Book Description
Her soulful, soaring voice has earned her mythic status.
Now, in her own moving words, the woman behind the myth is
revealed. The result is a captivating self-portrait of one of
this century's most fascinating artists, an Aretha Franklin
as real as the songs she sings.
For the first time anywhere, Aretha tells her story--the
glorious triumphs as well as the heartbreaking pain. With
refreshing candor, Aretha tells it like it is, the way she
sees it, the way she lived it.
A child prodigy of the golden age of gospel, the daughter of
a world-famous preacher, Aretha was the anointed successor to
Mahalia Jackson and Clara Ward. But her father had a broader
vision and helped Aretha enter the field of pop and jazz. By
age eighteen, she was under contract to Columbia Records. Six
years later, after only a few minor hits, she switched to
Atlantic, where she shook the musical world to its roots. Her
song "Respect" became the anthem of an epoch, a
touchstone for African Americans, for women, for all people
struggling to be free. Aretha became the Queen of Soul, the
genre's finest interpreter since Ray Charles.
In Aretha: From These Roots, the singer gets up-close
and personal. In rich detail, she paints a vivid picture of a
Detroit long gone: the storefront churches, the basement
parties, the explosive R&B shows. She documents her life
as a single teenage mother, working to balance home life with
career, coping with two challenging marriages and, later,
romantic relationships that were the source of both
tremendous joy and unforeseen heartache.
Along the way, we meet the characters who lit up her life:
her charismatic father, the Reverend C. L. Franklin,
"the man with the million-dollar voice"; Sam Cooke,
the man of her dreams; her singing sisters, Erma and Carolyn,
and her manager-brother, Cecil; her famous colleagues--Smokey
Robinson, Marvin Gaye, the Temptations, Luther Vandross, and
Luciano Pavarotti--as well as some famous rivals.
Aretha emerges as a triumphant woman of rare wit, willing to
share with us her passion for great music, great food, and
great love affairs. Her book does more than illuminate some
of the most exciting songs ever sung; it lets you into the
heart and mind of the mesmerizing woman who sang them.
