Twenty nine weeks in and we finally get round to the Queen of Soul Miss Aretha Franklin.
In 1967 Atlantic producer Jerry Wexler took Aretha Franklin to Muscle Shoals for a session at FAME Studios which was to lead to her greatest album the masterpiece that is I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You).
The title track. a version of the Ronnie Shannon song, was duly recorded and then the smelly stuff hit the fan.
Some alcohol had been taken and one of the horn players made a remark to Aretha leading to her and her husband Ted White retiring to the Florence Hotel.
After more alcohol was taken Rick Hall the owner of FAME decided to go to the hotel to patch things up.However it ended up in fisticuffs between White and Hall with Aretha and her entourage getting the first plane back to New Your the following morning.
Another session was subsequently arranged by Wexler in New York with the Muscle Shoals musicians being flown in.
This was probably the catalyst for the subsequent schism and the forming of the rival Muscle Shoals Sound studio.
Back to Aretha and Dan Penn recalls that his song Do Right Woman Do Right Man written with Chips Moman had been totally transformed by Aretha and her sisters by the time they got to New York to record it.
Terrific stuff
Aretha Franklin - I Never Loves a Man (The Way I Love You)
Aretha Franklin - Do Right Woman, Do Right Man (removed by the blog police)
To quote the great Ray Charles, "there are singers, then there is Aretha". As close to perfection as it gets.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely perfect
ReplyDeleteSometimes you just have to post what might be deemed to be obvious. And that's not a bad thing. Superb.
ReplyDelete