Aretha Franklin

Notice, with the greatest of solemnities, the Queen of Soul -regarding the monumental biography written by David Ritz-: "Don't waste your money on reading this unauthorized biography." Without over-pondering the outburst that followed that admonition, Aretha Franklin allowed herself to label it, then, as [sic] "filthy garbage." It is true that both had a turbulent history of happy collaborations and no less stormy misadventures: Franklin and Ritz worked together in the censored confection of the singer's sweetened memoirs, Aretha: From These Roots, published in 1999. Which does not admit discussion It is that Aretha Franklin broke into this impious world in the bosom of the family of a handsome Baptist preacher, happily given over to the promiscuities that the free observance of the prescribed love of neighbor imposed on him and he lent himself to attend religiously; quite a superstar in her own right - it should be noted here that it was not within the reach of any preacher that her sermons were recorded and distributed everywhere as great hits of popular song. Overexposed to the influence of the great musicians and artists who frequented the home of her famous father, the voice of the one who was called to become perhaps the most prodigious singer that African American popular song has given would germinate. After giving birth to two children in her hazardous adolescence, she left them in charge of her own to move to New York and tune her instrument there - without much luck in her first tientos. It would still be necessary to wait for an inspired producer to convince her to dust off her gospel roots, at which point fame and fortune finally began to smile at her with the expropriation of "Respect." Unavailable to discouragement, she always found a way to overcome the many adversities she had to deal with throughout her career to rise from the ashes and impose her unquestionable teaching. David Ritz, a writer of his memoirs, offers us the much-needed counterpoint to that autohagiography, making use, for this occasion, of the sources that made up the artist's family circle, and contrasting what he compiled, when officiating as a Negro, with the testimonies of those who lived and worked with Aretha. Here is the definitive biography of one of the most lofty and tormented voices of sacred and popular music in American culture.