Aug 17 AOTD: Aretha Franklin - I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You

Aug 17 AOTD: Aretha Franklin - I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You



Here's the link to the album on YouTube: https://youtu.be/9tKKsqI919g

Yesterday, Aug. 16, 2018, Aretha Franklin passed away, ending a span of six decades as the Queen of Soul.

If "Respect" were the only hit off this 1967 Atlantic album, it would have been enough to justify Aretha as the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She did receive that honor in 1987. But there is so much more - in fact the first four songs alone could be dissected to find the tell-all primer on how to sing soul and the blues.

"Respect" jump starts the first side, like the first piston of many blasting hits to come, Aretha's voice exuberant and earnest. Also, it features a hallmark of her phrasing, the holding of certain syllables, giving them swagger: "... foooor a little respect ..." and "... aaalllll I'm asking ..." And then the entire instrumentation hangs in the balance, momentarily disappearing as she whips out "R-E-S-P-E-C-T," like her voice is so powerful that everyone in the room knows to give it its own "PROPERS."

On "Drown in My Own Tears," each of Aretha's wails resembles a deluge of desperation, a soulful sob. And in the third track "I Never Loved a Man the way I loved You," she whips out "no" and "never" leaving no doubt as to her loving convictions for her man.  Her voice rides the drums, her testimony rising and falling to their rhythm. Then "Soul Serenade" drips with caramel, languid flourishes, an electric piano plunking away in the background. Aretha starts soft and breathy, but then rises to a brassy delivery herself, matching the cornet and tenor sax in their comfortable confidence.

If those first four songs were all this album contained, it would have been enough to knock down the door for all other women R&B singers.  And so many did follow, like Tina, Whitney, and Beyonce.  But there is SO much MORE to the album. Those first four songs coupled with the run of hits on side two blasts away any doubts as to her Queen of Soul crown.  Woman everywhere could identify with the charge laid out in "Dr. Feelgood" - Stay Away!; "Good Times," the first of two Sam Cooke covers, snaps along in a danceable groove. And then three gems, one after another, flesh out the masterpiece: "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man," seems to be speaking to every man - and the line "They say it's a man's world/But you can't prove that by me" and then "She's not just a plaything/She's flesh and blood just like her man" seems to be aimed right at any contemporary man, like James Brown (who had a hit with "Man's World" released the year before) - either way, it speaks to equality in domestic treatment, right along with "Respect."

Charging to the finish line, "Save Me," which Franklin herself penned, along with three others on the album, sets forth a blue print of scatting that Prince would mimic 20 years later. She belts "save me" like she's sending it to the upper ozone, accompanying with inhuman high pitched wails. And then the album comes to a close with Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come," the only other artist that lends it as much credibility as Cooke's.  But Aretha sings it with such conviction that this version seems even more personal. (But I'm NOT saying it's better than Sam's - he's king on this song.) It's as though she were looking back at her roots and then seeing ahead to the reigning career she had finally begun to achieve.

To note: In the studio, Aretha would play and record every song FIRST just her singing and accompanying herself on piano. That was always the foundation every song was built on, because she was that good. Next they would lay down the rhythm with bass and drums. Lastly layered in were the horns and other instruments, like organ.

Rest in Peace, Lady Soul ... and Long Live the Queen!!

Here's the link to the album on YouTube: https://youtu.be/9tKKsqI919g