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Aretha Now

Aretha Franklin - Aretha Now Audio CD

A fair review of the Aretha Franklin "Aretha Now" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Aretha Franklin reviews here, or go back to the Aretha Franklin tabs.

Band: Aretha Franklin
Title: Aretha Now
Rating:

Release Date: 1993-07-20
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Think 2: I Say a Little Prayer 3: See Saw 4: Night Time Is the Right Time 5: You Send Me 6: You're a Sweet Sweet Man 7: I Take What I Want 8: Hello Sunshine 9: Change 10: I Can't See Myself Leaving You

Middling, but I love "I Say a Little Prayer"
No, the awkward thing is her cover of Sam and Dave's "I Take What I Want". You want awkward? I'll give you awkward! I'll give you awkward 'till you're beggin' for it to stop! And I ain't talkin' 'bout me strippin' down naked, either, though that would be awkward in itself. Now, I like Sam & Dave, but I don't think much of Aretha's cover. It for whatever reason just doesn't fit her, you know? Of course you do. We're all smart people. Other than me, anyway. So that's one awful song. Here's another: "I Can't See Myself Leaving You". I can see what she's going for - an absolute display of unconditional love - but I'm not following her there, because it doesn't strike me the way the album's other display of unconditional love does. That song is "I Say a Little Prayer". I love every bit of it, from Aretha's vocals (duh) to the backup vocals to the melody to the delicate Spanish guitar. So much better than Dionne Warwick's breathy, full-speed-ahead original. Then again, I don't like Burt Bacharach. I really, really don't. He is the most overrated composer of the 20th century. Actually, no, maybe Brian Wilson. Tough call. To make another one of them generalizations, a cover of a Burt Bacharach-penned song is guaranteed to be better than the original. And it's great to hear Aretha forget subtlety and belt her way through "Think" and "See Saw"; there's also a moving "You Send Me" and a pretty solid "Night Time is the Right Time". And then there are, um. . . three other songs I didn't bring up. I just heard "You're a Sweet, Sweet Man" about twenty minutes prior to writing this review, and I already forgot everything about it. Same with "A Change". And then there's one last awful song: the corny "Hello Sunshine". So, um. . . how 'bout them Detroit Lions? 6-4 - finally above . 500! Sure, they lost today, but you know, their heads ARE above water for a change.

"ARETHA WAS ON A SERIOUS ROLL...."
Add the Album favorites: "Night Time Is The Right Time" & "I Take What I Want", Aretha delivered, yet Another Out-The-Box Smash Album!!! . When this release hit the racks in the late 60's this Soul Satisfying Album boosted not One, but Four Hit Singles: "Think", "I Say A Little Prayer", "See Saw" & "I Can't See Myself Leaving You".

High Quality Reissue of One of Her Greatest
(She had ten Top Ten hits in eighteen months of 1967-68). "Aretha Now" is a high-quality reissue of one of Aretha Franklin's greatest records, dating from 1968, the midst of the most hit-filled period of her career. Franklin is the daughter of an influential Detroit preacher and her talent was recognized early; she cut her first record at 14. She was later signed to Columbia, a find of their legendary talent scout John Hammond, but the label didn't seem to know what to do with her. However, Atlantic waited in the wings. Once signed by their chief Ahmet Ertegun, producers Jerry Wexler and Arif Mardin, and engineer Tom Dowd put her together with a repertory better suited to her soulful talents, and backed her explosive song stylings with the equally explosive Muscle Shoals studio players (though they were then feuding with that studio's management, and had to bring the musicians to New York to record). And they all made music history. Franklin almost immediately burst onto the Rhythm and Blues charts with Otis Redding's "Respect," still her biggest hit, though she was to have 20 R&B #1 singles. "Aretha Now" was one of the big three albums that followed closely after her first classic Atlantic hit, " I Never Loved a Man (The Way That I Loved You").

This album opens with Franklin's own "Think;" it was another juicy hit for her. It also gives us Burt Bacharach's "I Say A Little Prayer," as Franklin reimagined it; an emotionally satisfying version of Sam Cooke's "You Send Me. " A sizzling version of "Night Time is the Right Time. " A tight-swinging "See Saw," by Steve Cropper and Don Covay, two of the stalwarts of Stax's famed studio band, Booker T and the M. G's. Two female-oriented songs by Ronnie Shannon, a song co-written by Isaac Hayes; another co-written by King Curtis.

But Franklin, honored as the Queen of Soul, or Lady Soul, is a triple-threat singer-songwriter-pianist, and she isn't limited to soul and R&B; she can also do gospel, for sure, jazz, and even, memorably, opera. There was the night she stepped in for the ailing Luciano Pavarotti at the live Grammy Awards, and, without rehearsal time, nor even time to get the aria transposed to her key, she delivered a version of the opera singer's signature aria, "Nessun Dorma," from "Turandot," that brought the jaded music crowd to its feet. She's won awards and honors too numerous to mention, including an unprecedented eight consecutive Grammies for Best Female R&B vocal performance from 1967-1974-- there were people jokingly referring to it, finally, as Grammy's Aretha Award. She does sometimes remind of something a choir master supposedly once said to a little girl: you don't have to sing so loud, God can always hear you. But this woman deserves all our R-E-S-P-E-C-T, and this album dates from her never quite equaled early burst of creativity. It belongs on the shelf of her serious fans.

ARETHA THEN
Sometimes the 1968 code of hit-making ethics find her lungs a bit constrained when you know she just wants to wail her church trained voice and make the song her own, like in Burt Bacharach and Hal David's "I Say A Little Prayer", and Sam Cooke's "You Send Me", fine songs and fine renditions, but just not the excitement of a Franklin single. Aretha's classic rhythm and blues album is gospel tinged soul with the Queen belting out a handful of remakes and the co-written, "Think", a feisty supercharged personal and social call for freedom, with a stinging chorus forever imbedded on listener's conscienceness. As her career moves on, she gets better and better, and this is a fine place to start. .

Aretha On A Roll
When the grooves are as funky as these, who cares? Two great tracks had already been hit singles when the album came out - Think, which had been recorded on 15 April 1968, the day Martin Luther King was assassinated; and her fantastic re-interpretation of Burt Bacharach's I Say A Little Prayer, which she and the Sweet Inspirations had apparently worked up while on tour, just for fun. This was Aretha's fourth album for Atlantic and was top five in both UK and US, despite a playing time of under half-an-hour. In America I Say A Little Prayer was buried as a flipside before discerning deejays turned it over, but it had been the bona-fide A-side the month before in the UK where it reached number 4.
Her revival of Don Covay's See Saw was the first single lifted from the album, with I Can't See Myself Leaving You being extracted the following year while she was taking time off to avoid burn out. �
Sam Cooke had apparently come to the Franklin household while he was still in the Soul Stirrers and considering turning secular with an acetate of You Send Me. After its success she said, "I'd sure like to sing that, too" and here turns in a smoldering version which is not only secular but intensely sexualized to boot. �
The Muscle Shoals crew were flown in to New York for all sessions and were augmented by the Sweet Inspirations and, in April 1968, the Memphis Horns. Most of the album was recorded that April, but three tracks held over from the Lady Soul sessions of December 1967 make up the remainder and feature Bobby Womack on guitar, an 8-piece brass section and Carolyn Franklin on additional background vocals. Two of these were written by Ronnie Shannon who had written I Never Loved A Man and Baby, I Love You.
Aretha had found her voice and was on a roll, complemented by Tom Dowd and Arif Mardin's arrangements and sure-footed production by Jerry Wexler. The album went gold.
Now overdue for a remaster, let's hope it comes with the full complement of bonus tracks from the period, singles and unreleased material that are bound to be gold dust.

You can see a complete list of all Aretha Franklin discography, or go back to the Aretha Franklin tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.