C. L. Franklin

The film shares the album's title, Amazing Grace, and it features not only Aretha but also gospel legend Reverend James Cleveland, sort of the conductor of the events, and she's got the Southern California Community Choir as backup.

There's even a sermon from Aretha Franklin's father, Reverend C.L. Franklin, which adds some familial sweetness but also a little tension to the proceedings because you have this sense of, uh, I don't know, I don't want to interpret what it is, but you definitely sense there's a lot there between them, even as they're happy to be in this space together.

And then, of course, there are the audience/church members who are in the pews.

Now, the nice thing usually, Adam, about having my own website where I still write reviews, larsonandfilm.com, serves as a handy archive for these top five lists, right? I often go back, see what I wrote about a movie, take some notes there, and bring those into our picks.

The documentary respects that wish while also acknowledging that her survival and transformation are inseparable from her artistic legacy.

Amazing Grace, the Aretha Franklin documentary released in 2018, works differently.

It's essentially a concert film documenting Franklin's 1972 recording of her gospel album at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles.

The footage was shot by Sidney Pollack, but remained unreleased for decades due to technical and legal issues.

When it finally emerged, audiences could watch Franklin at her absolute peak, recording Amazing Grace with the Southern California Community Choir.

There's no narration, no interviews, no contextual explanation, just Franklin's transcendent performance and the overwhelm worshipful response of the church congregation.

The power of amazing grace lies in its purity.

You're watching one of history's greatest voices at the height of her powers returning to her gospel roots after years of secular success.

Basically, our guest today, you know, I was introduced to her.

Via my father's illustrious record collection, a lot of jazz in there.

And of course, you know, the black jazz label.

And I will say that all the albums of our guest today and her former husband, Doug Karn, definitely played a major role in my personal growing up.

I was influenced by various and sundry singers and horn players and keyboard players.

I remember...

Seeing Aretha, she was traveling with her father, Reverend C.L. Franklin, and they were at the city auditorium, which belongs to Georgia State now.

And she sang a song called In a Land Where We'll Never Grow Old.

others.

But they ain't got no Reverend C.L. Franklin born in Mississippi whose daughter is a genius named Marisa.

I mean, we could go on.

What is it about Mississippi? All that hell that Mississippi got.

The documentary respects that wish while also acknowledging that her survival and transformation are inseparable from her artistic legacy.

Amazing Grace, the Aretha Franklin documentary released in 2018, works differently.

It's essentially a concert film documenting Franklin's 1972 recording of her gospel album at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles.

The footage was shot by Sidney Pollack, but remained unreleased for decades due to technical and legal issues.

When it finally emerged, audiences could watch Franklin at her absolute peak, recording Amazing Grace with the Southern California Community Choir.

There's no narration, no interviews, no contextual explanation, just Franklin's transcendent performance and the overwhelm worshipful response of the church congregation.

The power of amazing grace lies in its purity.

You're watching one of history's greatest voices at the height of her powers returning to her gospel roots after years of secular success.

So Martin Luther King Jr. wasn't stupid enough to have a perm.

A lot of the guys you hang out with, C.L. Franklin, all of them, they had to have a perm like that with the call.

But, Al Sharpton's on a FBI surveillance tape doing a drug deal.

And the only way he got out of it was he had to snitch on the mob.