Aretha Franklin 1942-2018

Before I get back to my usual fare here, I just wanted to take a little bit of space and time to acknowledge the passing of the Queen of Soul.  Unfortunately, we've had another spate of three big celebrity deaths.  First, the slightly-less-egotistical than Larry Gelbart and acclaimed playwright and screenwriter Neil Simon.  And then, of course, Senator John McCain, and last but not least, Aretha Franklin.  And as you can see from the attached picture, I am indeed another one of those film nerds who most closely associates Franklin with that screen classic from 1980, The Blues Brothers.  Apparently, she was in the sequel as well, but... I mean, who wants to look for that one?  I suppose I should try.  Should I further mention one of my high school memories about a skit where these young gals paid tribute to her song "Respect"?  No one else remembers that?  Spoiler alert: when it came to the "Sock It To Me" part, yes, they started throwing socks at the audience, if memory serves.  Boy, those were the daze.

Okay, here she is in the sequel, Blues Brothers 2000, where she finally righted the wrong of not using the song "Respect" in the original movie.  Um... nice job on the lip synching, girlfriend!  You know, she was so associated with that song, that I think even I, as a young man seeing that movie for the first time, wondered why they weren't using that song.  People forget that sometimes... it's a big world, and there's more than one song in it.  Speaking of other songs, I'll take a brief moment to reminisce about when MTV used to show videos.  Two of Aretha's were big at the time: "Freeway of Love" and that one with Annie Lennox about sisters.  Sorry to bore you all to tears with my clichés visible from a mile away.  I mean, why should Tina Turner have all the fun, am I right?
...guess that's all I have.  I'm going to take this opportunity to become more familiar with her catalogue.  Alas, the radio station we have it permanently tuned to at work is still sticking with today's annoying hits, like AJR's "Burn the House Down."  Worst synth trumpet ever.  This is the world you're leaving behind, Aretha.  A much poorer place now.  Go and teach the angels how to sing.