45 years ago, Aretha Franklin was at the height of her success that had begun with her first Atlantic releases in 1967. And she wasn't alone in this because her sisters also shared the public attention.
From Billboard, August 10, 1968, p. 45
The August 8th, 1968, issue of DownBeat featured a lengthy piece on Lady Soul as well as an interview which to this day have remained two of the more interesting media items of the epoch regarding the career of Aretha Franklin. You can download the scan below.
... ah well, I am still thinking, with no little nostalgia, about my late summer trip to Greece ... while around here the golden leaves are falling on the ever colder ground and the sun, when she does appear through the misty haze of the autumn sky, struggles more and more every day to reach her meridian over the horizon. At night, the moon is often obscured by batches of dark clouds as if his silver disk is waylaid by a swarm of hungry bats. So best I can come up with today are two songs which dispel my gloomy autumn mood and bring back the memories of sunnier days ... and of places like this, on a lonely beach in southern Crete called Sweetwater:
(Click to enlarge)
When I looked through some of my records, summer songs proved less easy to find than I thought! At the end, I ended up with a version of Gershwin's classic »Summer- time«, by Brenda & The Tabulations (recorded in Philadelphia and released on their one-and-only Dionn LP # 2000 Dry Your Tears in May 1967). Following up their hit »Dry Your Tears«, Brenda & The Tabulations rushed out, as was common, an accompanying album which, for all the speed with which it was produced, contained many covers and known standards, among which the said song. A Billboard critic of the epoch (June 3, 1967 issue, p. 86) nevertheless stated that Brenda's mono version of »Summertime« gives an »excellent treatment« to the tune, so it did no go unnoticed. There will be some out there who have never heard Brenda's version before, and although I do not think that hers is the definitive version of that tune it strikes me as a particularly melancholic version, and the song in itself is essentially melancholic! (Thus it well fits my actual mood ...) Brenda's high-pitched voice, somewhat echoing and distant in the recording, confers an almost mystic atmo- sphere. And mind that at around 02:18 into the song, before the organ sets in, there is a noticeable break which must be due to bad cutting, I guess. In any case, it does not seem caused by the LP nor by the pressing.
As for the second tune, I took it from an album you all know, yet it arguably is - given that almost all songs from this album have become landmark recordings - the least remembered of them all: Aretha Franklin's »Hello Sunshine« from her 1968 Atlantic LP Now. The song was penned, in or little before '68, by King Curtis and Ron(ald/nie) Miller. As you know, Curtis was present in person at the December, 19, 1967 session which produced the track, and the backing vocals are due to none less than The Sweet Inspirations ... Like »Summertime«, »Hello Sunshine« is again a melancholic song, even if Aretha's room-filling powerhouse voice wasn't fitted to produce a version you could call »mystical«. As only she could (and, well, can), she effortlessly blasts the tune away into the blissful heaven of immortal recordings!
Brenda & The Tabulations: »Summertime« from the Dionn LP # 2000 (1967, mono) / Aretha Franklin (feat. The Sweet Inspirations): »Hello Sunshine« from the Atlantic LP # 8186 (1968):
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:
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.
