No one sings Like a Bridge Over Troubled Water like Aretha. 'nuff said! Thanks for these two great picks, S.D.

Here's one of a young young Aretha getting down. The audio isn't the best but I thought it a hoot to see her so young and early into her career.

One of my favorites

Thanks again, DomnNC. I'm having trouble loading this ... am only getting glimpses of this performance (damn Verizon ...), but what I do hear, it is really good, live. Her voice is something else.

Love the sort of trill in the intro interspersed with the kinda church sound. Yeah, this is a good one. Love stuff. I feel her. No wonder she is the Queen of Soul.

This one ... well ... during difficult times ... loving on a one way street.

All my life I grew up with R&B music...my mother the feminist loved this music...she'd send me 8tracs (don't laugh) from a record store in Chicago...lots of 'Retha...

Years later, I feel in love with a TG Stone Butch that was no good, "he is a liar and a cheat"...we'd play this 'Retha cd all the time and I never thought it was a song about him...until one day....(fill in the blank______________)

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8 tracks? OMG! I haven't even heard of those for decades! :| And I ain't laughing at you, but at me!

Yeah, this was one of those pity party songs ... and you could really cry cause she is so good at making you feel her pain ... which matches your own.

Thanks, Canela for the story ... that's what I'm after: how some music relates to your life, past and present. I mean, I listen to Aretha, and can pinpoint exactly where I was (I've moved a lot), who I was with, what year, etc. It's like a personal, musical history, ya know?

Shhhh! Yes yes, 8 tracks....obviously I go back a ways...ahem...

So yeah, she surely can make you feel her pain...I love love love me some Aretha Franklin!

Thanks for starting this thread...I am loving it!

Listening to this one now, I have a different read on the words then I did when a youth. We used to say, " ... take me to bed ... " and mess up the original lyrics. Hormones, right? :simplelaugh: But now ... a woman asking to be taken for granted ... different feelings about this now. It is My la frontera.

Ok, I'm stuck on this one ...
 

oh man, this song ... I woke up with it this morning. Sorry for the repeat. Just cannot help it ... songs, music, have such a way of speaking the feelings, the thoughts, the deep reflections of one's interior. One's soul. Heart. Just feeling this shit.

remember this one? She is dressed fine here ... I used to wonder who the heck picked her outfits ... I'm a faggy butch, what can I say?:readfineprint::|
Catch Flip "the devil made me do it" Wilson on the intro?

Thank you, Theo (and, little Ivan, of course). I have not brought up, except by innuendo, her religious roots ... But yes, these are primo examples of her personal journey, her odyssey in music ... and life. One can hear the Gospel nuances in her "secular" songs. It brings to mind a little something I wrote about G-d and Sex ... never mind. These songs are great and I love your picks!

"i wanted her to be mine.. " That's coz you're a greedy bastid :canadian:
"Presence" is an apt descriptor for her. You hit it spot on. It, this "presence," is when she sings, palpable and, well, just with/in you.

I too grew up listening to R&B. (Back then it was also known as the Motown Sound and/or Soul Music.) I remember my first big crush, 13 years my senior playing and singing R E S P E C T, over and over again. I was in the 7th grade.

I cannot access YouTube right now but if I could, I would post Aretha singing the song about a "Chain of Fools."


Chain, chain, chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaainnnnn, Chain of fools.

Another one of her lost love songs ... she was good was these. Gawd, I remember feeling this ...