MarvalusOne Icon: Aretha Franklin

Can’t nobody sang a song like Aretha Franklin…I’m not talking about this new, preaching to Fantasia ’bout “Putting Her Up On Game” Aretha; no, no, I’m talking about “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You), Aretha…”Baby I Love You” Aretha…”R-E-S-P-E-C-T” Aretha. The Aretha that could make you tell that man to go to hell one minute and call him up and tell him to come home the next.

Aretha Franklin is an Icon to me because she is the QUEEN…there is none like her and never will be. Just like there will never be anyone who will ever have a voice as clear as Whitney’s was (before the crack and Bobby Brown), no one who will ever duplicate Gladys’s soul and emotion, there will never be anyone who’s voice is so amazing that it could make you cry like Aretha’s. Listen to her sing “Amazing Grace” and you will know what I mean. When Aretha sings these lines from one of my favorite songs, you know she means this shit:

I don’t want nobody always
Sittin’ around me and my man
I don’t want nobody always
Sittin’ right there
Lookin’ at me and that man

Be it my mother, my brother, or my sister
Would you believe, I’ll get up
Put on some clothes
Go out and help them find somebody for themselves,
if I can, yes I will

Now I don’t mind company
Because company’s alright with me
Every once in awhile
Yes it is

I tell you I don’t mind company
Because company’s alright with me
Every once in awhile, yeah

But ooooooo, oh When me and that man get to lovin’
I tell ya girls, I dig ya, but I just don’t have time
To sit, and chit, and sit and chit-chat and smile

Don’t send me no doctor
Fillin’ me up with all of those pills
Got me a man named Dr. Feelgood
And Oh! Yeah!

That man takes care of all my pains and my ills
His name is Dr. Feelgood in the morning
And taking care of business is really this man’s game
And after one visit to Dr. Feelgood,
You’d understand why feel good is his name
Oh! Yeah! Ooh!
Good God almighty
The man sure makes me feel real……..
Goooooooood!

Ooh, wee! That is some good stuff right there! The only up and coming singer that vaguely compares to Aretha? Fantasia…she’s got a long way to go…but her voice is strong…if she continues to progress along the right path, she could have a very good career.

Aretha was raised in the church, and you hear those gospel roots all through her songs. She is the first Woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, has won a total of 19 Grammy Awards, has been awarded the Presidential Medal of Honor and National Medal of Arts, and won the first eight awards given in the Grammy Best Female R&B Vocal Performance category (the category is nicknamed the “Aretha Award”)…those are honors truly worthy of a queen.

It’s all love, baby… 

© 2007. Marva Allen-Fowler. All Rights Reserved.