My first experience with Aretha Franklin tunes was that of Arista ones in the 80s. It's true that I had got accustomed to them such as Jump to It, Freeway of Love or the duet with George Michael I Knew You Were Waiting. Her Arista years' compilation "Greatest Hits (1980-1994)" including her dynamic readings is fun for those who are immune to artificial rhythms. However, such songs can never beat the attraction of her Atlantic sides. The days I first listened to her "30 Greatest Hits" or Japanese edition of "I've Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You" and "Lady Soul" were like the Apocalypse, and moreover, the days I finally couldn't resist buying them in my own hands made me feel like a child with toys far from boring. Her up-tempo ones are not only attuned to the grooves but bouncing above the melodies. Her ballads enchant you with her timbre of mellow mezzo-soprano. While many singers have high tones as keen as the point of a knife, Aretha have ones high enough to go on further. Her voice connects to the sounds of Atlantic studios where Muscle Shoals players mainly performed or the ones of Miami's Criteria studios. That's quite an exquisite combination. Although it was the time when sounds of musicians in the south had been prevailing and the compositions hadn't always been elaborate, her sounds were unpredictable and ever-green and interesting. It is cruel to ask such sounds from the 80s' Arista's security and stability.
Recently I got her 4 CD box set "Queen of Soul", which covers her Atlantic years until the late 70's, and I listen repeatedly and find tunes of the two albums I have mentioned before suit me better. The least compromising density of I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You) and the least superfluous honesty of Do Right Woman, Do Right Man were good enough to start her Atlantic tenure. The piercing Respect, the blues of Dr. Feelgood, the driving Chain of Fools, the protrusive Since You've Been Gone, the earnest (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman and more. All of them are too intense for one's early experience. In addition to her backing musicians and solid chorus of the Sweet Inspirations, you cannot miss Aretha's elder sister Erma and the younger Carolyn, both of who often joined in some choruses. In spite of Erma or Carolyn's fabulous delivery, I can only make a conclusion that Aretha, also a great pianist, has some special 'vibration' in her voice. Not to mention her originals like Think, The House That Jack Built (which really has the original sung by Thelma Jones. This version can be heard on "Respect : Aretha's Influences and Inspiration"), Call Me or Rock Steady which knocks me out with its funky groove, her renditions like Dionne Warwick's I Say a Little Prayer or Ben E King's Spanish Harlem and Don't Play That Song shine as if they were in her own right.
Live albums of prominent singers like Aretha often deliver you wonderful pleasure with no harm. "Aretha Live at Filmore West", the live at the place which brought many artists of the Flower Movement, is an instant session with skillful musician including King Curtis & the Kingpins. Their openig performances made the audience warm and appeared on an album "Live at Filmore West" in King Curtis' name, also a terribly cool stuff. Love the One You're with, Bridge Over Troubled Water and Eleanor Rigby are what you have ever heard, however, they fly and funk to the highest top by the treatments of Aretha and her men. Furthermore, her own gospel-flavored Spirit in the Dark is followed by a downhome-blues Spirit in the Dark duet with Ray Charles who was then on the seat and called on stage. This change of rhythm makes me frantic. Filmore West's fine performers like Cornell Dupree, guitar, Bernard Purdie, drums, and Pancho Morales, congas, joined again in a Los Angeles church's live "Amazing Grace", which is full of gospel essence and no less extraordinary than the former. According to the liner notes of later-released "Amazing Grace : The Complete Recordings", some of the songs which then put on vinyls were said to be overdubbed or recorded again after the audience disappeared. However, this is not the least of thinner. Since her father C. L. Franklin had been a popular preacher, Aretha was rich in meeting first-rate gospel singers like Mahalia Jackson and was said to decide to become a singer when she encountered Clara Ward, who did gaudy gigs uncommon in the gospel field, singing at a funeral. With the help of Rev. James Cleveland, with a piano and his manly voice, and the Southern California Comunity Choir, secular Aretha flew down to her gospel roots. When you listen, you may feel like being all forgiven even if it is a matter of the moment. Her live in 1972 exclusively held in front of music-biz men, "Oh Me Oh My" was then in the valut , however, her performance was tremendous for it was well accompanied with strings of her own hits and rushing backings. In-church live "One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism" in '87 is more solemn than "Amazing Grace", you can get in your ears her splendid performance together with the Franklin sisters, Joe Ligon (the Mighty Clouds of Joy) and Mavis Stables.
Having had some tours with her father, Aretha recorded gospels in her childhood. "You Grow Closer", her Peacock recordings, brings us her rawer voice only accompanied with piano. And then she started her secular career at a corporate recording company Columbia, and you can hear her recordings of that time on "The Queen in Waiting". She delivers splendid interpretations to given tunes in various styles, from Billie Holiday-like jazz, Dinah Washington-like blues or contemporary R&B and so on. Its liner notes say that Aretha remembered her Columbia years when she was lacking in sales as "good memories", however, she could say so because now she succeeded in life. I think it might be that she and her father had had intricate feelings since she couldn't get so much fruits as she had expected at a large label in a good environment. Her photos on the sleeves of Atlantic albums in and after the mid-70's suggests that she should be likely to ask what is different from her naturally special qualities (she had repeated the gain and loss of her weight and sometimes exposed her own feminine and sexy self, however, what the world wants for her is surely motherhood). Anyway, when she hit the chord of her own, the supreme taste blows away such a little delusion. (2005/12/11)(2009/06/21)