Long Lives the Queen of Soul, Gospel and Swag

I've been up all night distracted from my much needed sleep with the infatuation of Aretha Franklin's funeral. It is really sad that celebrity deaths have become so frequent and expected now that I fear we are becoming impervious towards it per se. I just can't believe that within five years we've lost such huge icons being the likes of Whitey Houston, Bowie, Prince, Muhammad Ali and the list sadly goes on.

However now with the likes of Aretha Franklin, yes she was of age, yes she died of the ever common, ever devastating widespread disease of cancer, so with that said we saw this coming but nevertheless it is still a great heart dropping loss to those who grew up on her music and to the music industry on a whole. I can't stand to be left with less and less, meaningful music legends as we won't have much after left them truth be told. That statement is me reiterating the lack of quality as opposed to the obvious lack of quantity.

From all the footage that I have seen and read about Aretha these past couple weeks, most of which I already knew, it is great to be acknowledged of how powerful she really was up till her dying day and not just in her 'heyday'. Did you know that she owned most of her publishing!? That's practically unheard of especially for an Artist of her time. Her business of her entire estate was on point which I suppose explains why she persevered so well throughout the decades. As debatable as it may be, I only know of Cher and Barbara Streisand to have ongoing profitable and high in demand careers that have surpassed each decade from as far back as the 60's. That's amazing.

Her estate is estimated to be worth near a billion dollars- and I should hope so if Jessica Simpson's and Kylie Jenner's brands are of that amount (according to Forbes) within such a short space of time and to a smaller audience. Most people would only think of Michael Jackson and The Beatles when it comes to that kind of money for a Musicians catalogue of work, understandably.

I never knew she could play the piano up till now either. I have found that many other Singers have that hidden talent but show it less such as Toni Braxton and Mary J Blige, George Michael could play the piano too.

The songs I will always remember Aretha for is R.E.S.P.E.C.T, Natural Woman of course and A Rose Is Still A Rose which I think is written by Lauryn Hill well she featured on the track anyway. The message behind the song and music video (when music videos had more integrity) stood out to me so much when I was coming of age, and no doubt contributed to my attitude towards males at the time and assisted with abstinence quite well. It is a story and rule that all women have been told but that video is one I paid great attention to. That was her targetting a younger audience quite adequately at the time I might add.

Only now did I realise that R.E.S.P.E.C.T was more of a Black pride anthem than a feminist anthem. I always saw how the message crosses over because many people (mostly Black women I recall) used that specific chorus as a reference in regard to both race and gender relations but overall, as a child listening to it I just saw it as a female empowering song. Through all the archives coming to surface I have been so elated to see her contributions to the Civil Rights Movement, it reminds me of Nina Simone and other courageous and righteous Black celebrities who overlooked their 'Hollywood' likability to fight for equality.

I love all the pictures of her with her afro and African inspired clothing, very much of the time and statement making. For her in particular I mean, as I know that this particular look is also increasingly popular today, contemporary in many ways in many locations and African fashion can be found anywhere any day without it having to be a political statement.

All the love and out-pour between eulogies and memories have me weeping. Smokey Robinson's eulogy touched me the most because his was so personal. Aretha meant so much to so many and was in a complete league of her own. I don't know anyone else who so effortlessly crossed between Gospel, Soul, R'n'B, Pop, Jazz and Opera! I hated that it took forever for people (news outlets) to mention when she stepped in for Pavarotti as that performance was huge!!

Many Artists have broken through Gospel to do the Blues then consequently Soul as that was the 'movement' or should I say 'reoccurring struggle' at the time e.g. Ray Charles and Al Green, but to do it, do well and go beyond while being believable is a whole 'nother ball game and she achieved that. Aretha succeeded in crossing over while sticking to her roots and continuously bringing it back to Gospel. I love that Aretha made the album Amazing Grace in 1972 and that it did not break or deter her career but in fact became the biggest selling Gospel album to date at the time of its release!!! C'mon!

Typical of my generation I didn't realise just how sampled her music was. I knew she re-recorded fellow Artists records herself but I did not quite realise how much of her music has also been used particularly in modern day R'n'B and Hip Hop, no doubt some Pop songs too. En Vogue's Something He Can feel stands out to me the most as my mother is a huge En Vogue fan, thus making me a fan and I remember singing that song aloud at their concert as a child which I had no business singing at that age but I knew the lyrics word for word and loved their voices and glamour.

Aretha Franklin's career, ongoing work ethic and swag leaves me in awe. There's a great video clip, kind of like a meme that I saw on Twitter the day the news broke of her death, where she walks onto a stage with a fur coat on making her presence felt with each strutted step and she shrugs her luxurious (sorry PETA) fur off her shoulders and onto the floor as she grabs the microphone- like a BOSS. That clip was so swaggerlicious it's not funny.

Rest In Power Queen of Soul.

For Prince

The news of Prince's (aka The Artist formally known as Prince) passing is going viral at this very moment and becoming headline news everywhere. Like many other people, I just hate all this frequent bad news of magnificent, influential people dying, mostly before their time, strangely on the similar enough levels of talent, prestige and fan base, and all so close within each other's time of death. The music and entertainment industry on a whole just continues to mourn, it's like a 'who's next' epidemic!

What really gets to me is that I just happen to think of someone often, become a new fan or reconnect with their material (whether it is their music or films etc) not long before their sudden death. Like I did with Alan Rickman and Larry Hagman; by watching all the Harry Potter films for the first time like an omnibus months before Alan died and I had only really gotten into the re-runs of Dallas, watching them religiously on TV a couple years before Larry (J.R. Ewing) died.

I have always rated Prince as my mum is a huge fan and subjected me to his music of which I became a fan of later myself. Lately, I have been using him as an example a lot when it comes to me referring to great living legends who are the epitome of brilliance in their field and need to be used as examples for young Artists today to show them how it's done because they simply do not compare. These conversations come up regularly due to many people's disdain and debate of what they hear on the radio or see on TV (which hardly shows any throwback music videos anymore let alone anything impressive). I have mainly been referring to Prince as well as Cher (touch wood) because their recent no.1 hits of their last album's warrants me to do so.

Did you know that Cher who's now 70, had her first #1 album in years just a couple of years ago? It may not have come to your attention and gone unnoticed because it was during the time of Miley Cyrus's industry dominance of when she gave a desperate attempt to change her image and was all in our faces with commercial success and  media attention. So despite the competition of youth, nudity and watered down profitable music, Cher was in her late 60's and still made a hit Dance album of all genres "Big up Cher!" See that right there is the epitome of staying power.

Even more so, Prince released 2 albums in 2014 and they BOTH went to #1!! He made history AGAIN with that bombshell. I have to say I wasn't too surprised at the time because I am fully aware of what Prince is, was :-(, capable of. I know they said this about James Brown (RIP) but Prince really was also "The hardest working man in show business." It's no secret that he was a consistent touring Artist, one of the highest paid entertainers, always recording and releasing albums. He never stayed away from the industry for too long whether he was in the charts or not. I loved that about him. I also loved and admired that he was one of the few Artists who for the most part, solely wrote, performed, produced and arranged all of his songs. I don't think you understand how rare that is? The only other Artists that I know of on that level which you can feel free to add to is; R. Kelly, Alicia Keys, Shakira and Donnell Jones. I am sure there are some more but those are the only ones who I can vouch for as I saw it written on the credits of their albums that I possess.

In regard to Prince not being completely off the radar, some of you may have noticed that Prince was appearing in the media frequently in recent years. Well I noticed. I recall reading about his many performances in London that I wish I knew about in advance but missed out on, I remember seeing him humbly accept his Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2010 BET Awards, his surprise appearance at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards where the audience completely freaked out, just as they did when he took the stage to present at the Grammy's that same year.

What was even more fabulous about his rare Grammy appearance was when spoke about Black Lives Matter in reference to the notorious, multiple shootings of unarmed Black people in the news, this came completely unexpected but was necessary and admirable. The Grammy's may have been the right time or place for that but it was definitely a good place to reach a wide audience of influence and fact has it that there never really is a good time to confront such sensitive matters is there. I respected him more for that.

On both occasions I swear he got the largest applause and standing ovation of the night and he wasn't even a nominee, winner or performer of the evening! Few people can do that or have even half of that impact.

I always hear people refer to Purple Rain when they talk about Prince in the media (still haven't seen the film). I never saw that song a his trademark, don't get me wrong the song was big and the film changed his career with its release in 1984 granting him his Golden Globe and Oscar, also that people dress-up as him from Purple Rain on fancy dress occasions such as Halloween (Holly Robinson Pete done it best in my opinion) but I don't instantly think of that song when I think of him. I think of Kiss, 1999, When Doves Cry and The Most Beautiful Girl in the World. I always remember that scene in Pretty Woman when Julia Roberts is caught singing Kiss in the bath. That song always sticks in my mind because of that film. I also think of the songs that younger Artists copied due to his influence like TLC's If I Was Your Girlfriend, Genuwine's When Doves Cry and coincidentally Alicia Keys's How Come You Don't Call Me Anymore?

Prince was very influential indeed. Particularly with his image, not that his flamboyant, colourful and quite feminine look was one that every man wanted to emulate but it was quite the trend in the 80's that I think he influenced heavily. Singer Chico DeBarge had a striking resemblance to Prince's image, in the early days of his career before he took on a more street 'bad boy' 90's R'n'B look and stuck with it. I remember Prince often looking like a Spanish Bullfighter with his high-waisted tight pants, high-heels (cowboy man boots) and cropped matching jacket. Regardless of how 'weird' you may have considered his dress sense to be, what he wore was an exciting thing to look forward to when he came on stage or appeared in a music video. And who could forget his infamous cut-out trousers that showed off his backside. I still can't get over that one. Only Prince could pull that off and still make women go crazy for him.

And only Prince could make a public statement on his face by writing the word 'slave' on it to make a point, call out and embarrass his label bosses for the rights to own his master's, leave the label to later sign a new record deal with them of which was followed by the 2 more #1 albums that I previously mentioned. There are other entertainers who have made political or other statements via their public image however, I only recall Prince doing it at the risk of biting the hand that fed him and profiting from it later. "Ratings Prince, ratings."

I know that many people are sharing similar views to what I am about to claim but hands down Prince was one of a kind, ahead of his time, in a league of his own, in comparison to none when you consider his entire body of work (not just looks), impactful, memorable and simply destined for the greatness that became of him. I am glad to have been introduced to his music. Without a doubt he could sing and had an amazing falsetto but even more so he mesmerized me as a Musician. He is still my favourite Guitarist, watching him with a guitar is amazing to me, him, Carlos Santana and Slash. Hypothetically speaking, if I entered a room of all three of them having a private jamming session I would just pass out.

Another thing I loved about Prince was his voice, his speaking voice. He had a very sexy, deep tone that would get to me every time. He was one of the prettiest men I had ever seen and therefore may not be in my top ten of sexiest men but his voice certainly did it for me and it's that as well as his musical talent that made me see why women flocked to him. Prince was very sexual in nature as reflected in his songs but interestingly enough he evoked sexual masculine energy with the confidence he had in his style of dress, his swag and most certainly his commanding sexy voice. When I first heard him speak I couldn't stop blushing, reminds me of my poem Keep Talking.

My favourite Prince songs are Gett Off and Sexy M.F, neither of course were appropriate for my age at the time as those are some of his most sexual songs ever released but the instrumentals itself despite the lyrics were the sh*t to me. Anyone who appreciates live music and instruments will completely understand what I mean. I sincerely did not understand or care for what they were talking about on the tracks in my younger years as I just wanted to hear the guitar, drums and flute. I'm playing Gett Off right now by the way.

Like I said I have been reconnecting with his songs recently, so I have been listening to them with a new appreciative ear since last year. I even had Prince on the playlist of my much praised music selection from my book launch party last August; Future Baby Mama, Mr. Goodnight, What Do You Want Me 2 Do? Those choices were because I kept playing his newer music at the time, I was saying to myself that I have so much of his music on my laptop but don't play enough of it. It's easy to forget about songs you have virtually stored when you do not see them infront of you in hard copy form or in my case on my CD rack.

Did you know that Prince has released 39 studio albums!? His debut album was released in 1978 oh my goodness what a career. I remember when he declared his last major tour and his row of concerts was in my home town, London at the o2 centre. Everyone was dying for a ticket, I really wished my mum had gone to that concert since he meant so much to her. A few years ago I thought to myself that when I get rich, which of course I was working on being sooner than later, that I would surprise my mum with a private meet and greet with Prince if it was possible. Now of course that is not possible. Too many deaths. Too many friends, family and fans mourning.

For those that don't know, Prince was his actual birth name as opposed to a stage name. He was born Prince Rogers Nelson (1958-2016). There was a quote I read that said something like 'Don't be sad it ended, be happy that it happened.' So with that in mind, yes it is sad that another tremendous icon has left us but I am very happy that I knew of him and his music. I have his music, access to his videos and video material online for whenever I want to hear his voice so I can be happy with that.