Key to the Highway KSCU
103.3FM
2019-08-14 1-5PM or longer
Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown
Aretha Franklin
Koerner Ray and Glover
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I misspoke when I was on the air last by saying I
would be back in two weeks, stoking a common misconception that my show is on
every other week when the fact is it is on the second and fourth Wednesdays of
each month and I overlooked that there was a fifth Wednesday in July and for
that I apologize. In the past I have
always covered the fifth Wednesdays but, what with my coming in at 1PM and
hopefully staying past 5PM, I don’t feel I am shirking any kind of
responsibility. Indeed, if things work
out that I can maintain this time slot after the summer semester I will most
likely take on that fifth week.
Regarding that, let me make it clear that I agree with the concept that
the first priority of a learning institution is to provide opportunities for its
students. Hopefully, all will work
out. I will be again trying to get into
the studio by 1PM and will be prepared for about a five and a half hour show.
Hey! I’m getting this posting out early this
time! Those who have followed it for a
while are aware that sometimes I get it out just hours before airtime, not a
matter of days. Either I am a
procrastinator or I work better under a deadline; probably both. Generally, I am happy if I have the
initiative to write one good biography for each show and any more is just the
proverbial icing, but today I got complete essays on all three artists
including one seven pager! Apparently,
all it takes is a little motivation, and who could not be moved by two artists
with over a half century each as professional musicians plus a trio that rarely
had all three playing at once.
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One of the first things most often mentioned when a
conversation begins about Clarence “Gatemouth”
Brown is that he doesn’t like to be referred to with the restrictive title
of being a Bluesman. See? I was even compelled to do it here! Not only does his music cross boundaries into
Country, Swing, Cajun, R&B and Rock, but his instrumentation is similarly
versatile as he is equally adept at singing or playing guitar or violin (called
a fiddle in Country parlance, of course) as well as harmonica, mandolin, viola,
piano and drums. Way long ago I had the
opportunity to watch a TV concert (likely an early Austin City Limits as he was
included in several of them) where he teamed up with country picker Roy
Clark. I tuned in because I knew a
little bit about Gates’ Blues side, but was similarly impressed with Clark’s
diversity, the way they each moved from one instrument to another. It was so long ago that I hardly remember
anything except my overall great impression, but one thing stuck in my mind,
that being the way he held his picking hand almost parallel to the strings, the
heel of his hand on the bridge or a pickup and his long fingers almost up to
the fret board; obviously, he did not use a pick. I’d sure like to get a chance to see that
show again!
Brown
was born April 18th 1924 in Vinton Louisiana, but the family shortly
moved to Orange, Texas, where he grew up.
Apparently, he acquired the Gatemouth moniker when a high school teacher
said he had a “voice like a gate” but there is no reason given why his brother
James, who himself recorded Boogie Woogie Nighthawk for Jax in 1951, was called
“Widemouth”. One of my liner notes says
Gate’s father was a rancher, another that he worked for the railroad; perhaps
both are true, but one thing not disputed is that he was a locally popular
musician, playing Country, Bluegrass and Cajun fiddle. Clarence also enjoyed
hearing Big Band Swing like Count Basie, Lionel Hampton and Duke
Ellington. In fact, Ellington’s Take the
A Train was a regular part of his stage shows.
And there was certainly no lack of Blues to be heard in Texas.
One
night in 1945, Brown happened into the Bronze Peacock to hear T-Bone Walker,
but the electric guitar genius was stricken by an ulcer flare-up so Clarence
offered his services and was given the opportunity to take his idol’s place on
stage. The Peacock’s owner, Don Robey,
was duly impressed and signed Gate to his Buffalo Booking Agency. He played mostly in Robey’s club and built up
a solid reputation in the area. Robey
arranged for Aladdin to give his artist an August 1947 recording session in Los
Angeles and release a pair of singles, but when they didn’t set the world on
fire he decided to start up a label of his own to fully capitalize on Brown’s
talents.
The
third single, My Time’s Expensive b/w Mary is Fine, was a double sided success
as both songs broke into Billboard’s R&B Top Ten in 1949 but turned out to
be the only time Clarence would make the charts in his almost sixty year
recording career, but his work was highly influential, particularly to Texas
Bluesmen like Johnny Winter, Albert Collins, Anson Funderburgh, Johnny “Guitar”
Watson, Johnny Copeland and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
In his 1989 autobiography, Frank Zappa mentioned specifically Brown,
Watson and Guitar Slim as his guitar influences.
Brown’s
first instrument was drums, which he started playing once he got out of the
army and was working professionally around San Antonio, Texas. Gate’s guitar style is often compared to B.B.
King’s but Brown began recording two years before King; more likely they just
shared common influences as both considered T-Bone as having affected each of
them. Both men also acknowledged Louis
Jordan as a vocalist they emulated.
Clarence’s violin playing was front and center for a few tunes at all of
his concerts but Robey did not record Brown’s use of the instrument until his
last session before he severed ties with the organization in 1961.
In
1966, he led the house band for a syndicated TV show out of Dallas,
The!!!!Beat. Brown moved to Nashville
for recording purposes in the 60s where he teamed up with Roy Clark on some
Country-flavored 45s and made several musical cameos on Roy’s TV show Hee
Haw. Gate worked with Roy’s agent, the Jim Halsey Company, and the pair recorded Makin’
Music in Tulsa in 1979.
Halsey
also arranged for them to join a 1973 European tour with the Oak Ridge Boys and
Barbara Mandrell with a performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival including a
segment where he jammed with Canned Heat.
Altogether, Clarence made twelve tours and nine albums in Europe in the
70s, some of those tours as an official US ambassador for music sponsored by
the State Department. Probably, most
significant was the six week, 44 concert tour of the Soviet Union with Clark in
1979, because it was the first time the Soviets contracted concerts with an
American citizen (Halsey) rather than being handled through the Department of State.
Gate
appears to have not had much studio time following
his Peacock years, but his 1965 cover of Little Jimmy Dickens’ May the Bird of
Paradise Fly up Your Nose put him briefly back on the airwaves. Between stints on
the road, Clarence found time to back legendary New Orleans piano master
Professor Longhair on his 1974 Rock ‘n’ Roll Gumbo album but, with twelve
European tours between 1971 and 1979, one can see how there was not much time
to make an impact domestically.
Gate
got back on track with the American market when he signed on with Rounder
Records, for whom he made three albums between 1981 and 1986. He had moved to the New Orleans vicinity in
the late 70s and was playing 250 to 300 gigs a year, most of them on the road,
some international. These were certainly
enhanced by his first Rounder release, Alright Again, recorded in 1981, hit the
record shelves in 1982, and was awarded a Grammy for Best Traditional Blues
Album in 1983.These were followed up by a Pair of albums for Alligator and five
for the Verve label. His final album,
Timeless, was released on Hightone in 2004.
In
2004, Gate received the diagnosis of lung cancer. It took this along with pre-existing
emphysema and heart disease to shut down his career. He had relocated back to Orange, Texas, where
a niece could help take care of him, but when Hurricane Katrina hit the New
Orleans area in 2005 his home and all his possessions were destroyed. He died in Orange September 10th
2005 aged 81. He was buried in the
Hollywood Cemetery in Orange, but when Hurricane Ike hit there in 2008 his
casket was among the dozens that floated up in the flood. His gravesite was repaired with a headstone
marking his resting place The Texas
Historical Commission also placed another marker honoring him by the cemetery’s
flagpole.
Although
he started his recording career before the advent of the long play records, he
still laid down more than twenty albums and was included on about the same
number of compilation albums. He accrued
eight W.C. Handy Awards and was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in
1999. He never really slackened his
touring schedule, even in his final years, hitting Australia, New Zealand,
South America, Africa and Eastern Europe.
Brown’s three marriages produced three daughters and a son
I
used a new source for this essay: “The National Fiddler Hall of Fame is proud
to honor Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown as a 2016 inductee.” Their website and the usual online sources
Wikipedia and All Music supplemented my albums’ liner notes for content in this
essay.
About the music: Our opening set includes selections from
Boogie Uproar: The Complete Aladdin / Peacock Singles (As & Bs) 1947-1962,
the tracks chosen being from Gate’s absolute earliest prior to 1950. Later on, Brown did not like being called
just a Bluesman, but it is clear that is how he first gained his reputation.
His
second set is taken from the 1994 album The Man, his first for Verve, and it
shows the way he had grown. An excellent
set in my opinion. Especially check out
Unchained Melody, a far cry from the Righteous Brothers Soulful version.
And
if I do get the extra time we’ll put it to good use with the award winning 1981
Alright Again!, and while there is not a slow track in the set’s entirety it’s not my fault (but I love it! After all, it’sbeen
my intention for years to have you tapping your pencil on your coffee mug so
strongly your boss tells you to knock it off!)
The disc is called Texas Swing and it has the first two Rounder
albums so they might have removed a slow tune or two for time’s sake. I only took out one of the eight songs and,
yeah, it was a slow number. Still, a
jumpin’ way to close a show!
Here’s
a last minute addition to these notes.
Last show, I recommended a CD / DVD combo from Luther Allison and, while
I have probably less than a dozen music DVDs in my possession, when I saw a
similar pairing from a 1996 Austin City Limits presentation I just had to
purchase it. Live from Austin TX is a
ten track release and the music is top notch, although four of the tunes will
be essentially ineligible when I include it on my next Gatemouth airing because
I played the studio versions today from his album The Man, but that still
leaves a 35-40 minute set. The DVD verified
my recollection from that Austin City Limits show from decades before of the
positioning of his picking hand as well as at least one section where he does
some rapid strumming. He has a full five piece horn section behind him plus
keyboards, drums and bass and, while not a particularly attractive visual
ensemble, they suit his needs remarkably well.
To get a feel for the contents, pay attention to our middle Brown set
and you will have a good idea what the DVD sounds like since it was laid down a
mere two years later. I am certainly
glad I bought it.
Once
again, I will list all Gate’s albums according to Wikipedia.
·
1972 The Blues Ain't Nothin' (Black and Blue)
·
1973 Cold Storage (Black and Blue)
·
1973 Sings Louis Jordan (Black and Blue)
·
1973 Drifter Rides Again (Barclay)
·
1974 Gate's on the Heat (Barclay)
·
1974 Down South in Bayou Country (Barclay)
·
1975 Bogalusa Boogie Man (Barclay)
·
1976 Blackjack (Music Is Medicine)
·
1977 Heatwave (with Lloyd Glenn) (Black and Blue)
·
1979 Makin' Music (with Roy Clark) (One Way)
·
1981 Alright Again! (Rounder)
·
1982 One More Mile (Rounder)
·
1986 Real Life (Rounder)
·
1989 Standing My Ground (Alligator)
·
1992 No Looking Back (Alligator)
·
1994 The Man (Verve/Gitanes)
·
1996 Long Way Home (Verve/Gitanes)
·
1997 Gate Swings (Verve/Gitanes)
·
1999 American Music, Texas Style (Verve/Blue
Thumb)
·
2001 Back to Bogalusa (Verve/Gitanes)
·
2004 Timeless (Hightone)
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Today’s second artist is a
well-known singer, songwriter & pianist who had 112 of her singles reach
the Billboard charts including 100 R&B hits (20 of them going all the way
to number one), 77 Hot 100 and 17 Top Ten singles, more chartings than any
other woman in history. In 2011 she was rated 19th among the Billboard Hot 100 All-Time top artists. The
Grammys did not start their Best Female R&B Vocal Performance category
until 1968 and this artist took the first eight (through 1975). She received a Grammy Legend Award in 1991
followed by a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1994 when she still had 25
years to go. In
2011, the Grammys ceremony paid
tribute with a medley of her classics.
In 2010,
Rolling Stone magazine proclaimed her the number one artist on their 100
Greatest Singers of All Time list and number nine among its 100 Greatest
Artists of All Time. When the magazine listed the "Women in Rock: 50
Essential Albums" in 2002 and again in 2012, it had her 1967 I Never Loved
a Man (the Way I Love You) at number one.
Overall, she sold more than 75 million records worldwide.
She was honored with a star on Hollywood’s Walk of
Fame in 1979 and became the first female performer voted into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame in 1987, entered the Michigan Rock and
Roll Legends Hall of Fame in 2005, and was only the second woman inducted
to the U.K. Music Hall of
Fame that same year. At
her induction into the GMA Gospel Music Hall
of Fame in 2012, she was described as "the voice of the
civil rights movement, the voice of black America" and a "symbol of
black equality". She made the
Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in 2015 and, posthumously, the Memphis Music
Hall of Fame in 2018.
In addition
to all those Hall of Fame inductions, she was
a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1994, received the National Medal of Arts in 1999
and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005, was
the 2008 MusiCares
Person of the Year, and had an asteroid named in her honor in
2014. All of that and in 2019 she was
the first individual woman to receive a special citation from the Pulitzer
Prize jury “for her indelible contribution to American music and culture for
more than five decades.” Did I forget
anything? Most likely, but I’m sure I
can fit it into her biography.
Aretha
Louise Franklin was born on March 26th
1942 to Barbara and Clarence LaVaughn “C.L.” Franklin in Memphis,
Tennessee. They had four children
together plus each had children from earlier relationships. The family moved to Buffalo, New York when
Aretha was two and by the time she was five they had settled in Detroit,
Michigan, where her father became a minister at the New Bethel Baptist
Church. This would be where Aretha would
first find her voice singing Gospel along with sisters Erma and Carolyn for the
congregation; her mother was also an accomplished pianist and singer.
The Franklins separated in 1948 with Barbara taking
her son (Aretha’s half-brother) back to Buffalo, where Aretha saw them in the
summers and the many times they would visit the rest of the family in Detroit. Her mother died from a heart attack in 1952
just before Aretha’s tenth birthday.
Among the women who tended to the children in Detroit were her
grandmother, Rachel, and Mahalia Jackson, and this is when Aretha began playing
piano. She would drop out of high school
in her sophomore year.
C. L.’s reputation for strong sermons (he became known
as having “the million dollar voice”) brought him the opportunity to earn
thousands of dollars preaching at churches across the country and Aretha was
exposed to great Gospel musicians the likes of Clara Ward and the Reverend
James Cleveland when they visited the Franklin home. C.L. was also friends with Martin Luther
King, Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson. Ward
was romantically linked with C.L. from 1949 until her death in 1973 and served
as one of Aretha’s role models.
Shortly following her mother’s passing, Aretha began
to sing solos in the church and her father became her manager when she was
twelve, taking her on his tours. He got
her signed to J.V.B. Records, recording nine tracks in his church with Aretha on
piano and vocal. Her first single, Never
Grow Old b/w You Grow Closer, came out in 1956, but it wasn’t until 1959 that
the two sided Precious Lord was released as a single. These four tracks plus There is a Fountain
were on side one of the 1956 album Spirituals.
The album was re-released in 1962 on Battle Records, then Checker
Records put out all nine tracks from that session under the title Songs of
Faith.
Around this time, Aretha would sometimes travel with
the Soul Stirrers. In 1958, C.L. and his
daughter went to California where she met Sam Cooke. At the age of sixteen, Aretha toured with Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., and she would sing at his funeral in 1968. Aretha also hit the Chicago Gospel circuit,
staying with Mavis Staples’ family.
When she was eighteen, Aretha convinced her father to
manage her still as she went into the secular music field. After making a two song demo, the Franklins
signed on with legendary producer John Hammond and Columbia Records in 1960, in
spite of Sam Cooke wanting her to join him on the RCA label and interest in
both Aretha and her older sister Erma from Motown’s owner, Berry Gordy, Jr. for
his Tamla label. The September issuance
of the single Today I Sing the Blues made the top ten on the Hot 100 Rhythm
& Blues Sellers and the January 1961 Aretha with the Ray Bryant Combo
contained Won’t Be Long, which became her first single to crack the Billboard
Hot 100 and reached #7 on the R&B chart.
She got her first top 40 single with the standard Rock-a-Bye Your Baby
with a Dixie Melody, backed by an R&B tune, Operation Heartbreak. Her repertoire at the time also featured
Jazz, Blues and Doo Wop. Rock-a-Bye also
made the top 40 in both Canada and Australia.
Downbeat magazine picked Franklin as a “new star female vocalist”.
1962 saw the release of two more Columbia albums, The
Electrifying Aretha Franklin and The Tender, the Moving, the Swinging Aretha
Franklin. It would become boring very
quickly if I continued to list all the times that Aretha broke onto the
charts. Suffice it to say that they
enabled her to make numerous financially highly successful engagements in
nightclubs and theaters as well as appearances on Rock ‘n’ Roll TV shows
Shindig! and Hollywood a Go-Go,.but her career only really took off after
signing with Atlantic Records in November 1966.
In January she recorded I Never Loved a Man (the Way I
Love You) for Atlantic which, after its release in February 1967, made #1 on
the R&B chart and #9 on Billboard’s Hot 100, her first time in the Pop top
ten. Even more impressive, and about as
good as you can get, her April release of her version of the Otis Redding
classic Respect hit #1 on both R&B and Pop charts. Her first album for Atlantic, I Never Loved a
Man (the Way I Love You), containing both singles, would go gold.
1968 saw two more top selling albums, Lady Soul and
Aretha Now, garnishing her two Grammys for the year. In May she made her first European tour and
graced the cover of Time magazine in June.
By the end of the decade, she was acknowledged as the undisputed Queen
of Soul.
But Aretha’s successes didn’t end with the 60s. Her single Don’t Play That Song (You Lied)
lingered for weeks at #1 on the R&B lists.
In 1971, the album Live at Fillmore West preserved the first R&B act
to headline the venue. She returned to
her Gospel roots for the double LP Amazing Grace, recorded over two nights in
church with the help of James Cleveland and the Southern California Community
Choir, making the Top Ten with more than two million sales. By the middle of the decade, the momentum was
on the wane. Her 1976 single Something
He Can Feel would be her last top 40 charting for the decade as it also made #1
R&B, and in 1979 she left Atlantic to join Arista Records.
Much of Franklin’s success was due to producer Jerry
Wexler and his willingness to let her record a diverse set of material, running
the gamut from top notch originals and Gospel to Blues, Pop and Rock covers
(Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Sam Cooke, Otis Redding)
A command performance for Queen Elizabeth at the Royal
Albert Hall in London and a cameo in the Blues Brothers movie were highlights
of 1980. The #3 R&B United Together
and the Grammy nominated copy of another Otis Redding classic, Can’t Turn You
Lose, both came from the 1980 album Aretha, her first for Arista. Her 1981 follow-up brought out another Grammy
winner in a remake of Sam & Dave’s Hold On, I’m Coming. The 1982 album Jump to It became the first
gold record in seven years with the title track being her first top 40 in six
years. An air incident in 1984 brought
on a fear of flying that curtailed any further overseas performances.
The State of Michigan declared her voice a “natural
resource” in 1985. That same year her
album, Who’s Zoomin’ Who?, went platinum at well over a million sales. From 1986, the album Aretha (not to be
confused with Arista’s 1980 initial offering of the same name) produced three
hit singles including I Knew You Were Waiting (for Me), a duet with George
Michael that went to #1 internationally.
Aretha returned to her late father’s New Bethel church to record the
1987 Gospel album One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism. After a relative lull, Franklin made the
singles charts again with 1993’s A Deeper Love and returned to the top 40 the
following year with Willing to Forgive.
Aretha played Aunt Em in the 1995 Apollo Theater’s
revival of The Wiz. Her 1998 A Rose is
Still a Rose would be her last top 40 hit and, a little later, the album went
gold with sales over a half a million.
That was also the year that the Queen of Soul won acclaim for a Grammy
performance that took the Classical world by storm. At the last minute, after the show had already
begun, Luciano Pavoratti told the producers he was too ill for his scheduled
performance of Nessun Dorma. Aretha was
a friend of Pavorotti’s and had actually done the operatic aria two nights
before at the annual MusicCares event.
After hearing Luciano’s rehearsal recording, she determined she could
sing it as a tenor as the orchestra had prepared (she was a
mezzo-soprano). It earned Aretha a
standing ovation and the worldwide broadcast was seen by over a billion
viewers. She would later record it and
perform it often, the last time for Pope Francis at Philadelphia’s 2015 World
Meeting of Families.
Franklin won another Grammy with Wonderful in 2003,
then, after more than two decades with Arista, announced she was departing the
label. In order to fulfill her
obligations, she recorded Jewels in the Crown: All Star Duets with the Queen in
2005. She joined Aaron Neville and Dr.
John at Super Bowl XL for the national anthem in February of 2006 when it was
played in her hometown Detroit. She
would also perform My Country, ‘Tis of Thee at the January 20th 2009
inauguration of President Barack Obama.
In
2011 on her own label, Aretha’s Records, Franklin released Aretha: A Woman
Falling Out of Love. She signed up with
RCA Records in 2014 and resumed her recording relationship with Clive Davis
from her time at Arista; RCA now had controlling interests in Arista as well as
Columbia. Her first RCA album, Aretha
Franklin Sings the Great Diva Classics, contained Rolling in the Deep / Ain’t
No Mountain High Enough, which she performed with Cissy Houston on David
Letterman’s September 29th Late Show, the month before the album’s
2014 release; within a week, the song had more than two million views on
Vevo. The song would make Aretha the
first woman (and only the fourth artist) with 100 entries on Billboard’s Hot
100 R&B / Hip-Hop Songs.
About
the Diva album, Aretha said, “Mr. Davis came to me
with the idea. He suggested some of the
artists and songs which included many that I myself enjoyed. We both agreed
that there was a whole new generation who may never have heard the original
recordings.”
Also about one of the songs in the album, “I used to buy all
those Motown records. I’m not just an artist, I’m a consumer! Motown was about
a mile away from my home in Detroit in the ‘60s and I knew most of the artists
and producers.”
December
2015 would find Franklin performing on the Kennedy Center Honors
broadcast. She again performed the Star
Spangled Banner at the 2016 Thanksgiving Day football game, when the Detroit
Lions hosted their rival Minnesota Vikings, with improvisations making the song
last over four minutes.
Accolades
were not hard to find. President Barack
Odama wrote in 2015, “Nobody embodies more fully
the connection between the African-American Spiritual, the Blues, R&B, Rock
and Roll — the way that hardship and sorrow were transformed into something
full of beauty and vitality and hope. American history wells up when Aretha
sings. That's why, when she sits down at a piano and sings ‘A Natural Woman,’
she can move me to tears — the same way that Ray Charles's version of 'America the
Beautiful' will always be in my view the most patriotic piece of music ever
performed — because it captures the fullness of the American experience, the
view from the bottom as well as the top, the good and the bad, and the
possibility of synthesis, reconciliation, transcendence.” She would later say that it was one of the
best nights of her life. After her death, he said she “helped define the
American experience”.
And David Remnick felt
that what "distinguishes her is not merely the breadth of her catalogue or
the cataract force of her vocal instrument; it's her musical intelligence, her
way of singing behind the beat, of spraying a wash of notes over a single word
or syllable, of constructing, moment by moment, the emotional power of a
three-minute song. 'Respect' is as precise an artifact as a Ming vase."
Aretha moved from Detroit to New York in the 60s, then to the
Los Angeles area mid-70s, eventually winding up in Encino until 1982 when she
moved back to the Detroit suburb Bloomfield Hills to be near her family,
particularly her father, and that would be her home until her death.
While Aretha was performing in Las Vegas in June of 1979, her
father was shot in his home. After six
months and still in a coma, he left the hospital for his Detroit home requiring
around the clock nursing care. About two
years after Aretha’s return he died in a nursing home on July 27th
1984.
The first of Aretha’s four children was born in January 1955
after a pregnancy begun when she was only twelve years old, followed by another
two years later. Her grandmother Rachel
and sister Erma again took on the child rearing responsibilities.
Aretha married Ted White in 1961 when she was 19 and they
divorced in 1969. In the interim he
became her manager and she bore her third child in 1964. Ted White, Jr. went by the stage name Teddy
Richards when he played guitar for her performing band. The fourth of the siblings was born in 1970,
the son of her road manager Ken Cunningham.
Franklin married again in 1978, becoming step-mother to Glynn
Turman’s three children, separating when she returned to Detroit from
California and divorcing in 1984. She
was engaged twice to her longtime partner Willie Wilkerson but ended the
relationship in 2012.
Franklin’s sisters Erma and Carolyn both had careers in music
including years of vocal backing for Aretha’s studio work. Erma was probably best known for the original
version of Piece of My Heart, made popular by Janis Joplin with Big Brother and
the Holding Company.
After her divorce from White in 1969, brother Cecil took over
her managing duties until his passing from lung cancer in December 1989. Breast cancer had already taken Carolyn in
April 1988 and throat cancer would take Erma, but not until 2002. Their half-brother, Vaughn Franklin, died in
late 1982 and C.L. had sired Carol Kelley with a twelve year old congregant
when he was pastor at the New Salem Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee.
Franklin’s friendship with Sissy Houston went all the way back
to when they sang together as members of the Gospel group Sweet Inspirations
and she backed up Franklin on the hit Ain’t No Way. Aretha was so close with Sissy that her
daughter, Whitney Houston, would call her Auntie Ree. Franklin was unable to perform at Whitney’s
2012 memorial service due to severe leg spasms.
Aretha struggled with her weight into at least the 90s, she was
also a chain smoker who quit in 1992, but that took its toll on her weight
control. She also battled an alcoholism
problem.
She had to cancel a number of appearances in 2010 to facilitate
a surgery to remove a tumor. In May of
2013 Aretha cancelled a pair of shows for a medical treatment, then cancelled
two more coming up in June, anticipated a tour return in July but didn’t
actually make it until the end of the year.
In mid-2014, she got back fully with a multi-city tour. She declared in February 2017 that it would
her final touring year, although she did schedule a few dates in 2018 before
cancelling them on her doctor’s advice.
On January 29th 2018, CBS and the Recording Academy
put together Aretha! A Grammy Celebration for the Queen of Soul at Los Angeles’
Shrine Auditorium with performances by Smokey Robinson, Janelle Monáe, Alicia Keys, John Legend, Kelly Clarkson, Celine Dion, Alessia Cara, Patti LaBelle, Jennifer Hudson, Chloe x Halle, H.E.R., SZA, Brandi Carlile, Yolanda Adams and Shirley Caesar. The concert aired on television March 10th.
The
September 3rd Ravinia Festival would be her last full concert. Her final musical appearance was on November
7th for the 25th anniversary celebration of the Elton
John AIDS Foundation in New York City’s Cathedral of Saint John the
Divine. Aretha passed away at home on
August 16th 2018 at the age of 76, the result of a pancreatic
neuroendocrine tumor The November 2017
release of A Brand New Me peaked at #5 on Billboard’s Top Classical Albums
chart (she was backed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra), then climbed to #2
when reissued after Aretha’s death.
Logically, the New Bethel Baptist Church was the site of the
private August 19th memorial service, followed by thousands of fans
respectfully passing by the casket at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African
American History. Tributes by
celebrities (Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, Ronald Isley, Gladys Knight, Faith
Hill, Chaka Khan, Queen Latifah, Jennifer Hudson, Cedric the Entertainer, Tyler
Perry), politicians and social leaders (Bill Clinton, Eric Holder, Rev. Al
Sharpton, Louis Farrakhan), family and friends were heard at the August 31st
Homegoing Service held at the Greater Grace Temple, aired on several television
networks. Aretha’s request was honored
that the Reverend Jasper Williams Jr. of Atlanta’s Salem Baptist Church give
the eulogy as he had done previously for her father and other family members. A televised procession up Seven Mile Road led
to her interment at Detroit’s Woodlawn Cemetery.
After
such a long and distinguished career, a phrase that is seldom used as
accurately as here, it is not surprising there would be many individuals and
institutions wishing to pay tribute to the Queen of Soul. On June 8, 2017,
the City of Detroit honored Franklin's legacy by renaming a portion of Madison
Street Aretha Franklin Way.
The American Music Awards closed their October 9th
2017 show by bringing Gladys Knight, Donnie McClurkin, Ledisi, Cece Winans, and Mary Mary onstage to perform Gospel numbers
including several from Arteha’s 1972 Amazing Grace album.
Likewise, the 61st Annual
Grammy Awards concluded its ceremony with a tribute to Aretha’s life and career
followed by Fantasia Barrino-Taylor, Andra Day and Yolanda Adams’ version of her 1968 hit, (You
Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.
American National
Geographic announced on February 10th 2019 that the third
season of their anthology television series Genius would be the
"first-ever, definitive scripted miniseries on the life of the universally
acclaimed Queen of Soul". It should
be filming about now and is scheduled to air early next year.
Not belying her religious upbringing, Aretha was an impassioned
lifelong worker for civil and women’s rights to the point that, after her
death, minister / activist Al Sharpton declared her “a civil rights and
humanitarian icon.” She supported the
causes she believed in any way she could, whether it was performing at benefit
and protest concerts or donating substantial portions of her money.
With the jailing of Angela Davis in 1970, Franklin told Jet
magazine, "Angela Davis must go free ... Black people will be free. I've
been locked up (for disturbing the peace in Detroit) and I know you got to
disturb the peace when you can't get no peace. Jail is hell to be in. I'm going
to see her free if there is any justice in our courts, not because I believe in
communism, but because she's a Black woman and she wants freedom for Black
people."
Her sense of justice was not restricted to things relevant to
the fact that she was a Black woman. It
expanded to indigenous people’s rights around the world, particularly though
certainly not exclusively to our Native Americans and Canada’s First Nation people. Being a lifelong Christian and registered
Democrat, she was also one of many artists and celebrities who declined to take
part in any of Donald Trump’s 2017 inaugural events.
About the music: There are several reasons I often
prefer live recordings. Of course, they
are more true to what one could expect to hear when buying concert tickets but
there is also feedback from the crowd that creates a raw excitement, and they
choose their best material along with their most recent releases. Thus it is from three live albums that
today’s show is taken: Aretha in Paris (recorded in 1968) and Oh Me Oh My:
Aretha Live in Philly 1972 for our first set and 1971’s Live at Fillmore West
to form our second grouping.
I splurged
this year just before my birthday and purchased a couple of classic Atlantic Soul
box sets, and the Atlantic Albums Collection contains sixteen of Aretha’s
albums on nineteen discs. I also picked
up The Atlantic Studio Recordings (1968-1972) Wilson Pickett, Funky Midnight Mover,
which I’m sure will entertain us over a couple of shows beginning hopefully in
the not too distant future. Since
Wikipedia gives a good list of Aretha’s studio albums, I shall post them here,
but note that none of today’s three albums and Amazing Grace, another live set,
nor the out-takes compilation Rare and Unreleased Recordings from the Golden
Reign of the Queen of Soul contained in the box do not appear here.
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While not really a trio, the two
guitar players and a harmonica man who went by the name Koerner, Ray and
Glover, was perhaps more akin to the burgeoning Folk scene of the 60s than
they were to the suddenly increased number of white Blues bands. There were no driving percussion and bass
backing them up and you were more likely to hear a solo guitar than all three together,
on record anyway, and they weren’t even from Chicago. Ray put
it simply when he said, “It was travel arrangements primarily. We were often in the same town, so we showed
up at the same place at the same time.”
Though all three were from the University of Minnesota,
John “Spider” Koerner, Dave “Snaker” Ray and Tony “Little Sun” Glover, actually
came together in New York City where Ray was living in the summer of 1962. Glover was visiting his friend and, when
Koerner came to the city from upstate, the three of them hit the bar jam
session circuit. Back in Minneapolis
that fall, they continued to get together wherever there was a place for music
to be played. In 1963, the editor of the
Little Sandy Review Paul Nelson set up the Milwaukee session for Audiophile
Records that produced their first LP, Blues, Rags and Hollers. Once a representative from Elektra heard the
album, he flew to Minneapolis to sign the boys and, while he was there,
purchased the master so they could release it on their own label. A total of six albums were released on
Elektra.
Ray’s
instrument of choice was a twelve string guitar while Koerner had constructed
himself a seven string and used a rack for his harmonica when he was not
playing with Glover. The trio were
popular on the club and college circuit and played to larger audiences at the
Philadelphia and Newport Folk Festivals.
Koerner,
who was born in New York, began a successful solo career in 1965 with Spider
Blues on Elektra, but by the 70s he turned to other interests including
experimental film making and resided in Denmark for several years, putting the
Blues aside as he embraced other traditional American folk musics. Upon returning stateside, he cut a couple of
albums for Ray’s Sweet Jane label and, more recently, a couple more for Red
House Records.
Ray
built a recording studio to house his Sweet Jane, Ltd. label in 1972. In addition to albums by Koerner, the studio
most notably also did Bonnie Raitt’s first Warner Brothers album and some work
for Junior Wells. Ray has had a few
Blues and Rock bands, with The Three Bedroom Rambers releasing possibly his
last one in 1995. Glover passed from
lung cancer in November of 2002 at 53 years of age.
Ray
and Glover continued to work together after Koerner left and won a pair of
Minnesota Music Awards honors. In 1987
their Legends in their Spare Time won the Blues Album of the year and Picture
Has Faded took the best Independent Record award.
Glover
wrote a few of the first instruction manuals for the harmonica and his Blues
Harp is still considered the go-to set of lessons. He also spent time as a late night disc
jockey and authored articles as he did stints with music magazines including
Rolling Stone, Crawdaddy and Circus. He
won an ASCAP Deems Taylor award when he penned the liner notes for fellow Twin
City native Bob Dylan’s LIVE 1966 album.
He produced a two hour documentary video, Blues, Rags and Hollers: the
Koerner, Ray and Glover Story based around footage from a 1984 trio
concert. The Minnesota Music Awards chose
him Best Electric Harp in 1987 and he was working on a biography of Little
Walter Jacobs, which will be issued soon if not already. Glover died just a couple of months ago on
May 29th 2019.
The
three would get together for special events in the 70s and 80s like the
Winnepeg and Vancouver Folk Festivals (personal note: my brother lives in
Winnipeg and we were born in Vancouver; I don’t often see the two cities linked
musically!) and the thirtieth anniversary concert for Sing Out! magazine. Minnesota Music Awards declared the trio Best
Folk Group and put them into the Hall of Fame with Bob Dylan and Prince.
Four
concerts were recorded in 1996 and released by the Tim/Kerr label as One Foot
in the Groove. The guys hit the
Philadelphia Folk Festival and Seattle’s Bumbershoot Festival on their
following tour then, in 2000 and 2001 they took the Folk Group category of the
Minnesota Music Awards.
Almost all the information
contained here came from the trio’s website (I could not locate in time the
notes from the CD Blues, Rags and Hollers from which today’s music is taken)
with a little supplementing from All Music.
Wikipedia was literally a joke on these guys and an Oldies website did
provide the one quote. enjoy
*************************
For listening to KSCU on a computer, you
need to use iTunes or WinAmp for the media player.
To listen to KSCU on a smart phone use
either the NextRadio or TuneIn apps.
The studio phone number is (408) 554-KSCU or, for the
digitally inclined 554-5728 but, as always, make sure no one is speaking on the
air before you dial.
The
mailing address for sending CDs et cetera is:
KSCU
Local Music
500
El Camino Real
Santa
Clara, CA
95053
All
my writings going back to 2014 are still available at
key2highway.blogspot. I do have an emailing
list and, for those of you who are not yet on it, I would be happy to add you
if you email me at coyledon@yahoo.com
(my computer’s autocorrect adds a letter t, so if that shows up here please
remove it before trying to contact me; apparently, cotyledon is some kind of
botanical term).
*************************
Gatemouth Boogie
Without Me Baby
Mercy on Me
Atomic Energy
My Time’s Expensive
Mary is Fine
2 O’clock in the Morning
Boogie Rambler
I’ve Been Mistreated
I Live My Life
Just Got Lucky
Too Late Baby
It Can Never Be That Way
Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown
35mins
Introduction / Rock Steady
Medley: Day Dreaming / Think
I Never Loved a Man
Spanish Harlem
Chain of Fools
Young, Gifted and Black
Since You’ve Been Gone (Sweet
Sweet Baby)
(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural
Woman
Come Back Baby
Soul Serenade
That’s the Way I Feel about Cha
Night Life
April Fools
Aretha Franklin 47mins
Hangman
It’s All Right
One Kind Favor
Ted Mack Rag
Down to Louisiana
Creepy John
Low Down Rounder
Booger Burns
Ramblin’ Blues
Good Time Charlie
Banjo Thing
Stop That Thing
Snaker’s Here
Mumblin’ Word
Linin’ Track
“Spider”
John Koerner, Dave “Snaker” Ray & Tony “Little Son” Glover 38mins
Honky Tonk
Early in the Morning
Unchained Melody
Say You Love Me
Big Mammou
Someday My Luck Will Change
Up Jumped the Devil
There You Are
Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown
37mins
Respect
Mixed Up Girl
Make It with You
Love the One You’re With
Dr. Feelgood
Spirit in the Dark
Spirit in the Dark (Reprise)
Don’t Play That Song
Aretha
Franklin 53mins
Frosty
Strollin’ with Bone
Alligator Boogaloo
Dollar Got the Blues
Baby Take it Easy
Gate Walks to Board
I Feel Alright Again
Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown
24mins
