Aretha Franklin is an American icon. Aretha grew up in Detroit, the heart of R&B in the 60’s and 70’s. She was the ‘Queen of Soul’ for her whole career. No one during her life time dethroned her. Aretha was in life and even in death one of a kind. There are many things I think about when I do a mosaic. One thought is, “What image am I going to use?”
The image I chose was Aretha in 1970. In 1970, I had just graduated from college, and Aretha was about 26 years old. So, in my mosaic, Aretha is 26 years old. I wanted to show Aretha cranking it out! She had a big unique sound all her own with gospel influences. She had an “Afro” like a lot of African American women at that time. When I think about Aretha I think about her early recordings.
During this last month and a half, that I have been making this mosaic, I have listened to a lot of her old songs. My play list includes: Do Right Woman, Do Right Man/Baby, Baby, Baby/Respect/Ain’t No Way (one of my personal favorites) You’re All I Need To Get By/Natural Woman and many others.
She made an album called Amazing Grace which is still one of Aretha’s best selling albums.