But was she a perpetual victim? Unlike Billie Holliday, who could sense and feel hell coming closer with every passing day; or Ella Fitzgerald, who created beautiful musical worlds that always seemed like a momentary escape from it; Aretha fought her hell head on, battling tooth and nail to keep her sanity. "Save Me," is the sound of Aretha's inner defense mechanisms telling her that she needed to get healthy right now, whether she liked it or not. More rock oriented than anything on the album, the music serves as perfect compliment to the message. It's less textured than anything on the album and too frenetic to dance to (the guitar riff owes a debt to Them's "Gloria"). But it, along with Aretha, makes the point: sometimes you have to act crazy to keep sane.
Is "Respect," the most known R&B song in the history of recorded music, played more than the national anthem? Yep. Played into the ground by oldies radio stations? Yes. Commercialized and watered down beyond belief? Yes again. Butchered by anyone who dares to cover it? That too. Yet after 35 years, "Respect," like virtually all great standards, doesn't lose impact as much as it has morphed into part of the blood stream..
'Because dammit, after 35 years the song still holds up, play after play after play. The music is exquisite, JB-esque horns, an electric bass that sounds funkier than six days old drawers, King Curtis' blistering tenor sax and Aretha playing piano as if her hands were on fire and the only way she could put them out was by rapid-fire piano chord changes. The vocal, 1/2 girl group sass, 1/2 gospel shout, is embedded in the American consciousness second by second. To this day it still sounds like you are hearing an out of body experience, as if Aretha had been possessed by a higher power to find her own footing. It remains an anthem not just because it touches a universal truth (R.E.S.P.E.C.T.); but the inexplicable emotion and delivery Aretha brings to it expands that truth's definition.
The rest of the album is filled with sublime instances where you can hear the foundation of her talent take shape. "Soul Serenade" and " If I Lose This Dream" are Aretha finally mastering the jazz-pop fusion that seemed just out of grasp in her CBS days, before she would waste beautiful vocals under mannered pre-planned phrasing and prepackaged formula. Here, she just lets loose but still keeps strong vocal form; sounding more like a looser Ivy Anderson (a singer in Duke Ellington's band in the '40s) instead of a stiff Doris Day knock off.
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?