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Features Disc of the day
Aretha Franklin
I Never Loved A Man The Way I Loved You
(Atlantic, 1967)
Our Disc Of The Day tribute to Jerry Wexler.
The (genuinely) legendary American producer Jerry Wexler’s credit was appended to so many classic albums that a Top 10 Discs Of The Day might have been more appropriate, but the Queen Of Soul’s breakthrough album is clearly a pivotal ’60s moment for the singer, the label and Wexler. The story is well known. Becalmed at CBS, Aretha was eagerly signed by Wexler and spirited off Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where the producer had unearthed an exceptional group of soulful white session players, much as he’d earlier taken newly-signed Wilson Pickett to Memphis to work with Stax’s Booker T. And The M.G.’s. Wexler’s gift was to identify the kernel of an artist’s genius, focus on that and keep the rest simple. The title track to Aretha’s Atlantic debut and Do Right Woman, Do Right Man were recorded in the South before Aretha’s husband of the time, Ted White, took exception to a roomful of white musicians, got into an argument with one of them, and dragged her back to New York, where the album was completed. Wexler kept it all together, although even by his retelling it’s apparent that Aretha needed precious little ‘producing’, having a very clear idea about how she was going to sing a song, how she would accompany herself on piano, how the background voices would sound and what the groove would be. Wexler gave the great ones space, advised on songs, perhaps suggested discreet sweetenings. But genius is its own best critic – that’s why there are so few of them. So, her version of Otis Redding’s Respect leads off the album, opening out layers of meaning in the lyric, her own writing blossomed (Dr Feelgood, Don’t Let Me Lose This Dream, Baby Baby Baby, Save Me) and her covers of her favourite artists, such as Sam Cooke (Good Times, A Change Is Gonna Come), glow. Wexler had made some outstanding records before, and would make many more after, not just with his preferred jazz, soul and R&B artists but with rock acts too (eg. Bob Dylan’s Slow Train Coming), but for getting to the very core of an artist’s talent with the minimum of fuss and the maximum effect, this album cannot be beaten.
Geoff Brown
Posted by Danny_Eccleston at 6:00 AM GMT 26/08/2008
Further Listening
David “Fathead” Newman – Ray Charles-Presenting David “Fathead” Newman (Atlantic, 1958)
Wilson Pickett – In The Midnight Hour (Atlantic, 1965)
Etta James – Deep In The Night (Warner Bros, 1978)
SUGGEST YOUR OWN DISC OF THE DAY ON OUR MESSAGE BOARD HERE, OR, MORE PRIVATELY, HERE!
Previous Disc of the day
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Earl Brutus - Larky
Last salvo of Ginsters Pasty-Warholism from Britpop ramraiders.
12:04 PM GMT 08/06/2011
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Loudon Wainwright - T-Shirt
An overlooked small wonder from an unpredictable career.
6:00 AM GMT 03/06/2011
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Landscape - From The Tea-rooms Of Mars… To The Hell-holes Of Uranus
Dry computer club Futurists, upon hitting implausible chart paydirt.
6:00 AM GMT 17/05/2011
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Causa Sui - Summer Sessions Vol 1-3
Epic Danish jams, for when the neighbours get you down.
6:00 AM GMT 12/05/2011
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