If you weren’t around in 1967 when Aretha Franklin became nationally famous, you have no idea what it was like to hear her for the first time. There was nothing like her and her incredible voice in popular music. Plus, she wrote and arranged many of her songs and played piano.
My sympathy to her family. Her death is a great loss for all of us.
I saw her at Artscape in Baltimore in 1994.
Aretha helped define the American experience. In her voice, we could feel our history, all of it and in every shade—our power and our pain, our darkness and our light, our quest for redemption and our hard-won respect. May the Queen of Soul rest in eternal peace. pic.twitter.com/bfASqKlLc5
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 16, 2018
Watching Aretha Franklin perform at the White House, and on so many other occasions, made time stand still. @BarackObama and I are holding Aretha’s family in our hearts right now. She will forever be our Queen of Soul. pic.twitter.com/NhHsbKijpl
— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) August 16, 2018
As Aretha Franklin's stardom grew, she extended the parameters of how we understood and defined black beauty https://t.co/sb9ygfvNao
— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 16, 2018
Robert Christgau on Aretha Franklin, the genius behind a voice unlike any other https://t.co/QNhQb7pE6p pic.twitter.com/hoddxkdYY2
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) August 16, 2018
After Angela Davis was arrested with Nixon branding her a "terrorist," Aretha Franklin offered to post a quarter million dollars in bail. "I have the money. I got it from black people and I want to use it in ways that will help our people." #BlackLivesMatter R-E-S-P-E-C-T!
— Kevin B. Blackistone (@ProfBlackistone) August 16, 2018
Rep. John Lewis says Aretha Franklin "moved us closer to one America."
"She was brave, courageous, bold, she spoke her mind and she used her music, her voice to bring people together." https://t.co/SG02ge8e8w pic.twitter.com/oUdzEHieGs
— ABC News (@ABC) August 16, 2018
“Soul was and is a revolutionary art, and Aretha belongs in the broader conversation about this country’s revolutionary heroes with any provocateur of patriot who ever lived.” @fivefifths, at his best. https://t.co/HBd1xoZZY5
— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) August 16, 2018
My contribution:https://t.co/FF35VluiLu
— Emily J. Lordi (@ejlordi) August 16, 2018
Trump can't even honor Aretha Franklin properly, @fivefifths writes: https://t.co/Qr0EJmRQzq
— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) August 16, 2018
Hip hop sampled Aretha Franklin like crazy. Here are a few
Mos Defhttps://t.co/lsVaCB0PfJ
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 16, 2018
"So much of the experience listening to music — gospel and otherwise — is feeling it, catching the spirit. 'Amazing Grace' is a church full of people’s spirits getting caught, over and over — by Aretha," writes @Wesley_Morris https://t.co/AtvdkvbqqQ
— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 18, 2018
Sung by Aretha Franklin at a young age, “Take My Hand, Precious Lord” was an existential cry, a justice prayer shed of pretense: https://t.co/APR2cLwlAe pic.twitter.com/CzJD7uSkxS
— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) August 18, 2018
Sad! 