What a box! Although it’s hard to best the 1960s albums for Atlantic that made her a superstar (after a curiously square-sounding and largely unsuccessful run at Columbia), Aretha Franklin’s early 70s pomp offers, I’d argue, an equally perfect achievement. Her superbly pliant piano playing has as important an anchoring role; the star has now attained greater creative control, reflected in more of her own original songs (and even dodgy artwork); and there’s a gradually established session mafia of supporting musicians who together made for one of the key studio bands of the twentieth century, with Cornell Dupree on guitar, Chuck Rainey on bass and Bernard ‘Pretty’ Purdie on drums. Donny Hathaway, Billy Preston and Richard Tee provide additional keyboards. Duane Allman, Stanley Clarke and Hubert Laws are sidemen. And her voice? She’s the greatest singer of her era, bar none.
As it’s the 1970s, soul itself has changed, becoming more celebratory of black consciousness, and both funkier and more baroque. Aretha also got jazzier, even covering “Moody’s Mood for Love”, as coined by James Moody and King Pleasure, in an album collaboration with Quincy Jones. If any extra musical insurance was required, the production and arrangement team of Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd and Arif Martin were the men on the other side of the studio glass. It’s still the patriarchy at work, but at least it’s patriarchy with subtlety and taste.
So what do we get in the box? There’s five facsimiles of the original albums from 1970’s ‘This Girl’s In Love With You’ to 1974’s ‘Let Me In Your Life’ (but not it’s twin release from that year, ‘With Everything I Feel in Me’, or any of her live recordings from the period), plus an extra LP of demos and out-takes (Listings below). As with most of Aretha’s Atlantic output, few of the albums were necessarily conceived as such, typically bringing together tracks recorded in various sessions and locations. Aretha’s studio work-rate was extremely diligent and as long as the records were selling (and despite a marked decline in numbers), Atlantic were happy to keep paying the bills.
This collection is licensed from Atlantic by BMG rather than being an in house Rhino-style boutique production and the big selling point is that the albums have been remastered from the original analogue tapes by Chris Bellman. And they do sound different, although It’s often hard to pinpoint exactly where or why. The dynamic range seems notably wider, and little instrumental details are given more emphasis – the thwack of a drum, the strings’ sweetening, the backing singers’ cooing. Aretha’s vocals can sound in consequence slightly less overwhelming, while remaining our front and centre fixed point throughout. But basically it sounds fabulous. Differently fabulous.
As with all her Atlantic output, there’s a mix of song-choices, from show-tunes and standards, soul hits and songwriters for hire, to the Beatles and the Band and beyond, but the quality of her original songs and lyrics gets better and better. If you’ve never heard the sublime personal poetic narrative of ‘First Snow in Kokomo’, a life changing experience awaits. Ditto ‘Daydreaming’, also from ‘Young, Gifted and Black’, and later covered by Cassandra Wilson. The bonus LP has some rare treats too, with a killer version of ‘At Last’, and a couple of ridiculously assured piano and vocal demos.
For completists, the umpteen compact discs of all the Atlantic recordings assembled by Rhino a few years ago might be the ultimate, but these six LPs have enough goodies in them to keep your record player busy for a very long time.
TRACK LISTINGS
LP 1 / CD1: THIS GIRL’S IN LOVE WITH YOU
SIDE A: 1) Son Of A Preacher Man 2) Share Your Love With Me 3) Dark End Of The Street 4) Let It Be 5) Eleanor Rigby
SIDE B: 6) This Girl’s In Love With You 7) It Ain’t Fair 8) The Weight 9) Call Me 10) Sit Down And Cry
LP 2 / CD2: SPIRIT IN THE DARK
SIDE C: 1) Don’t Play That Song 2) The Thrill Is Gone (From Yesterday’s Kiss) 3) Pullin’ 4) You And Me 5) Honest I Do 6) Spirit In The Dark
SIDE D: 7) When The Battle Is Over 8) One Way Ticket 9) Try Matty’s 10) That’s All I Want From You 11) Oh No Not My Baby 12) Why I Sing The Blues
LP 3 / CD3: YOUNG GIFTED AND BLACK
SIDE E: 1) Oh Me Oh My (I’m A Fool For You Baby) 2) Day Dreaming 3) Rock Steady 4) Young Gifted And Black 5) All The King’s Horses 6) A Brand New Me
SIDE F: 7) April Fools 8) I’ve Been Loving You Too Long 9) First Snow In Kokomo 10) The Long And Winding Road 11) Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time) 12) Border Song (Holy Moses)
LP 4 / CD4: HEY NOW HEY (THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SKY)
SIDE G: 1) Hey Now Hey (The Other Side Of The Sky) 2) Somewhere 3) So Swell When You’re Well 4) Angel 5) Sister From Texas
SIDE H: 6) Mister Spain 7) That’s The Way I Feel About Cha 8) Moody’s Mood 9) Just Right Tonight
LP 5 / CD5: LET ME IN YOUR LIFE
SIDE I: 1) Let Me In Your Life 2) Every Natural Thing 3) Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing 4) I’m In Love 5) Until You Come Back To Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do) 6) The Masquerade Is Over
SIDE J: 7) With Pen In Hand 8) Oh Baby 9) Eight Days On The Road 10) If You Don’t Think 11) A Song For You
LP 6: BONUS TRACKS (VINYL ONLY)
SIDE K: 1) Pledging My Love/The Clock 2) You’re Taking Up Another Man’s Place 3) Are You Leaving Me 4) You’re All I Need To Get By (Take 2) 5) Spanish Harlem (Aretha 3, Rough Mix, Reel 12150) SIDE L: 1) Lean On Me 2) Sweetest Smile And The Funkiest Style 3) Do You Know 4) At Last 5) Master Of Eyes (The Deepness Of Your Eyes) 6) Til It’s Over
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Thank you reader Teejay for a helpful comment. We have amended the text.