I have been lucky to see practically all my musical heroes on stage in some shape, form or fashion. The most obvious one I never saw was Dusty Springfield.
However there are still two singers I would love to see... Aretha Franklin and Carole King.
Apart from the obvious connection of (YOU MAKE ME FEEL LIKE) A NATURAL WOMAN, they are both 66!Aretha still plays dates in the US - indeed she played Radio City Music Hall the week before my trip to New York in March - and cites a fear of flying as her excuse for not playing Europe.
Carole has no such excuses - she is playing 8 dates in Japan in November, a year since she was there last. To the best of my knowledge she has not toured in the UK since the early 1970s.I was going to add a YouTube video of Carole and Aretha singing NATURAL WOMAN on the first "VH1 Divas" telecast - but in watching it again I forgot it also featured Celine Dion, Shania Twain, Mariah Carey and Gloria Estefan.
Poor Carole is drowned out by the melismatic caterwauling.
1 comment:
Carole King has played over here more recently than the Seventies. She did a mini-tour around the time of the 'City Streets' album in 1989. She definitely played Liverpool - not sure about anywhere else though I presume London was on the schedule.
I too have seen most of my idols - I think the main one I've not seen (who is still alive) is Grace Slick.
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