Aretha Franklin has died | Hacker News Reader

Aretha Franklin has died

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172 pointscraigferg50126 comments

As a youngish person who wasn't really into musiic, my first exposure to her and that entire genre was the Blues Brothers. That movie and her scene is an absolute delight.

The Blues Brothers scene in question is on YouTube [0] (this 5-ish minute version sets up the musical number; the shorter versions don't).

That version, btw, is embedded in this interview of John Landis, the director of the film on Deadline Hollywood. Landis discusses his pleasure at having Aretha Franklin participate in the film and more [1].

He stresses an interesting point which is that the movie came out at a time when disco eclipsed other genres like the blues...to the point that some record companies passed on releasing the film's soundtrack album, thinking that it wouldn't sell (as Landis points out, it wound up going platinum [2]). And he describes how the movie was made to use Belushi's and Akroyd's celebrity to bring attention to the then-neglected previous generation of blues and R&B musicians -- apparently, it worked.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WY66elCQkYk

[1] https://deadline.com/2018/08/john-landis-aretha-franklin-the...

[2] https://www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?tab_active=default-award...

What a voice. Remember some video where she and a lot of other female vocal stars much younger were singing together; she topped them all just by her presence.

I assume this? https://youtu.be/Lstk0Xe8sdg Her and Celine Dion are amazing here

RIP to the Queen of soul. Hard to find one whose work inspired industry insiders and vast audiences, spanning across several generations. This tribute by CNN is short but informative:

https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1030103135338020864

She leaves an incredible legacy. Not just in her own work, but in all the musicians she inspired to find their own voice.

RIP to the Queen of Soul

Do yourselves a favor and listen to “Get it Right”. 8 minutes of perfection.

If you haven't yet, listen to her performance of "(You make me feel like) A natural woman"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHsnZT7Z2yQ

Respect in Peace, Aretha.

Exactly 41 years to the day after Elvis.

If you had asked me yesterday, I would have guessed she'd been dead for at least two decades.

It's not the first time I'm surprised like this. When I imagine a 60s artist, I tend to forget how young they achieved their stardom.

> When I imagine a 60s artist, I tend to forget how young they achieved their stardom.

Indeed. What surprised me wasn't that she hadn't already died but that she was much younger than I thought. I thought she was in her late 80s, not 76.

She's actually a year younger than my dad, which I don't think I ever realized.

Ah. See that's called the Mandela Effect. The next stage is for you to declare that your memories are evidence that you and everyone who also remembers what you do are right and everyone else is crazy. Your memories are infallible, what must have happened, obviously, is that you unknowingly were transported to an alternate dimension where things are wrong, like the Bearenstain Bears being spelled with an 'a' and not an 'e'. Definitely the most reasonable explanation given the facts at hand.

http://mandelaeffect.com/ for more obviously true stories of people traveling through alternate dimensions rather than just misremembering things.

It's not Mandela Effect. It's just that I know her only by her works from that era. I have never seen her perform in my life, TV or otherwise. Not saying she didn't, but I only ever saw her in these old music videos...

I find it interesting that people (and you aren't alone) don't remember her performing at Obama's inauguration in 2009.

I'll agree that besides that, I have no idea what she's been up to, but the Obama inauguration seems like it should be one of those events that people remember. I mean it wasn't Neil Armstrong walking on the moon, the Challenger explosion, or 9/11, but damn, it felt like a moment.

I'm curious if you (and others) are too young to remember the event, or if there's another reason I'm blind to.

If a politician taking office was a defining moment of your life, you may need to adjust your priorities. I live right outside of DC, and other than it being extra crowded on the Metro I couldn’t tell you a thing about any inauguration ceremonies.

>If a politician taking office was a defining moment of your life, you may need to adjust your priorities.

So, two things.

1.) That was the inauguration of the first black president this country has had. That's a defining moment in and of itself.

2.) To each their own, right? Who are you to tell people to adjust what interests they prioritize?

The Rolling Stones are still touring. I’m not sure why you’re surprised that people from the 1960’s are still alive.

Unfortunately she had pancreatic cancer, an extremely deadly disease.

It doesn’t feel like 10 years since Randy Pausch died of pancreatic cancer:

https://www.cmu.edu/randyslecture/book/index.html

The stones are still around and doing things. I cannot recall seeing her doing anything in my lifetime. Not TV, not concerts, etc etc.

vOV

Sad, but hn relevant?

I think so, yes. Music, more than any other form of art has the potential to touch so many people.

Also, there have been news items about the deaths of other great musicians on HN before, so there is ample precedent.

That's for the community to decide.

Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. (...) If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.

There's no interesting new phenomenon to discuss with celebrity deaths. Unless Aretha Franklin wrote some software of note or otherwise influenced tech or hacker culture in some significant way, then this is obviously off topic.

why not? hn thrives on variety, and aretha was such a beautiful and influential performer, I'm sure people here will have thoughtful things to share about her

Is it news of interest to hackers? I say yes.

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