As the tributes to Aretha Franklin’s extraordinary career and legacy attest to the number of people she touched, and her incredible song list awakens our memories of decades of indelible music, it is good to remember her as a natural woman. Not only because she sang the song Carole King and Gerry Goffin wrote for her, but because she was a stealth warrior as a feminist, whether or not she cared about that term. Old school, no nonsense. No #MeToo for her, and you know she had stories.

If her performance at Elton John’s AIDS benefit at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in October was the last, I was privileged to be there among hundreds of guests that included former President Bill Clinton, Clive Davis, Ethan Hawke, among them. I was Roger Friedman’s date, and he was Aretha’s good friend. If she was on the bill, you never knew whether or not she’d be there, and able to perform. Many years ago, in the 1990’s, she was scheduled to perform at the Back at the Ranch concert in Montauk, programs printed, when she cancelled last minute and James Brown took her place. But show up she did for Elton, as she had for opening night at Tribeca Film Festival 2017 at Radio City Music Hall, celebrating Clive Davis with so many—Jennifer Hudson, Barry Manilow, among the stars whose careers he fostered. She went on to the party at Tavern on the Green that night for a tete a tete with Clive.

Now, aptly performing in a cathedral, Aretha was a vision in white, frail, very thin, in a white mink shrug and white gown, an angel with her white satchel underneath the piano in full sight as she performed. Much has been made of her cover of Puccini’s “Nessun dorma,” in Italian of course taking over from Pavarotti at the 1998 Grammy Awards. The aria has become a permanent part of her repertoire. And the story of the large pocketbook is now legend too: how, at the suggestion of James Brown, she demanded her money up front before she’d sing a note, placing her fee within the bag, and within eyesight under the piano. Every musician she’s worked with has been grateful to her for this diva move. At the end of the night, her guys and backups got paid. Some years ago, I saw her and her entourage swan through Bergdorf Goodman’s first floor, where they sold the jewels and handbags. Ah, she shops just like a natural woman, I thought then. But maybe she was just finding the next vessel for taking care of business.

Had I realized that backstage at the cathedral that night would be the last time I would see Aretha, I would have paid more attention, as they say. You don’t always get a chance for a front row seat with the Divine.

Regina Weinreich

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