” really could mean.
And that is why I like Aretha. She
was truly the Queen of Class and Soul. She showed both during the 1998 Divas Live brought to television by VH1
which lined up the best of the best: Aretha Franklin, Carole King, Céline Dion,
Gloria Estefan, Shania Twain, and Mariah Carey. So, what happened was that
Aretha didn’t stop singing when it was Céline’s turn to sing. Well, Céline,
unlike most Canadians, wasn’t putting up with Aretha stomping all over her
stage time and she decided she was going to show Aretha a thing or two.
By way of explaining what
happened, Carole King began by saying, “Bless [Aretha’s] heart, but she does
like to take over.”
But Aretha knew who was on the
stage with her. And she knew who needed to learn a lesson. And so she was
teaching the tiny Canuck to know her place. Now, Aretha could do that and not
be a smart-ass high-faluting ego-maniac because Aretha had come up the hard way
in life and in the business. Céline did not. In fact, Céline’s story is more
like a fairy tale comparatively speaking.
Aretha understood that some folks
gotta learn the hard way and that some folks need to learn in public and where
but on national television in a much vaunted show would be better? No place. Aretha
did not shirk her duty and when she kept singing through Céline’s part and Céline
was getting antsy about it, Aretha knew Céline would try something stupid and
she did.
She tried to out-diva Aretha.
Céline’s attempt did not work. Do
not believe what the other stars on the show said about the situation because I’m
telling you what it looked like from the viewer’s POV and that is all that
matters in live TV and in this show Céline showed herself up as being a Wannabee. She pulled out
all the stops in her vocal arsenal and found herself wanting.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen,
she found herself craving the power, tone, control, and range of Aretha’s voice, and was inadequate
in rendering
the song “Natural Woman” with all the emotional capacity carried fluently through
Aretha’s voice. Céline ended a great evening by trying to start a cat fight and
all that did was make her look bad. Not a good move, Céline.
But, Aretha, Aretha, Aretha, even
Céline will miss you and I bet she does a tribute to you in one of her splashy
shows because, I do believe, the lesson you taught her has been learned.
Goodbye, Aretha.
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