Aretha Franklin (38 page)

On July 24, 1985, a section of Washington Boulevard, at State Street in Detroit, was officially renamed “Aretha Franklin's Freeway of Love.” The ceremony took place at 12:30 at the intersection, and several city officials presided over the event. Arista Records gave away 200 automobile license plates that read “Zoomin'—Aretha Franklin's Freeway of Love.” Exactly at 12:30, several radio stations played the song “Freeway of Love” in her honor.

An article in
The Detroit News
lamented that “about the only thing missing will be Aretha, who has a previous engagement.” Indeed she was absent.

In an interview conducted at her Bloomfield Hills home that afternoon, Aretha told this author, “Today, yes, the Mayor and the City Council have changed Washington Boulevard, which is one of our better streets in Detroit, to the Freeway of Love. And I
must
get in a pink Cadillac and ride down the Freeway of Love!” she said, laughing.

She also explained that “August the tenth there is gong to be a ceremony. There is going to be another renaming of a street in Detroit,
in honor of my dad, the Reverend C. L. Franklin. They are changing Linwood partially to ‘C. L. Franklin Boulevard.' We will be at those ceremonies August the tenth. And that is with very much appreciation, and many thanks to Mayor Young, and Miss Erma Henderson of the City Council.”

When I asked if there was a current romance in her life, Aretha replied, “Oh absolutely, absolutely. What would life be without romance? And what is romance without the one you love? Right? There's someone that I'm seeing, yes. I prefer not to say who. I think sometimes it's advantageous for people not to know you're dating. At least ladies in the business. Because sometimes the flak that the gentleman gets is really not fair, and it has to be a very, very strong man, and a man who is very secure in who he is—as opposed to who you are, and how the two relate to each other. But sometimes the guys don't get a fair shake, the ones who escort the ladies—the Arethas, the Dianas, the Dionnes, and so on—in the business. So I think it can be very advantageous for people not to know who it is. And I really think it's up to the two of you whether or not you want to say, and whether or not he feels that he can deal with that and ‘Hey, that's no sweat, ‘cause I'm into you.'”

Obviously, Aretha and her mystery man were still checking each other out before they decided to make their relationship public. She had previously stated that “I've met my share of guys between the ages of thirty and forty-five who have insulted and assaulted my intelligence with their stories and games. When I meet those kind of guys, I say, ‘Hello and goodbye!' Now, there are some men who have come through with flying colors!”

The beau who passed the test was later revealed to be Willie Wilkerson, a Detroit fireman whom she'd met quite by accident. Aretha was in downtown Detroit, by the waterfront, when a handsome man who had broken his leg hobbled over to her and asked if she would sign his cast. According to her, “At that time,
Jump to It
had just gone Gold. He'd jumped off a firetruck and broken his leg, so I wrote on his cast, ‘Next time don't “Jump to It!”‘ It was kind of love at first sight.”

Tall and good-looking, Wilkerson is just the kind of man who appealed to Aretha. She proclaimed, “I'm glad that he could make the distinction between the lady and the artist, because a lot of men can't.”
Describing him, Franklin says that he's “a real gentleman, and he's
hot!
I get on the phone with my girlfriends and tell them all the details! But I'm not ready to make any major commitments right now in that area. Of course, I never say ‘never,' but for now I'm not thinking about getting married again.

“What do I find attractive in a man?” Aretha asks. “To begin with, obviously, physical appearance. The way he carries himself. Confidence. Intellect. His conversation. How he treats me. Good men are scarce as hen's teeth for sure.
Mature
good men are particularly hard to find. But I found one. I like him very much. He likes my cooking very much, and he likes me!”

Since he began dating Aretha, Willie has left the Detroit Fire Department. He is now the owner of his own fleet of taxicabs. Willie says of Aretha, “I know who she is, and I have all the respect in the world for what she's accomplished. But it's still the lady that counts. She's a very warm, very loving woman.”

According to a cover story about the couple in
Jet
magazine, “her relationship with Wilkerson had flourished because he is able to separate the celebrity from the earthy woman propped up in front of the television watching soap operas.”

Aretha, who believes very strongly in astrology, claims that her Aries birthday and his Capricorn sun sign make for “a fiery match—we're very compatible.” She further explains that their relationship is a complete role reversal of his occupation as a firefighter: “[He's] not putting out the fire, he's starting it!”

In January 1986, Aretha made some additions to her list of accolades as the Grammy nominations were announced. She was nominated in two categories: “Freeway of Love” was up for “Best R&B Performance, Female,” and “Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves” with Eurythmics was nominated as “Best R&B Vocal by a Duo, Group or Chorus.” The Commodores' “Night Shift” ended up taking the latter award, while Aretha's “Freeway of Love” brought her the twelfth Grammy Award of her career.

In addition to being heard on the radio via her hit records, Aretha also lent her voice to several commercials. In 1985 alone she sang the “Coke Is It” jingle for Coca-Cola, and the “Aren't You Glad” song for Dial soap. For the Dial account, Aretha was signed to a one-year contract
for a confidential amount of money. The commercial was produced by Needham Harper Worldwide of Chicago. As was usual for Aretha after 1984, the music tracks were completed in Chicago and her vocals were added in Detroit. In the campaign, Aretha was not identified by name, but the voice was unmistakable. According to Aretha, she was not opposed to doing endorsements. She explained, “Frito-Lay we were going to do, but the negotiations fell through. I didn't turn it down. I certainly eat lots of Frito-Lay corn chips!”

During the summer of 1985, Aretha was talking about starring in a Broadway musical about the life of Bessie Smith. “That is a very real possibility,” she said at the time. “Well, it's pro and con. I have the script for
Bessie
, and the producers have flown out for talks with me. The only thing about Broadway that I really don't care for is the night-after-night kind of thing. It's hard work and if you're gonna do it, you have to get in shape, and you have to really stay in shape. I like variety, and I like to move around. So that would be the only drawback I think that I would have there: the monotony of the night-after-night appearance, which I don't particularly care for, unless I'm having a
whole lot
of fun!

“About Bessie Smith—I just saw a very interesting piece of film on her a couple of days ago. I can certainly see what it was that everybody enjoyed about Bessie Smith. And, as I said, I have the script and I'm reading it. It is cracking me up, I must tell you! I'm laying on the floor some nights! It's a beautiful, beautiful script,” she claimed. Because of her fear of flying and her disdain for monotony, she never pursued the theatrical offer.

If there were ever tailor-made roles for Aretha to portray on-stage, they are Mahalia Jackson and Bessie Smith. Why Aretha can't discipline herself or challenge herself enough to tackle musicals, or more films is beyond everyone. She is not only cheating her public, but she is cheating herself by not seizing the opportunities that are presented to her. Is she afraid of failure, or is she afraid of success? Everyone seemed to hope that one of her friends in the movie business, like Quincy Jones, Oprah Winfrey, or Whoopie Goldberg, would one day coax her back in front of the movie cameras.

Her first year of not flying cost her several other public appearances as well. “I missed some things that I really wanted to do,” Aretha explained.
“Like the Kennedy Center: they honored Lena Horne last year, and she requested that I sing, and I wasn't able to make that. And the Democratic Convention—Reverend Jesse Jackson—when he spoke, I missed that, and of course the
Mahalia
play on Broadway. But look out—the girl is coming!” she promised in 1985.

The year 1986 was slated to mark Franklin's return to the concert halls of America. “The truth is, I missed that special exchange that happened between me and my audience,” she claimed as concert dates were announced. She also said that she had conquered her fear of flying, and that she planned to jet from city-to-city for the summer-long tour. She didn't keep either promise.

She was also planning a series of fund-raising concerts to help offset Jesse Jackson's 1984 presidential campaign debt. The concerts were to star Aretha along with Stevie Wonder, Luther Vandross, and Smokey Robinson.

Although the proposed Jesse Jackson fund-raising “megaconcert” never transpired, several solo concert dates were set up for Aretha, and the tickets quickly sold out. On the itinerary was a prestigious return to Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Unfortunately, her fear of flying was far from conquered, and she backed out of most of the dates at the last minute, leaving irate promoters and several thousand disappointed ticket-holders. As the
Boston Herald
later noted, “She canceled her heavily advertised New York dates, and has only appeared at a handful of Midwest halls.”

It seemed that if she had to venture more than a couple of miles away from Detroit, the bookings would surely be canceled. Instead of leaving town, she agreed to do a television special for the Showtime cable network. The resulting program,
Aretha!
, was her very first headlining television special. Naturally, the hour-long TV special supplanted the aborted tour of the United States that summer. According to Allen Sabinson, Showtime's senior vice-president in charge of programming, “We are trying to bring to our subscribers the classic vocalists of our time … Certainly, Aretha belongs in this category … And the fact that she does not do any national concert tours will make it even more special for our viewers.”

The special was taped on May 2 and 3, 1986, at Detroit's Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts. The 60-year-old art deco Music Hall
was chosen by Aretha. It was her way of thanking the venue for having dedicated two performances of the gospel production
Your Arms Too Short to Box with God
, in 1979 and 1981, as benefits to raise money for her father's hospitalization.

“We gave her creative approval of all elements of the show,” says Bonnie Burns, the special's supervising producer. “She picked the songs, the wardrobe, the musicians and she [wanted] to do it in Detroit, because that's her home base. Aretha had been approached for years about doing her own television special, but she declined all offers. I think if they put on an Aretha Franklin special ten years ago, it would have been a big event. Aretha is right at any time.”

Aretha's supporting cast included her background group, the Prima Donnas, Clarence Clemons, the sixty-five member Saint James Baptist Church Choir, her brother Cecil Franklin, and her sister Carolyn. The songs she chose to perform in concert truly ran the gamut of her entire career, and included a three song-gospel fest with Carolyn, Cecil, and the choir, three songs from her Columbia days, five of her Atlantic hits, and “Freeway of Love” and “Who's Zoomin' Who.”

Aretha looked “hot” for her entrance—in a beautiful, backless, beaded red dress, and wrapped in a full-length feather coat. She began the show with a peppy version of “Can't Turn You Loose,” which crackled with excitement. Especially memorable were three rarely performed songs taken from her early-1960s Columbia albums: “Won't Be Long,” “Try a Little Tenderness,” and “Rock-A-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody.” The classics from her Atlantic days, however, succeeded in varying degrees. While “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” received a smolderingly soulful rendition, “Respect” and “Chain of Fools” suffered from uninspiringly dull over-orchestration. “Who's Zoomin' Who” lacked punch, but “Freeway of Love” benefited from Clarence Clemons' guest instrumental and inspired Aretha to deliver a full-throttle version of the hit song. The show finished off with the gospel segment, which rounded out the hour, and helped to display another facet of Franklin's talent.

An especially touching moment in the show came when Aretha spoke to the audience about a song that her father used to sing to her when she was a child. The song was “Look to the Rainbow,” and before she delivered
the beautiful ballad, she dedicated the song to her four sons. She had her son Teddy stand up and take a bow, explaining, “He's graduating this June from college—so you know I'm a proud mama.”

The obvious problem with an Aretha Franklin concert performance is that it is impossible for her to sing every one of her hits. While “Respect” and “I Never Love a Man (The Way I Love You)” are mandatory inclusions, several hits are inevitably omitted. Considering the limitations of a single hour, this special at least touched on as many sides of her music as possible.

Executives from Showtime were reportedly disappointed with her performance on the special. One production assistant with the cable network reveals, “After it was all over, the word around Showtime was not good. We kept saying, ‘Aretha phoned it [her performance] in.' It's like she'd committed [herself ] to doing this, but she was really not interested in doing it. Her costumes were especially bad. She was wearing this costume that kept falling off her shoulder, and it was embarrassing. What she was wearing—it was like this tank-top thing, and [her breasts were] falling out. I realize she is a big lady, but she shouldn't be wearing tank tops!” Aretha still had not given up those tops designed for smaller woman.