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I only saw Aretha perform once, late in her career when she was clearly in declining health. The moments of startling, electrifying vocal beauty came sporadically that night, in isolated bursts rather in sustained performance, forcing those of us in her audience to fill in from memory what that version of Aretha could no longer give us.
But you know what? That was fine. All of us had banked so many hours of pleasure listening to Aretha, marveling at her voice, her passion, her inventiveness and honesty as a performer that we could easily hear those things in our head, like a old lover who still sees his girlfriend of 50 years ago as she was as a teenager.
So let’s go back, way back, to 1972, to the gospel songs that provided the rock-solid foundation to Aretha’s talent, and to a song that reminds us that death, for all its finality, can’t take away what matters.
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