Aretha Franklin

I’ve always felt rock and roll was very, very wholesome music.

I’m the lady next door when I’m not on stage.

I’ve never recorded anything I didn’t like.

If a song’s about something I’ve experienced or that could’ve happened to me it’s good. But if it’s alien to me, I couldn’t lend anything to it. Because that’s what soul is all about.

Let’s start with the church. As you know, it’s my background, it’s a natural setting for me and it’s definitely my roots.

Falling out of love is like losing weight. It’s a lot easier putting it on than taking it off.

When rock came in, people didn’t know what to do. Even Sinatra, he didn’t know what to do. The music was changing. And it’s changing now.

When you begin to teach Jazz, the most dangerous thing is to teach style.

Benny Goodman was one of the big influences as a clarinet player. That’s why I wanted the clarinet.

It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.

Jazz is letting everybody do his or her thing with the music.

Typically I go in the studio and whatever I’m contemplating that day will wind up being a song. I don’t come in with lyrics… I just go in and let it happen.

Musicians have to suffer to a certain degree in order to obtain their outlet.

My dark sound could be heard across a room clearer than somebody with a reedy sound. It had more projection. My sound always seemed to fill a room.

I keep these songs in my head until I get behind the microphone. I never spend more than 30 or 40 minutes singing the vocal or it will sound mechanical. There are always mistakes, but it’s about feeling more than being perfect.

If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.

I like jazz, rock n’ roll, some hip hop – I can’t think of any music I don’t like.

When you want ’em you can’t get ’em, when you’ve got ’em, you don’t want ’em.

I think the idea of a love song has changed. Most of the love songs we all loved as kids would be classified as funeral dirges now, you know, really super slow. I think nowadays the ballad has changed. It can have some up-tempo, some drums, some other things. ‘Forever’ would still be considered a ballad, I guess, but the tempo is probably more of a mid-tempo. The content is love song. I don’t know how to write anything else.

You have to practice improvisation, let no one kid you about it!

So long as the human spirit thrives on this planet, music in some living form will accompany and sustain it and give it expressive meaning.