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.
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.
ReplyDeleteI too have seen most of my idols - I think the main one I've not seen (who is still alive) is Grace Slick.