Aretha Franklin (44 page)

In February, several publishers in New York City engaged in an auction for Aretha's “proposed” autobiography. According to one editor involved, “There wasn't a formal proposal in writing, it was just being sold on a verbal promise, and it was our [this publisher's] hope that it would actually become a cohesive book.”

As it turned out, Doubleday won the “bidding war” that ensued, topping five publishers with its offer of $525,000 as an advance against royalties. However, Aretha decided that she wanted $2 million or she wasn't interested. “We couldn't reach an agreement with them over the price,” explained Franklin's literary representative Debra Grayson. Was the money really the problem, or was this just Aretha's way of killing the project? It is doubtful that she ever intended on putting her tale of anguish and personal heartbreak down on paper to begin with.

At the same time she was also at work on her new album,
Through the Storm
. Although she had yet to sign a long-term contract with the company, it was recorded and released by Arista Records. While the LP was still in the planning stages, she was occupied with composing a couple of new tunes for it. “I have about four good melodies on the drawing board,” Aretha explained. “Most of my songs are very romantic, because I'm very sentimental.”

On February 22, 1989, Aretha added to her collection of Grammy Awards, when her album
One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism
won her the fifteenth statuette of her career. Not only did the album win her the “Best Soul Gospel Performance, Female,” trophy, but the Aretha-produced cut entitled “Speech by Rev. Jesse Jackson (July 27),” won the “Best Spoken Word” Grammy.

In May of 1989, Aretha's fifty-sixth album,
Through the Storm
was released and became an instant hit. Not only did it feature a colorful cover portrait by Peter Max, but it continued her collaborative work with producer Narada Michael Walden. On the album, Aretha continued her 1980s passion for superstar duets. On the tracks of
Through the Storm
she is heard vocalizing with Elton John, Whitney Houston, and on another song she duets with James Brown. For the recording of “Gimme Your
Love,” Aretha and James were not in the same recording studio for the production of the vocal tracks. This was the last recording James made before he entered prison in late 1988, on charges of drug possession and resisting arrest. Her duet with Whitney, “It Isn't, It Wasn't, It Ain't Never Gonna Be,” became a campy classic as a single, and the title cut duet with Elton John became a huge pop and R&B hit.

As a single, “Gimme Your Love” made it to Number Forty-eight on the R&B chart. The Whitney Houston duet made it to Number Forty-one pop, Number Five R&B, and Number Twenty-nine in the UK. And the single version of “Through the Storm” became a Number Sixteen pop hit, Number Seventeen R&B, and Number Three on the Adult Contemporary chart. In the UK, the Elton / Aretha duet hit Number Forty-one. The album
Through the Storm
hit Number Fifty-five in the U.S., and Number Forty-six in the UK. It wasn't her biggest selling album, but it kept her on the charts and in the Top Forty on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean in 1989.

Ultimately, who makes Aretha's career decisions for her? Her brother Cecil held the official title as her “manager,” at the time. But according to Barbara Shelley, Aretha makes all of her own decisions. “She is the most intelligent woman I've ever worked with in my career,” Shelley claims. “She's smarter than anyone else, and she knows more about managing her own career than all of these other celebrities who have a cast of thousands of people telling them what to do and advising them. Aretha Franklin could probably be a manager for anyone in show business. She certainly keeps her own career exactly where she wants it. I don't think she wants any more fame, glory, money, or notoriety than she has. She knows when to come out of hiding. Even though everybody's yelling at her about going on tour, she knows when she really has to do something, and she does it. Much bigger stars are much more insecure about their talent and their careers than she is. They're all so neurotic about whether they're gonna be a star or not. Aretha just is a star, and she manages to maintain it, without a lot of work.”

Not everyone agrees with that theory. Clyde Otis still feels that Aretha could achieve greater heights—and that she has cheated herself out of a more solid string of career achievements. “She's never achieved the greatness that I feel is due her,” Otis claims. “And it has nothing to do
with the amount of records she is selling. I look at how Clive is handling her now, and they've got her chasing the market. You see, Aretha Franklin
is
the market. In other words, she didn't have to cut ‘Freeway of Love' or all of those things to be successful. I feel that she could very easily do what she does best, and nobody could ever touch her. And she'd sell probably a lot more records than she does. But then Clive feels, ‘Well, hey, let's do what's selling.' What you must understand with an artist like [Aretha] is—that artist
is
the market. That's what I had to convince Dinah of before she agreed to record ‘What a Diff'rence a Day Makes.' Aretha never has allowed herself to stand on her own and be
her
star.”

According to Clyde, “With Aretha, I guarantee you that there is a market out there for her right now, if she would just be honest and true to herself. It could be any kind of song, but she's got to be herself like Barbra Streisand is. You can't get Barbra to do something that doesn't suit her. Aretha is a woman who has tremendous vitality, is tremendously talented, and has never achieved that degree of stardom.”

If Clyde Otis was given the opportunity to go into a recording studio with Aretha again, what kind of material would he like to see her sing? “‘(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,'” he claims, “and I'd just go on from there—all over. I'd look for the great, great songs—there are so many of them—great songs that
should
be sung. I'd make her be herself. Any song that she felt that she could relate to is a song that we'd cut. I'd just make her sing the hell out of the song, that's all I'd want. I don't care what the tempo is, I don't care what market it's for—that's where I'd put her.”

Does he feel that Aretha has the capacity to produce her recordings herself? “Not really as well as she can be produced,” he says, “but I would prefer to see her produce herself than see her produced by many of the people who have been producing her. They don't really grasp the depth of her talent and bring that out, or allow it to be brought out. I think she comes closer to bringing it out than anybody.”

According to Jerry Wexler, “First there was Bessie Smith. Next there was Billie Holiday. Then there was Dinah Washington. Now in our time, there is Aretha Franklin. Like her wonderful predecessors, she is for the ages.”

If he had the opportunity to return to the studio with Aretha, what direction would he recommend for her? “She should make every kind of music. She should make a classic kind of Sarah Vaughn album, singing great standards, with great arrangements, with great jazz players. I would recommend that instantly—among other things. I'm talking like a beautiful thing with the strings and all. Then she should also make a ‘cooking' album with a small jazz band. Not so much the standard ballads, but more of the ‘Moody's Mood (For Love),' and the pure jazz,” says Wexler.

“I think she's unique,” says Clive Davis. “I think that she's historic—and deservedly so, and legendary—and deservedly so. She's got a natural intuitive genius that's really a privilege to work with and to find material for. Her resurgence and resumption of her rightful stature has been a joy for me. Aretha
is
the Queen of Soul. Everything about her has been a joy. I can only tell you that she's been an absolute delight and pleasure. No one is gonna categorize her. Now that she's done her gospel album, we're back to recording contemporary songs for the next few albums. She's shown that she can do great contemporary material, and I think the next album or two will be in that area.”

Whatever kind of music Aretha chooses to record next, it is certain that it will garner the kind of attention that her status as a singing legend guarantees. “Watch me—I've got a million songs to sing!” she exclaims. “I sing in the shower, I sing everywhere. I'm
always
going to sing. Even if it's at the ladies' bazaar after I retire. Listen, I'll be like Perry Como. Did you see that TV show when he's in bed, with his head on the pillow and a mike just resting there? I'll be like that. They'll have to prop me up on pillows. I'll be singing until 2001.” And beyond, her fans hope.

Aretha once said, “Life's a whole lot like pinochle. It's all in your hand. You got nothin' to start with, and what you can get is up to how well you can play the game.” She's obviously played her cards well, and she's assuredly got several more aces up her sleeve.

“My voice is better than ever, because of experience,” she says of her huskier, more expressive 1980s voice. It has been seasoned by experience and a countless number of Kool cigarettes. “At risk of sounding egotistical—it just gets better. I am my favorite vocalist.” Amen.

She is also acknowledged as the favorite vocalist of other legends in show business. When Lena Horne released her highly acclaimed 1988 album
Lena: The Men in My Life
, Horne announced that she wished she could sing like Aretha. “If I had my druthers, I'd be Aretha Franklin,” mused Lena. “She has the
passion
feeling, and there's nobody like her. Her passion just comes through!”

“I'm a staunch Democrat,” says Aretha of her politics. Naturally, she did all that she could to assist Reverend Jesse Jackson in his bid to run for President on the Democratic ticket in 1988. “And I do community work, donating to various organizations such as sickle-cell anemia and United Negro College Fund and the NAACP. I like to do things with children and for the church. And I'm conscious of being a positive role model for children, which is even more important today than it ever was. When they can't get it together to do their homework, they can tell you one end of a rap record to the other.”

“My children are maturing and becoming independent, fine young gentlemen,” she says of her four sons. On the subject of her own self-image, she claims that “[I'm] just the nice lady next door. I am a mother, and I do have my home to run, and have to go to the dentist and to the doctor and all the places everybody else has to go to. So I have to balance my time.”

It seems that Aretha has resolved several of her past conflicts. However, she never speaks to Ted White. “We don't correspond,” White says. “We talk maybe once every ten years. The last time I talked to Aretha was when my son [Teddy, Jr.] started college. Once when he was sick. We have no contact.”

Oddly enough, Aretha still owns the house on Sorrento Avenue that she shared with Ted White in the late sixties. The house, which has sat vacant for several years, was condemned by the city, and in 1989 the neighbors started taking legal action against Aretha for the eyesore. Obviously the house still holds too many painful memories for her. Instead of repairing or selling the house, she has chosen to retain it and let it decay.

According to White, after their divorce, “I managed some [singing] artists, and did some writing for a while, and then it was kind of hard to go back to those long, hard road trips, and build people all over again.
I just didn't have the heart for it.” He went on to obtain his real-estate license, and today is a successful realtor in Detroit. Their son, Teddy, Jr., graduated from Michigan State University with a telecommunications degree, and in 1988 he began hosting a local Detroit television program.

Although she has not seen Glynn Turman since their divorce, Aretha claims that they have spoken on the phone from time to time. Aretha is living a comfortable and uncomplicated life in the suburbs, and that's the way she wants it to remain.

Slowly, Aretha is beginning to venture out of Detroit. In May of 1989 she returned to Atlantic City to perform at Caesar's Palace. Aretha came to New York City and headlined Radio City Music Hall on July 5, 6, and 7, 1989. Immediately afterward she rushed back to her hometown of Detroit. Aretha was scheduled to appear on the television show
Late Night with David Letterman
on July 11. However, in her own inimitable fashion, Aretha canceled at the last minute. According to the NBC-TV publicity department, “It was basically a misunderstanding as to the number of people who were going to appear with her on-stage.” Obviously, her reliability hasn't improved with age. She remains the reclusive Queen of the Motor City.

It really doesn't matter if she ever leaves the Detroit city limits or not. In downtown Detroit, right where Woodward Avenue meets the waterfront, there is a gigantic copper statue of a man balancing the sun in one hand and a family in the other. It is known as “The Spirit of Detroit.” With the amount of show business importance that she has focused on the city, the City Council may have to erect a statue of Aretha—and name it “The
New
Spirit of Detroit.”

One of her business associates has laughingly suggested that Aretha could become one of the attractions on a guided tour of Detroit, since she so rarely leaves town. They could point out her suburban home, where she lives in lavishly eccentric seclusion, as if it were the local equivalent of Buckingham Palace. “This
is
home,” Aretha proudly proclaims of Detroit. “It's a city of winners!”