March 10, 2019

All Hail The Queen

by Michael Lloyd Young (author's profile)

Transcription

Zawadi Diamond
8-23-18

All Hail The Queen

I was just a kid when I first heard that sound my mother and her friends would dance and drink with one hand free to snap their fingers. They'd shout, "Say that!" Or one would say, "Sing that song, girl!" Like they needed to instruct the greatest singer of all time to do what she came on Earth for. That voice is one of my earliest memories. Such power and emotion, it moved me beyond my ability to know what being moved was. And even hearing the name Aretha Franklin would register in my medulla oblongaita as if I were about to be treated to my favorite flavor of Baskin and Robbins' 31 flavors ice cream, German chocolate or chocolate cheesecake.

Her voice taught me what music was.

Then there were other days. When Mama sat on the floor drunk in front of the record player, with records spread out in front of her, crying her eyes out, playing Aretha. Sometimes the same song over and over. We couldn't soothe her or change a thing. It wasn't until I was a grown drunk myself that I realized how much of a good time drinking and crying is.

Aretha can make you feel it all.

With just a soft moan or a whimper, she grabs your soul.
She'll take you to church, the juke joint, disco, or the club
Just because she can. She's Aretha!
The Queen of Music nicknamed after the part of you
That unites your mind and your emotions with your spirit.

So long to the Queen, the one and only Queen of Soul. Her legacy of music will continue to touch now and future generations of music fans, inspiring us all to greatness.

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