Wonderland Burlesque's The Twelve Days Before Xmas - Day Twelve: First Snow In Kokomo by Aretha Franklin

Wonderland Burlesque's

The Twelve Days Before Xmas

 Day Twelve: 

First Snow In Kokomo by Aretha Franklin 

It's time once more to climb into the Wonderland Burlesque time machine and countdown to the big day.

This holiday season I'm setting the dial for the 1970's!

Oh, you are in for a treat, so grab a seat and buckle up. The seventies was a decade of change, turbulence and sweetness. Nowhere is this more felt than in the breadth and depth of the music of the time. There were so many different genres being developed, evolving and seeking validation on the radio and the industry music charts, it was a virtual musical cornucopia.  

So, get ready for some songs of the season by some of our biggest (and not so big) stars, here, stateside, and across the pond, who made the seventies truly magical. 

First up... it's the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin. 

In 1972, she included the self-composed First Snow In Kokomo on her album Young, Gifted And Black. A rambling, heartfelt affair, it captures Franklin in a moment away from the public eye. The song captures her recollections of a trip to her partner's  (Ken Cunningham) parents home in Kokomo, Indiana. Franklin had recently become a mother for the fourth time. As the narrator, she illustrates the first snow in a small town, with the various characters living in the moment around her. Franklin frequently described her offstage persona as "the lady next door". This serves as a glimpse into her life away from the spotlight. "It’s Aretha as the observer of life rather than Aretha in the center of the action," Aretha’s sister Carolyn once said, "In the end, though, it was something of a fairy tale"

First Snow In Kokomo - Aretha Franklin

1972