But in a way that reverence rings slightly hollow, because in the end we (her fans, myself included) are not really members of her family but idolaters of her beautiful art. At her best, her music has been so vibrant, visceral, and easy to understand you forget the complicated inner workings and machinations one must have to make art this universally understandable in the first place. And speaking for myself, the deeper I look into her life and work, the more I realize in order to earn the title of "queen of soul," she had to pay a terrible price.
I have to take you back to 1966. Brother Ray had just kicked heroin and came back on the charts with a failsafe, risk free pop album. Otis Redding was revolutionizing pop music everywhere in the world but the U.S. top 40 charts. James Brown was just beginning to redefine musical minimalist polyrhythmic composition. James Carr was in his manic-depressive prime. Motown was at its apex, the hit factory at its mightiest before Berry Gordy's dictatorial pop constraints would force it to grind to a halt.
And Aretha Franklin was a struggling jazz vocalist, going through hell. A gospel prodigy with a huge underground reputation, she married Ted White, a smooth talking hustler from Detroit who served as her Svengali/manager/personal dictator. Throughout the early to mid '60s, White cajoled her into making overly mannered jazz records; the kind of "tasteful" yet patronizing crossover 45s that underestimated its audience.
He also made Ike Turner seemed like Mr. Rogers. From the pages of Soul, Sepia, and Time Magazine to the personal accounts of her closest friends (family, Jerry Wexler, various producers, and friends) you could hear stories of vicious public and private beatings and a disciplinary streak that would give the marquis de Sade pause (he would force her into a room for four days straight to write songs.) He had single-handedly wrecked Aretha's relationship with Columbia Records and left her career seemingly in tatters. Yes she was a talent, but who wanted the abusive bully (a racist, too) that came with her?
Atlantic Records did. Jerry Wexler had knowledge of Aretha as early as her pre-teen church 45s and when Aretha's CBS contract ran out, he offered Ted White an immense amount of money for her services. After he reluctantly accepted, Wexler picked out some songs for Aretha to record and sent him and Aretha down to the great Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama for recording.
Article comments
1 - Elvira Black
This is terrific, Robert.
2 - Michael J. West
A damn fine article about a damn fine album. One of my favorites (although, blasphemically, I never much cared for her version of "Respect"; I've always preferred Otis Redding's original).
That said, I have one tiny, tiny nit to pick:
Out of all the living soul geniuses, (her, Stevie, Sly, Prince)
James Brown doesn't count as a living soul genius?
3 - Robert lashley
Elvira: Thank you
Michael: I can dig it, and you're right. I should put the godfather at the end of that caption.
4 - Bryan
"I Never Loved A Man The Way That I Love You" would make a terrific title for a lesbian anthem.
5 - ART
OK LANG
6 - Paul Hill
I have been a fan of Aretha Franklin since she was 14. I heard her as a small boy on a crusade with her father and her voice changed my life. I watched her get pregnant at 14 and again only a few years later, marry and divorce Ted White, hoped she'd find happiness with Ken Cunningham, even Glenn Thurman, but I don't think anything will ever compensate for the early loss of her mother and the eternal desire to please her father. I watched her siblings die one by one and the ups and downs of each of her children and wondered how she could ever be so strong. I think one scripture encapsulates this marvelous woman, "Raise up a child in the way (she) is to go and when (she is)old, they will not depart from it." Her faith has kept her sober, strong and unbending. I've watched her go and come back and I'm glad she's back.
7 - lilkunta
What album had a pic of an abused Aretha? Ive never seen that!
Also, Ive read varous AF interviews & she says Ted was emotionally abusive. She detailed her time in Alabama hen me made them leave after just 1 song being recorded. Bue h was physically abusive as well?