A Cultural History Of Groove
from 1955 into the '80s
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
YEAH !!!
Today I have to offer you little more than an eye-delight. (Which is good, by the way, because I had a stressy day and don't have much force left for lengthy writing.) But what delight it is! When I saw the photo, because a photo it is that I am speaking of, it took my breath away. I've never seen it before - and it even comes in high resolution! However, the photo should be vaguely familiar to many of you:
Thank you so much! This thanks goes to the wonderful blog Jazz in Photo. Go visit it!
Well, I for my part can only add some sound to the visual experience. As many of you will have realized, the photo is similar, not identical though, to a portrait shot of Aretha Franklin which was used for the cover of her 1965 Columbia LP Yeah !!! (Columbia CS # 9151). And a yeah it is!
The album was released in May 1965 and proved eventually quite successful on the LP charts in the latter half of '65. It certainly is the jazziest recording Aretha made during the '60s and as such it reminds much of Rheta Hughes's Columbia LP released in November '65. We have a live setting here, with Aretha (»the swinging chick« according to the sleeve notes) playing with "her quartet" and occasionally in person at the piano. The LP arguably is among the least known albums of Aretha. Mainly, she covers standard tunes here, fault- and effortlessly as always. Man, she IS the Voice! Being live and Aretha accompanied in all songs by the same musicians, the album does inevitably lack somewhat variety of style and arrange- ment. However, as I had to single out two songs for today, my choice was not too difficult after all: »Muddy Water«, the most up-tempo song on the LP, a »true blues« with »healthy blues-shouting« (whatever that is!) according to the notes by Dan Morgenstern on the back cover. After that, you can hear »Without The One You Love« which maybe is the most emotive tune on the album and show-cases Aretha's vocal art particularly well. Again according to the back notes, the tune is »a gospel-flavored pop tune«. Well. The nice thing is that the song was penned by Aretha herself (thanks to Marie from the Catch That Train and Testify! blog for giving me the right hint), and in the version below you can hear Aretha also at the piano. For the record: the album was recorded on February 10, 1965, in New York.
Aretha Franklin: »Muddy Water« / »Without The One You Love« from the Columbia LP # CS 9151 (1965):
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All right, down here I can well supply the cover art of Columbia LP # 9151 in case you don't remember it:
You are absolutely right! What a blunder ... I credit it to a day of overworking ... not that it's much of a good excuse! Of course, the song was actually composed by A.F. herself and she recorded it for the first time in 1962. I heard the studio version often enough. What I didn't listen to recently was the Four Tops' tune of the same title ... should have done so! Well, thanks again, I corrected it in the post above.
I'm alright with it and it's good that you mentioned it. You readers are supposed (and invited) to do so, so stuff's getting better and more correct out here. (Well, that's what my reason is telling me ... my entrails say otherwise, of course: It's always hard when your self-righteousness, so comfortable most of the times, is undermined :) ...I tend to react like a little child and get mad but it passes! Anyhow, it must not concern you, it's a thing between me and myself.)
As for the internet you are right. I check most things in internet but just yesterday (to prove the rule) I looked the title up in a printed discography ... Yet often enough the net can lead us easily astray, as you say. On the other hand: neither could we do without it. Dilemma!
Thanks. I'm wondering if we're all basically the same! When you said " . . . I tend to react like a little child . . .", it made me laugh because it was so honest and sounded just like me too!
I am interested in the music, not in the relative rarity of discs. I also listen with great pleasure to Aretha Franklin, because she has the voice of the century. Music is no Faith and therefore has no heretics.
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No music downloads on this site. All mp3s (with very few exceptions where noted) are ripped from original vinyl discs. If something on this blog is objectionable to anyone or should, for valid reasons, be re- moved from the net please let me know; it will be removed. And to reiterate: This is a non-profit blog.
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I'M amazed! Thanks for sharing the link to Jazz In Photos and the Aretha tunes.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Without the One You Love is the Four tops tune, though.
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely right! What a blunder ... I credit it to a day of overworking ... not that it's much of a good excuse! Of course, the song was actually composed by A.F. herself and she recorded it for the first time in 1962. I heard the studio version often enough. What I didn't listen to recently was the Four Tops' tune of the same title ... should have done so! Well, thanks again, I corrected it in the post above.
ReplyDeleteDon't feel bad - it's happened to me many times - at least our eagle-eyed readers set us straight. I hope you didn't mind that I mentioned it.
ReplyDeleteI'm finding that research using internet sources is the most hazardous of all - I've been caught out a few times that way.
I'm alright with it and it's good that you mentioned it. You readers are supposed (and invited) to do so, so stuff's getting better and more correct out here. (Well, that's what my reason is telling me ... my entrails say otherwise, of course: It's always hard when your self-righteousness, so comfortable most of the times, is undermined :) ...I tend to react like a little child and get mad but it passes! Anyhow, it must not concern you, it's a thing between me and myself.)
ReplyDeleteAs for the internet you are right. I check most things in internet but just yesterday (to prove the rule) I looked the title up in a printed discography ... Yet often enough the net can lead us easily astray, as you say. On the other hand: neither could we do without it. Dilemma!
It's fine. Thanks again.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I'm wondering if we're all basically the same! When you said " . . . I tend to react like a little child . . .", it made me laugh because it was so honest and sounded just like me too!
ReplyDelete:)
ReplyDeleteIt was the very first Aretha album I got my hands on and I love it to this day.
ReplyDelete