#0106: I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You - Aretha Franklin

I was a little bit nervous about this.  She's one of those artists I feel I *should* respect, if you'll excuse the pun.   It would be a blatant deception to say I love soul music or that I listen to it even semi regularly.  That said, whenever I watch the Blues Brothers or The Commitments I get the urge to go out and try to join a band like that.  It's inspiring music.  Be they pumping, ballsy protest songs like the opening track on here (Respect) or the wailing despair of the title track at position 3, there is something raw and tangible to connect with.

Aretha's voice was of course unlike any woman before her.  That's not to say that other women did not possess gravel, heart, power or range but the proportions afforded by her larynx and diaphragm were unique and a shock to the world.  

Even though Respect is the only punchy number we get for a while, the next 7 tracks still have momentum because of her delivery.  

Of course, a certain amount of credit has to go to the song writers and arrangers who between them have conjured these harmonic pathways for her to skip down, stamp on, slide along and fly over with the agility of any acrobat (or flea). 

It is nevertheless refreshing when the roadhouse rhythm finally picks us up out of the dust of the dirge, however briefly.  Only 3 tracks remaining now and yet another swaying 6 in Do Right Woman Do Right Man places this album, in spite of the exemplary vocal track firmly in the date-night background music category.  It's kinda like what I said about the Wee Small Hours from Frank Sinatra way back in the beginning: each song stands up very well on its own but if they're too similar then your brain just switches off.

Oh ok, Save Me has the same uppish rhythm as Gloria (and I really should get a vocabulary together for these different feels) but by this point I'm sort of ready to move on.  And sure enough her cover of the Sam Cooke classic is a slow motion, lugubrious indulgence, which if it was rounding off a rollercoaster of a show would kick my ass all over town but I'm done.  

3 stars.

Oh, and she's not dead, apparently.  But she thanxxx you for your concern.