Edited by Azizi Powell
Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, passed away today August 16, 2018. She will always live on through her music and our memories of her iconic performances. Although Aretha Franklin is best known for her R&B hits, she also recorded one of the best selling Gospel albums ever.
This pancocojams post provides an excerpt of the Wikipedia page about Aretha Franklin as well as an excerpt from a Los Angeles Times article about Aretha Franklin's 1972 hit Gospel album Amazing Grace.
This post also features a trailer of the documentary film about that Gospel concert and YouTube examples of two songs from that concert- "Oh Mary Don't You Weep" and "How I Got Over".
The content of this post is presented for religious, cultural, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Aretha Franklin for her music legacy. Rest in Peace.
Thanks also to Randall Roberts, the author of the article that is excerpted in this post and thanks to the producers of these videos and their publishers on YouTube.
****
INFORMATION ABOUT ARETHA FRANKLIN'S "AMAZING GRACE" ALBUM
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazing_Grace_(Aretha_Franklin_album)
" "Amazing Grace" is the third live album by American singer Aretha Franklin. Released on June 1, 1972 by Atlantic Records, it ultimately sold over two million copies in the United States alone, earning a double platinum certification. As of 2017, it stands as the biggest selling disc of Franklin's entire fifty-plus year recording career as well as the highest selling live gospel music album of all time. It won Franklin the 1973 Grammy Award for Best Soul Gospel Performance.
The double album was recorded at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles during January 1972. A film documenting the making of the album was set to be released in 1972, but was shelved by Warner Bros. Amazing Grace was remastered and re-released in 1999 as a two-compact disc set with many unreleased takes."...
****
EXCERPT OF LOS ANGELES TIMES ARTICLE ABOUT ARETHA FRANKLIN'S ALBUM "AMAZING GRACE"
From http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-aretha-amazing-grace-watts-20180816-story.html?outputType=amp "Recorded in Watts, Aretha Franklin's live album 'Amazing Grace' made gospel history on two days in 1972
by Randall Roberts, AUG 16, 2018
"In early 1972, Aretha Franklin arrived at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts for a pair of performances with the backing of the Rev. James Cleveland and the Southern California Community Choir. Recorded by Atlantic Records engineers and documented on film by Sydney Pollack, the music was released less than six months later as the double album “Amazing Grace.”
One of the great gospel records, it captures Franklin at the peak of her powers and in her comfort zone. She’s in church. Her father, the Rev. C.L. Franklin, is there. Guiding production is her friend Cleveland and his choir. In the audience is another former teacher, the great gospel singer Clara Ward, as well as two members of the Rolling Stones (Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts). And surrounding them all are raucous, praise-ready congregants eager to clap, shout and scream along.
Within a few weeks of its summer ’72 release, that energy had propelled Franklin’s gospel-filled revelry into the top 10 on Billboard’s album charts, where it battled for No. 1 alongside records by Elton John, Bill Withers and Donny Osmond. “Amazing Grace” remains Franklin’s bestselling album, and it’s one of the most commercially successful gospel records of all time.
[...]
Across “Amazing Grace,” Franklin elevates, jumping from Old Testament to New, from contemporary song craft (tidbits of Carole King’s “You’ve Got a Friend”) to old spirituals. She and the choir convey the biblical story of Mary, Martha and Lazarus on “Mary Don’t You Weep,” elsewhere imagining an afterlife “in the land where we'll never grow old,” singing of rocky roads and “the sweet silver song of the lark” and pathways that lead to the promised land, told not just through lyrics but also phrasing, feats of vocal gymnastics and what seems like her infinitely inexhaustible voice.
Across the 14 tracks on the original double album, epiphanies abound, but to fully appreciate the energy, a recently issued 27-song version offers a more dynamic experience.
The most complete picture, however, remains unseen. As part of the initial project, the late filmmaker and actor Pollack was commissioned by Atlantic and Warner Bros. to film the concerts for a documentary. Because of rights issues, the footage languished in the vaults for decades. In 2015, the finished movie was slated to screen at the 2015 Toronto Film Festival. Franklin, however, successfully filed a cease-and-desist order to prevent its showing.
That will likely change with Franklin’s death, and if so, a crucial Watts document will find its place in the bigger story. What they’ll see and hear, Walker says, is an artist in her element, expressing grace through her “ability to take the commoners in the world and to elevate their experience, to say to the world that their experience is worth listening to. ‘You need to listen — they’re telling you something.’” "
****
SHOWCASE VIDEOS
Example #1: AMAZING GRACE Trailer | Festival 2015
TIFF Trailers, Published on Aug 11, 2015
The late director Sydney Pollack's behind-the-scenes documentary about the recording of Aretha Franklin's best-selling album Amazing Grace finally sees the light of day more than four decades after the original footage was shot.
****
Example #2: Aretha Franklin "Mary Don't You Weep"
LamontCJ, Published on Dec 16, 2007
Sista ReRe's classic version of this gospel standard sang with Los Angelos Community Choir in 1972. Her gut wrenching heartfelt singing of this song summons the emotions of the stauchest non believer that Christ is King!! Sang' girl!!
****
Example #3: How I Got Over by Aretha Franklin with the Southern California Community Choir
robbieatnsudotcom, Published on Apr 5, 2010
Hello everyone. I'm here with another YouTube Gospel video. Here is a change of sorts. It's time to bring back the classics. I'm going back to 1972. Whoever said that once you leave gospel, you can't come back is obviously wrong on this one. The "Queen of Soul" Aretha Franklin returned back to her gospel roots in the album "Amazing Grace", one of her top selling albums. She enlists the help of her mentor and friend, the "King of Gospel" The Rev. James Cleveland of Culver City, California and the help of her father, the famed Rev. C.L Franklin of Detroit, Michigan (her hometown) and sung a rendition of the Mahalia Jackson song, "How I Got Over." This is the classic gospel that is now seemingly a lost art. I do not own this song, nor am I seeking monetary gains or publicity. The lyrics are on the video for those who want to follow along or learn. I hope you enjoy this classic. God Bless!!!
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
No comments:
Post a Comment