Aretha Franklin dead at 76

Aretha Franklin died this morning of pancreatic cancer.  She was 76.

Thank, you, ma'am, for sharing your life with us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WY66elCQkYk

What a talent. She will be missed.

RESPECT

Rest Peacefully. 

Where I grew up blues and soul music was very common. I call it roller skating music because when we went roller skating in the summer and public (ice) skating in the winter it's all they played.

When we moved to whitebread city it was pretty obvious that my musical tastes were not that same as my friends.

I heard  this on the radio a few weeks ago, looked it up when I got home, and listened to a bunch of her other songs.

She was truly one of a kind. 

I've never heard another voice like that. Ever.

She was the first lady soul singer I ever heard.

And the best. 

When Pavarotti couldn't sing Nessun' D'orma due to illness at the Grammys, Aretha Franklin sang it instead.  That's an opera aria written for a man and this woman had the guts to get on a stage in front of the whole country after minimal preparation and sing it.

A true Galactic All-Star.

The one and only Queen of Soul.

Rest in Peace Aretha

Jerry From LA said:

When Pavarotti couldn't sing Nessun' D'orma due to illness at the Grammys, Aretha Franklin sang it instead.  That's an opera aria written for a man and this woman had the guts to get on a stage in front of the whole country after minimal preparation and sing it.

A true Galactic All-Star.

I remember seeing that and being blown away by her performance of it.  It was amazing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tsYKhGu--U

And she kept singing it later.

I really enjoyed the Muscle Shoals Documentary that I watched in the past on Netflix.  The stuff about Areatha was great.  Here is a quick clip.  

https://vimeo.com/168128006  

A true giant of music. RIP.

John Welsh said:

I really enjoyed the Muscle Shoals Documentary that I watched in the past on Netflix.  The stuff about Areatha was great.  Here is a quick clip.  

https://vimeo.com/168128006  

This will be tonight's viewing.

Amazing woman with an amazing body of work.

And we just lost the other person in that picture a couple of months ago. 

She not only sung her art, she shouted it,last of the blues shouters? Her and Howlin Wolf must be making a joyful noise! 

Thanks so much for posting this. I wanted to do so when I heard that she had died, but was not able to find the time while I was at work.

Thank you so much for sharing your great talent with the world, Aretha.

Oh that voice - it grabs your soul. 

I was fortunate enough to meet her recently. I can tell you she was generous with her time but didn't tolerate fools. She had a wonderful peace and energy around her, even when she was in so much pain. May we always remember her for what she was, truly a queen among pretenders.

In reply to Erich :

You summarized it nicely.  She definitely suffered through some interviews where you could tell she wanted to be somewhere else. 

And she did the best Snickers commercial ever.