When back in 1998 celebrated author David Ritz (who had previously written books about Ray Charles, Etta James and Marvin Gaye, amongst others) got invitation from Queen herself to collaborate on her memoirs, initial excitement must have quickly vanished as it became clear that famously tight-lipped Franklin has no intentions to reveal anything about her life. The resulting book, "From These Roots" was lightweight volume that caused uproar amongst readers who noted that its subject loves herself, food and fashion - some twenty years later, Ritz decided to use his wealth of research material to write completely new book without Franklin's permission. Contrary from what I expected, its actually not juicy, dirty gossip but surprisingly clear-eyed look at her life and career, focusing on circumstances around her start and everything that made her person she became.
We are all familiar with Franklin's golden years (late 1960s) but personally I always found more interesting to find out what happened during artist's formative period when they were still finding their place in the world. Peter Guralnick and Nadine Cohodas did wonderful job in their books about Sam Cooke and Dinah Washington, explaining the atmosphere of post WW2 music scene and what inspired people to move from gospel to pop field - Ritz approaches this subject very seriously and the story is fascinating as it follows young gospel ingénue who is initially domineered by father and husband, until later she grows confident and successful all by herself.
Personally I find this early period (1940s and 1950s) far more interesting than what happened later when world was at her feet and awards started piling up - there is a ton of interesting interviews with people involved and it seems everybody was extra patient with imperious Franklin who was blessed with genius but not the easiest person to manage (however, she could be perfectly charming and funny when she didn't feel threatened or competitive). Author is actually very respectful and the book is genuinely the most detailed book about Franklin so far.
No comments:
Post a Comment