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Aretha Franklin

Is Aretha Franklin’s “Ain’t No Way” An Undercover LGBT Anthem?

January 22, 2018

Music·Then

Introduction Before I get started on “Ain’t No Way”, I want to address a few things (in case this crosses Miss Franklin’s eyes). The intention of this piece is not gossip. No malice is intended in these words. I’m simply working off information I’ve learned, and a theory I came up with as a music fan, listener, and interpreter of lyrics. If anything,

In Depth·Music·Then

Aretha Franklin’s Young, Gifted & Black is a Masterpiece

Young, Gifted & Black: The Queen On The Throne 45 years ago Aretha Franklin was at her peak. 3 major events mark this era: First, her show stopping 1971 performances at the Fillmore West in San Francisco helped expose her to a brand new audience. Second, her game-changing 1972 gospel

VH1 Divas Live: A Life-Changing Show

I was recently at a friend’s house for game night, and upon

Aretha Franklin’s “Respect”: Still T-C-B After 50 Years

24-year old Aretha Franklin walked into Atlantic Recording Studios on February 14,

Aretha Franklin’s ‘Sweet Passion’ Yielded Mixed Results

May 19, 2022

Aretha Franklin·Featured·In Depth·Music·Retrospectives

Very little has been written about Aretha Franklin’s 1977 album Sweet Passion. Of the three most significant written accounts of Aretha’s life, none of them dedicate more than a paragraph to the album, focusing instead on her budding romance with second husband Glynn Turman and the resurgence she experienced with

The Electrifying Aretha Franklin: Aretha’s Sophomore Album

March 19, 2022

Aretha Franklin·Featured·In Depth·Retrospectives·Then

Most people have never heard Aretha Franklin’s sophomore album, 1962’s The Electrifying Aretha Franklin. The same goes for her debut album, 1961’s Aretha With The Ray Bryant Combo, and the half dozen albums that followed. Columbia Records did a knockout job of holding onto their recordings of Aretha Franklin, modestly

Aretha Franklin’s Young, Gifted and Black Turns 50

January 24, 2022

Aretha Franklin·Featured·In Depth·Retrospectives·Then

I was around 8 or 9 when I got my copy of Aretha Franklin’s Young, Gifted and Black. It arrived via one of the storied, long-defunct CD clubs (some do still exist but now exclusively push DVDs). For those who weren’t attune to those clubs, they would send alluring catalogs

Playlist: 97 Minutes of Christmas, Vol. 5

December 16, 2021

Music·Playlists

This Christmas season, the staff of THE 97 will be sharing their favorite holiday songs via our new 97 Minutes of Christmas Playlist series. Each playlist contains 1 hour and 37~ minutes of Christmas jams personally curated by the staff writer. VOLUME 5, CURATED BY ANDREW How do you boil Christmas

Aretha Franklin’s Love All The Hurt Away

August 20, 2021

Aretha Franklin·Featured·In Depth·Music·Retrospectives

By 1981, Aretha Franklin was finding her musical footing again. The 70’s had started strong for Aretha, producing some of the most significant work of her career, but they ended dismally. After departing Atlantic Records for Clive Davis’ Arista Records at the turn of the decade, Aretha opted for a

What You See Is What You Sweat: Aretha Franklin’s New Jack Swing and A Miss

June 25, 2021

Aretha Franklin·Featured·Music·Retrospectives

What You See Is What You Sweat isn’t at the forefront of the Aretha Franklin canon. In fact, the 1991 album helps bring up the rear, and there’s been very little written on it since its release. It’s just not a solid representation of the tenacity of Aretha Franklin musically

Celebrating Aretha Franklin’s Aretha Live At Fillmore West

May 19, 2021

Aretha Franklin·Featured·Retrospectives

“She was afraid she didn’t belong there,” Aretha Franklin’s producer Jerry Wexler told David Ritz in Respect: The Life of Aretha Franklin. That was Aretha’s mentality about staging a show in the heart of the hippie revolution: San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district. For all her hesitance, Aretha Franklin was sitting on

Revisiting Aretha: A Woman Falling Out Of Love 10 Years Later

May 3, 2021

Aretha Franklin·Featured·In Depth·Retrospectives

I woke up at the crack of dawn on May 3, 2011. I drove from my West Philly apartment down to South Philly’s Wal Mart and basically opened the place up. It took about 20 minutes for a staff member to retrieve a copy from the back because they weren’t

10 Aretha Franklin Songs You Need To Hear

March 25, 2020

Aretha Franklin·Artists·Music

Aretha Franklin’s catalog is so vast that you could listen to one Aretha Franklin song every day for a year and not get through all of her material (trust me, I’ve been working on that on my blog). And while most people can name a handful of Aretha songs, whether

So Damn Happy: Aretha Franklin Brightens Up

September 23, 2018

In Depth·Music·Then

In the final decades of her career, Aretha Franklin released a modest amount of music compared to her early years. Gone were the days of releasing an album or two every year. So Damn Happy is one of Aretha’s final bodies of work, despite being released 15 years before her passing

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Aretha Franklin

Is Aretha Franklin’s “Ain’t No Way” An Undercover LGBT Anthem?

Aretha Franklin’s Young, Gifted & Black is a Masterpiece

VH1 Divas Live: A Life-Changing Show

Aretha Franklin’s “Respect”: Still T-C-B After 50 Years

Aretha Franklin’s ‘Sweet Passion’ Yielded Mixed Results

The Electrifying Aretha Franklin: Aretha’s Sophomore Album

Aretha Franklin’s Young, Gifted and Black Turns 50

Playlist: 97 Minutes of Christmas, Vol. 5

Aretha Franklin’s Love All The Hurt Away

What You See Is What You Sweat: Aretha Franklin’s New Jack Swing and A Miss

Celebrating Aretha Franklin’s Aretha Live At Fillmore West

Revisiting Aretha: A Woman Falling Out Of Love 10 Years Later

10 Aretha Franklin Songs You Need To Hear

So Damn Happy: Aretha Franklin Brightens Up

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