I don’t know if Millie Jackson invented  raunchy in music but she was definitely there. In an industry  that promoted clean cut guys and good girls at the time, Millie created her own playbook, doing her own thing how she wanted to do it.

Especially for a woman, it took some courage to cut your own cloth. One thing for sure, and to this day, Millie gives you who she is.

I don’t know if current artists give Millie her props for setting the stage for raunchy. She definitely deserves it. The only difference is, Millie could tell a good story in 3 to 4 minutes, or longer if she gave you the talk first. She was clear, throaty and I imagine she gazed some willing gentleman in the audience eyeball to eyeball as brazen lyrics rolled from her tongue.

I came upon an interview she’d done a few months ago, talking about an encounter had with The Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin.

Apparently, they had the same booking agency. Well, when you’re  The Queen of Soul, you wear the proverbial crown, right? Millie didn’t see a crown, and I imagine it wouldn’t have mattered one way or the other, but she approaches Aretha in the hallway. Steps directly in front of her, ’cause Aretha had this way about her, not speaking and all.

The two were going in opposite directions when Millie pops up, stopping The Queen dead in her tracks. Aretha tries to go around her but she didn’t fully get what Millie was made of. Millie moves in the direction of Aretha so there’s no getting away.

Millie says, ” Hello, Aretha.” Naturally, The Queen was brought down to just being plain ole Aretha at the moment ’cause she’s cornered and has to open up her tight mouth to speak back to this woman who was, most likely, known to speak what she felt needed to be heard.

Millie goes on to say, “I see you in this building all the time and you never speak and I was determined you were gonna speak to me today. That’s all. You can go about your [bleeping] business now.”

Can you imagine what Aretha told her girlfriends?