Aretha: From These Roots - Hardcover

Aretha Franklin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375500332 ISBN 13: 9780375500336

Publisher: Villard, 1999

Synopsis

Her soulful, soaring voice has earned her mythic status. Now, in her own moving words, the woman behind the myth is revealed. The result is a captivating self-portrait of one of this century's most fascinating artists, an Aretha Franklin as real as the songs she sings.
        
For the first time anywhere, Aretha tells her story--the glorious triumphs as well as the heartbreaking pain. With refreshing candor, Aretha tells it like it is, the way she sees it, the way she lived it.
        
A child prodigy of the golden age of gospel, the daughter of a world-famous preacher, Aretha was the anointed successor to Mahalia Jackson and Clara Ward. But her father had a broader vision and helped Aretha enter the field of pop and jazz. By age eighteen, she was under contract to Columbia Records. Six years later, after only a few minor hits, she switched to Atlantic, where she shook the musical world to its roots. Her song "Respect" became the anthem of an epoch, a touchstone for African Americans, for women, for all people struggling to be free. Aretha became the Queen of Soul, the genre's finest interpreter since Ray Charles.
        
In Aretha: From These Roots, the singer gets up-close and personal. In rich detail, she paints a vivid picture of a Detroit long gone: the storefront churches, the basement parties, the explosive R&B shows. She documents her life as a single teenage mother, working to balance home life with career, coping with two challenging marriages and, later, romantic relationships that were the source of both tremendous joy and unforeseen heartache.    
        
Along the way, we meet the characters who lit up her life: her charismatic father, the Reverend C. L. Franklin, "the man with the million-dollar voice"; Sam Cooke, the man of her dreams; her singing sisters, Erma and Carolyn, and her manager-brother, Cecil; her famous colleagues--Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, the Temptations, Luther Vandross, and Luciano Pavarotti--as well as some famous rivals.
        
Aretha emerges as a triumphant woman of rare wit, willing to share with us her passion for great music, great food, and great love affairs. Her book does more than illuminate some of the most exciting songs ever sung; it lets you into the heart and mind of the mesmerizing woman who sang them.  

About this title

About the Author

Aretha Franklin has won more Grammys--fifteen--than any female in history and was granted the Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award. The first wo-man to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, she was also the youngest recipient of a Ken-nedy Center Honor. The state of Michigan has pro-claimed her voice a natural resource. Miss Franklin lives in Detroit.

David Ritz, a three-time winner of the Ralph Glea-son Music Book Award, is the bestselling biographer of Ray Charles, Marvin Gaye, B. B. King, Smokey Robinson, Etta James, Jerry Wexler, and Sinbad. His novels include Blue Notes Under a Green Felt Hat; his lyrics include "Sexual Healing." Mr. Ritz, who won a 1992 Grammy for Best Album Notes, lives in Los Angeles.

From the Inside Flap

soaring voice has earned her mythic status. Now, in her own moving words, the woman behind the myth is revealed. The result is a captivating self-portrait of one of this century's most fascinating artists, an Aretha Franklin as real as the songs she sings.

For the first time anywhere, Aretha tells her story--the glorious triumphs as well as the heartbreaking pain. With refreshing candor, Aretha tells it like it is, the way she sees it, the way she lived it.

A child prodigy of the golden age of gospel, the daughter of a world-famous preacher, Aretha was the anointed successor to Mahalia Jackson and Clara Ward. But her father had a broader vision and helped Aretha enter the field of pop and jazz. By age eighteen, she was under contract to Columbia Records. Six years later, after only a few minor hits, she switched to Atlantic, where she shook the musical world to its roots. Her song

Reviews

While the Queen of Soul's autobiography is no crowning achievement, it offers a breezy tour through the singer's life and trailblazing recording career. Raised in a musical household in Detroit (next door to Smokey Robinson, with frequent visits from Mahalia Jackson, Sam Cooke, Dinah Washington and Rev. James Cleveland), Franklin made her solo singing debut at the age of 10 in her father's church. At 16, she gave birth to her second son, dropped out of high school and recorded her first album. Several romances and two more sons followed, as did 17 Grammies (the most for a female performer) and more than 20 number-one hits. The strength of this memoir, whose coauthor has collaborated on books by Marvin Gaye, Etta James, Smokey Robinson and Atlantic Records owner Jerry Wexler, lies in Franklin's candid discussion of her craft, song selection and various peers. She's not shy about settling old scores with those she believes have dismissed her in printAincluding Gladys Knight, Mavis Staples and Cissy Houston. But she remains emotionally remote when talking about herself, reserving her real passion for her music. Few will finish this book, however, without an urge to add another Franklin disc to their collection. Photos not seen by PW. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Award-winning author and lyricist Ritz assists the "Queen of Soul" in this autobiography that proves you can be a star while still being human. Franklin takes us from being a teenage mother to traveling cross country playing the "Chitlin Circuit" to longtime stardom.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The Queen of Soul tells the story of her life with grace and dignity, glad for the opportunity to correct erroneous assumptions about her past. Coauthor Ritz--an old hand at this genre, having written books with Ray Charles, Etta James, and B. B. King--is the perfect accompanist, allowing Franklin's speaking voice, an instrument almost as powerful as her singing voice, to flow freely. She begins with keenly detailed memories of her lively childhood. After her parents separated, she and her four siblings spent summers in Buffalo with their mother until her untimely death, then lived year-round in Detroit with their father, the famous Reverend Clarence LaVaughn Franklin. A brilliant orator, he recognized his daughter's extraordinary talents early on and never failed to support and encourage her, even after she became pregnant at age 14 and then had a second son two years later and dropped out of high school. Music and motherhood were clearly her callings, and with a circle of family friends that included Martin Luther King Jr., Art Tatum, and Berry Gordon, she didn't lack for meaningful education. Franklin vividly describes her early performances with her father, her segue into secular music, and her rise to the top, always paying tribute to her mentors, from James Cleveland to Sam Cooke. She reveals her sorrows (the 1980s were a terrible time) and candidly acknowledges her mistakes both in business and in love, but her ebullience and strength of character rule her narrative. Now 57, Franklin has added opera to her repertoire, enrolled at Juilliard, and written a soon-to-be-released cookbook. Donna Seaman

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The biggest heartthrob of my teen years, though, wasn't to be found in the roller rink or the halls of Hutchins Junior High. He was to be found in church. He was a singer and a star, one of the finest brothers ever to grace New Bethel. When I first saw him, all I could do was sigh; my unspoken response as I looked back over my shoulder was, Oh my God--who is that?
When I saw him and his brother L.C. coming down the aisle for that evening's program, I got happy long before the singing started.

I'm talking about Sam Cooke.

The Soul Stirrer

It must have been around 1955 or '56. Daddy was backing the presidential candidacy of Governor Adlai Stevenson. Daddy was a staunch, lifelong Democrat, as am I. But back then, when I was a girl growing up on the North End of Detroit, politics were way over my head, while music hit me right at home.

I loved the secular music played by Rocking with Leroy--Little Willie John, the Flamingos, the Moonglows, and the Spaniels. But it was at Daddy's church that another sound and sight really rocked my world. It was during one of the gospel programs at New Bethel that I was introduced to the Soul Stirrers. One Stirrer stirred me more than the rest.

Some men can sing, charm, and shine; some are easy with their good looks, others radiate confidence. Sam had all of this and more--the personality of a prince and a voice to match. He was one in a million. Yet for all his abundant talent, he exuded simple humility, the sign of a great person. He treated everyone with respect. His manners were impeccable. Sam was in a class by himself.

I had heard the Soul Stirrers, on record and the radio, before that evening I saw them in church. Male quartets were a major part of the golden age of gospel. The great groups like the Swan Silvertones produced great lead singers like Claude Jeter, who, along with Ira Tucker of the Dixie Hummingbirds and Julius Cheeks of the Sensational Nightingales, were monuments of pure gospel power. Beyond the enormity of their voices and the mastery of their technique, the groups they led had a new and spirited style. Rather than robes, the men might wear matching green or blue or even gold suits. They had their own kind of choreographed steps. They were servants of God, to be sure, but they were also showmen.

Among the great groups of gospel, the women, by contrast, wore lavishly colorful robes and sometimes dress suits, like Ruth "Baby Sister" Davis of the Davis Sisters--Jackie, Audrey, Alfreda, and Curtis Dublin--a very powerful and spirit-filled group, and Dot Love and the Gospel Harmonettes, whom I particularly liked. I also considered Jackie Verdell of the Davis Sisters one of the best and most underrated female soul singers of all time. It was through Jackie that I learned the expression "Girl, you peed tonight"--meaning you were dynamite. Several nights Jackie sang so hard she literally had a spot or two on her robe from peeing. Singing far too hard, I also peed here and there in the early days; I quickly realized no one should sing that hard.

Sam Cooke never sang too hard. He sang hard occasionally, though, and when he did you were in for the best time of your life. Later, of course, Sam would become a major crossover star in the world of pop. But to hear him during his gospel days was a special thrill. His biggest hits were "Nearer to Thee," "Wonderful," and "Touch the Hem of His Garment." As I mentioned, I established myself by singing my first solo in church, "Jesus Be a Fence Around Me," because I loved the Soul Stirrers' version so much.

Sam was love on first hearing, love at first sight. That Sunday evening he and L.C. were outfitted in dark-brown-and-blue supersharp trench coats that had a foreign intrigue about them.

Sam was certainly an inspiration to me. I was so influenced by him that Daddy told me to stop emulating Sam and instead express my own heart and soul. I'm so thankful today for my father's advice.

Edition details

• Publisher: Villard
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0375500332
• ISBN 13: 9780375500336
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 272