Aretha Franklin (54 page)

Franklin's once warm and friendly attitude towards Houston had long ago reached the Ice Age. Their problems stemmed back to around the time of their 1989 duet recording of “It Isn't, It Wasn't, It Ain't Never Gonna Be.” One of the most pointed things that Aretha had written in her 1999 autobiography had been aimed squarely at Whitney. Ree basically announced that the problematic Ms. Houston could call her anytime she dropped the stuck-up haughty diva attitude, and not a minute beforehand.

For this particular TV special, Aretha characteristically refused to fly, drive OR take the train all the way to Los Angeles, but agreed to appear via satellite from New York City. She was in good voice and looked sharp in a black pantsuit and black tunic top. She completed the look with one of her kookier hairstyles, which was part corn-row braids, part cascading
I Dream of Jeannie
do, with a mixed in bright-orange fall.

Aretha's medley of hits that evening included a solo version of her George Michael hit “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me),” “It Hurts Like Hell,” and “Freeway of Love.” For the final song, she was joined on-stage by the vocal quartet Boyz II Men. Although she was on the opposite coast in front of a New York studio audience, Franklin spoke warmly about the day Clive Davis played the demo of “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me),” with an obvious amount of warmth for the man who had kept her recording career fresh and alive since 1980. The show was such a successful program when broadcast, that it was quickly released as a DVD, which included several special segments which were not seen on television.

In June of 2000, Aretha was one of the headliners to perform at New York City's annual JVC Jazz Festival. With the Stanley Turrentine Quintet warming up the stage, she performed at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall.

On September 6, 2000, Aretha Franklin was back in Manhattan, this time to be one of the presenters at the eleventh Rhythm & Blues Foundation's Pioneer Awards presentation. She was on hand to induct Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun with a Founders Award. Ertegun was not present, due to illness. When Aretha took the podium, she also announced that she was donating $50,000 to the Foundation. It is the Foundation's cause to honor R&B stars with money and medical care when necessary.

Although she is still acknowledged as a contemporary recording artist, it seems like it is impossible to mention her name without speaking about her status as a living legend.
Vanity Fair
in their November 2000 “Music Issue” claimed: “The ‘Queen of Soul' is perhaps the one ‘title' in popular music that has not grown ill-fitting with age.”
(46)
It is assuredly a moniker she has neither outgrown, worn-out, nor strayed away from.

In the year 2000, it seemed that the whole world was transfixed by TV's “real life” experiences of a group of stranded people on an island called
Survivor
. Looking back at the career of diva Franklin, it is she who might very well be the “ultimate” show business survivor. According to Aretha, whenever she is faced with an obstacle she simply can't get over, she remembers what her grandmother would say to her. Franklin recalls, “She used to say ‘Can you do anything about it?' If you can, you will. But if you can't, don't worry about it. If you can't then just let it go.”
(7)

One of the stumbling blocks that is still in her way, is her on-going fear of flying. Although she has announced time and time again that she has an upcoming flight planned, she never did just jump in and do it. Resigned to living without airplanes, she simply purchased a “custom bus,” and like so many country music stars, she travels from city-to-city in her house on wheels. Instead of looking at it as a hindrance, she sees it as a plus. “I get to see America, just get off the bus and go into Wal-Mart and have a ball,” she proclaims.
(13)

“I travel by custom bus now and we cook on it, we have videos, we have games, and it's a lot of fun. And, actually, it's very refreshing from flying, to get to see some of the country side—to get out, walk around.”
(3)
She has everything she needs on her bus: “It's beautiful. We have cooking facilities, movies, fax, phones, and a fun driver.”
(12)

She has tried classes, she has gone to the airport for safety instructions, she has done everything but take an airplane ride. “I did a lot of things that have not worked yet,” she laughs, “because I am still not flying. So I set it to the side—I enjoy my custom bus. You can pull over, go to Red Lobster. You can't pull over at 30,000 feet.”
(6)
The Queen of Soul must cause quite the fun tornado of commotion when she pulls up at a highway-side Red Lobster!

Her compatriots in the music business have lent their support towards her flight phobia. Luciano Pavarotti once looked her in the eye and said, “You are scared of the plane. I come to pick you up.”
(13)

Finding a third husband is another goal which also eludes her. If she found the right guy, would she consider it? “Sure, if I found the right man.
WHEN
I have found the right man, if we're both amenable, absolutely,” she claims.
(7)
And, what is it that she looks for in a man: “I want romance!” she proclaims. “I like men who are thoughtful.”
(10)

Probably the most significant statement Aretha made during the 1990s is her declaration that she is never going to retire from her most consistent creative outlet—making music. Who knows where music is about to go in the Twenty-First Century. The only thing that we can be assured of, is that Aretha Franklin is going to be part of it.

As the new “millennium” approached, all sorts of new ideas and concepts were bantered about for the future. One Canadian official went so far as to suggest that his British Commonwealth country go “monarch free” beginning in the year 2000. However the opinion polls were so unanimously against such a concept, he quickly shut up and withdrew his thoughts. Even in an era of democracy, we still need our royalty to look up to. How comforting it is to know that as long as there is an England, and a British Commonwealth, there will always be either a King or a Queen. And, as long as there is recorded music, Aretha Franklin will always be the Queen of Soul.

S
ince the year 2001, Aretha Franklin's life has been something of a seesaw of good and bad news. On the negative side of the coin, it has been an era that has seen her sons in legal trouble, her once-hot recording career slowing down, the death of several of her longtime friends, her alarmingly steady weight gain, and finally—life threatening health problems to deal with. However, on the positive side of things, it has been a time of many accolades and honors. One American president presented her with a huge award, another American president invited her to sing at his inaugural ceremony, and she added more Grammy Awards to her collection. In addition, mysterious health issues have drawn international attention to the woman who is universally acknowledged as the Queen of Soul.

Since Aretha has owned several Oakland County, Michigan, high-profile residences, one of them was reportedly used strictly for storage. At 6:00 a.m. on October 25, 2002, while Aretha was in Houston, Texas, for a performing engagement, the Bloomfield Township police and fire department were dispatched to her house near Long Lake Road and Telegraph to put out a blaze in the luxury house. Unfortunately, by the time firefighters arrived, the house was deemed to be a “total loss.”

Reportedly, the home was valued at $1.8 million, yet the insurance policy Aretha had on the house was for under a million dollars. It was further determined that the fire was the work of an alleged arsonist. Incendiary materials—including what appeared to be lighter fluid—were found in the house. It was also reported in several places—including
The New York Times
—that the police found similar lighter fluid on the clothing of their prime suspect, Aretha's own son, Eddie.

When Aretha returned to Michigan, she refused to cooperate with the police or the authorities. The following January, Aretha was subpoenaed to testify in the case but again refused.
Entertainment Weekly
reported that the authorities “subpoenaed the Queen of Soul, her son Edward Franklin, his roommate Dr. Edward West, and security guard Tyrone Jarrett Sr.”
(1)

Aretha refused to testify in the case, although she pressed her insurance company to reimburse her for the full amount of the value of the house and its belongings. The case was never solved, although one press report claimed, “The person police think sparked the blaze—according to documents obtained by the defenders—is forty-five-year-old Edward Franklin, Aretha's son. He was found hiding in the trees the morning of the fire.”
(2)

Since the singer refused to address the matter, it made it seem that she was protecting her son Eddie from having torched the house either accidentally or intentionally for some unknown reason. According to Oakland County Prosecutor David Gorcyca, “We need to definitively establish what facts Ms. Franklin possesses about this case and not what her lawyer wishes us to know. All of this could have been avoided with Ms. Franklin's voluntary cooperation.”
(1)

In 2002 Aretha Franklin lost her last female sibling when her sister Erma died at the age of sixty-four. Erma had married Thomas Garrett, and together they had two children. She had been diagnosed with lung cancer in the spring of that year and passed away on September 7. Publicly, Erma will be remembered for her biggest hit, “A Piece of My Heart,” and privately she will be remembered as one of Aretha's lifelong champions. Like sister Carolyn, Erma's last major recorded performance was as part of the Franklin Sisters on Aretha's
One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism
album.

Aretha's first album to be released in 2003 was a revised reissue of her 1987 Grammy Award-winning Arista gospel disc,
One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism
. Unlike the first time it was issued, this time around it featured three never-before-released tracks, including the Mavis Staples duet, “Father I Stretch My Hands to Thee,” and the song “Beams of Heaven.”
The third previously unreleased song on this album is an alternate version of “Packing Up Getting Ready to Go” with Erma and Carolyn Franklin.

On June 17, 2003, Arista Records released the twelve-track album
Aretha Franklin: Gold and Platinum Collection.
A package with ten of Aretha's biggest Arista hits, the set kicks off with her two biggest singles at Atlantic: “Respect” and “Think.” It is a lively and entertaining collection that includes “Jumpin' Jack Flash,” “Jimmy Lee,” and “Jump To It,” as well as “A Rose is Still a Rose,” making this album's time span from 1967 to 1998—a full thirty-one years of Aretha's hits.

In September of 2003, Aretha released her thirteenth and last new album on Arista Records, entitled
So Damn Happy
. A slow paced “quiet storm” type of album of eleven tracks by ten different producers, it found the diva in strong voice. However, the resulting album lacked in sparkle and in musical excitement. At the time, Aretha's great mentor, Clive Davis, had left Arista in the hands of L.A. Reid, and Clive's deft touch with Franklin's musical direction is sorely missing. The overall tone of the album was one of smoothly orchestrated soul tunes featuring hip-hop accents. A decade ago she released a lively album called
What You See is What You Sweat,
however on
So Damn Happy
she never once breaks a sweat.

This isn't to say that Aretha didn't enlist some top-notch people to work on the album. Two of the tracks—”Holdin' On” and “No Matter What”—were co-written by Mary J. Blige, and Blige provided all of the background vocals for those tracks. And Burt Bacharach teamed up with Elvis Presley's songwriter, Jerry Leiber, and Jerry's son, Jed, to create the slow ballad of a love affair gone wrong, “Falling Out of Love.”

Describing the musical atmosphere of the album, Aretha claimed, “Some of it is hip-hop, some of it is traditional, and it just works.” Comparing classic “soul” of yesterday with the “hip-hop” beat of the 2000's, she explained, “Soul is the ability to make people feel what you're feeling. Something that hip-hop artists are saying now, ‘Are you feeling it?' There's a vibe that goes with a song or a performance. A vibe. It's just that simple, just a happening between the artist and the audience.”
(3)

According to Antonio (L.A.) Reid, the new president of Arista at that time, “There was no attempt to make a pop record. This one was personal
for Aretha. We said, ‘Let's have an album that feels like a soulful record.' I wanted it to be like the old days.”
(3)

When the album was released in 2003, Burt Bacharach claimed to the press, “I'm just most comfortable working with the female voice. It's a good song—the first I've ever written with Jerry after years of talking about it—and she provided a great vocal. We might even have a shot at getting a single out of this one.”
(4)