Aretha Franklin - Lady Soul

Released - January 1968

Genre - Soul

Producer - Jerry Wexler

Selected Personnel - Aretha Franklin (Vocals/Piano); Jimmy Johnson (Guitar); Joe South (Guitar); Spooner Oldham (Keyboards); Tommy Cogbill (Bass); Roger Hawkins (Drums); Bobby Womack (Guitar); King Curtis (Saxophone); Eric Clapton (Guitar); Arif Mardin (String Arrangements); Carolyn Franklin (Backing Vocals); Erma Franklin (Backing Vocals); Ellie Greenwich (Backing Vocals)

Standout Track - Ain't No Way

Aretha Franklin's 1967 breakthrough album I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You represented a previously mis-managed and poorly handled artist finally finding a creative team that helped her play to her strengths in producer Jerry Wexler and the legendary backing band of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section (the likes of guitarist Jimmy Johnson and keyboardist Spooner Oldham). She had a huge amount to prove, and the brimming confidence of recordings like her iconic cover of Otis Redding's "Respect" helped her more than prove it. With so much riding on it, however, there's still the occasional sense of fragility and uncertainty in that album, as though Wexler and co. were aware their gamble on this artist who had been around for over a decade and had yet to achieve major success might not pay off. That uncertainty and fragility has entirely disappeared a year later, on Lady Soul. The confidence of crowning herself with such a title isn't hubris here, it's simply a testament to how completely Aretha had come to dominate soul music in the subsequent year.

Whereas barnstormers such as "Respect" had sat alongside more plaintive ballads on the earlier record, here every single song, even the slower numbers, brim with total confidence, Aretha's magnificently strident voice owning every single one. Franklin, Wexler and the Muscle Shoals band had recorded another album in between these two, 1967's Aretha Arrives, which I've not heard but which allegedly showcased her limitations as singer as well as her strengths, perhaps trying to be too eclectic in its range of styles in the wake of a very concise album that really played to her strengths in I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You. The album did nothing to halt her ascent as a huge star, however, so Wexler took the decision on Lady Soul to again really home in on the two styles that were best suited to Aretha's voice - R&B and gospel.

The album is slightly weighted towards the former, with intensely rhythmic R&B workouts dominating in the form of the brilliant opener "Chain Of Fools," its spidery guitar riff interacting brilliantly with the wonderful, chanted "Chain, chain, chain" refrain, staged as a call-and-response between Aretha and her backing vocalists, the Sweet Inspirations (partly comprised of her own sisters Carolyn and Erma Franklin). Elsewhere, the swampy, bluesy "Niki Hoeky" or the upbeat rock vibe of "Since You've Been Gone (Sweet Sweet Baby)" further help to push the sassy, R&B vibe of the album to the forefront. The punchy horn section on the latter, in particular, is a highlight of the record. Softer, gospel-flavoured ballads are also given strong outings, however, with a brilliantly celebratory and jubilant cover of Curtis Mayfield's gospel classic "People Get Ready," or the definitive version of Carole King, Gerry Goffin and Jerry Wexler's "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman." King was at this point a staff songwriter for the New York-based Dimension Records, and had yet to launch herself as a solo artist - her own reinterpretation of her own song on her classic album Tapestry was a few years away yet, meaning Aretha had free reign to put her iconic stamp on the song before its own author even had the chance to have a stab at it. Her version is obviously great, and has become a classic, but personally I've always preferred the extra sense of fragility in Carole King's version - there's less of a sassy ownership of the tune, but a greater sense of emotional depth to it.

The ballad that Aretha 100% nails here is the beautiful "Ain't No Way," written by her sister Carolyn. Perhaps it was the fact that it came from somewhere far closer to home (Wexler actually had Franklin and the Muscle Shoals band travel across America to New York to meet with King and Goffin for the sessions for "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,"), but you really get a sense that she gets under the skin of the song rather than just belting out a pretty melody that had been penned by somebody she had never met before. It's a truly beautiful song that aches with longing and a pleading for understanding - "Ain't no way for me to love you if you won't let me," even if its gender politics are a tad regressive from a modern standpoint ("I know that it's a woman's duty to love and help a man, and that's the way it was planned" is a faintly depressing line to modern ears, but you can't deny the passion and the beauty with which Aretha sings it). It's my hope that the standout, soaring backing vocalist given a lot of prominence in the song is Carolyn herself, as it'd be nice if she had such a significant role within the recording of her own song, though sadly I haven't been able to ascertain exactly which of the Sweet Inspirations it is.

Carolyn's role as songwriter for the album's best song raises an interesting issue with Lady Soul - here, Aretha herself contributes to the writing of only two songs, compared to the four she wrote on I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You. One is one of the album's highlights, the great R&B workout of "Since You've Been Gone (Sweet Sweet Baby)" and the other is the more forgettable "Good To Me As I Am To You." It seems odd, considering what a progressive step it was in 1967 for Wexler to let Aretha write nearly half of the album, something that rarely happened with female soul artists at the time, who were largely working at the behest of the label and producer and were denied much creative input. Presumably, given her total chart dominance in the previous year, Aretha's diminished songwriting input was a decision she was totally complicit with rather than one she was forced into by Atlantic Records, and perhaps it's purely down to the rapid turnaround of these albums that she didn't have time to write much material, but it does seem odd that her increased star power resulted in smaller creative involvement. Still, it does free up space on the album for her to cover established soul classic, like the aforementioned Curtis Mayfield cover or, elsewhere, the opportunity to cover another soul legend in her take on James Brown's "Money Won't Change You."

After the less universally loved Aretha Arrives, Lady Soul again cemented Franklin as the brightest light in soul music, and in 1968 she won her first Grammy and was awarded a day in her honour. She continued to achieve further success throughout the rest of the 60s and the early 70s, but that late 60s pairing of albums in I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You and Lady Soul remain a definitive portrait of the woman at her most confident, having the most fun with her favourite styles of music. Lady Soul possibly just takes the lead for me thanks to the brilliant "Chain Of Fools" and "Ain't No Way," and thanks to its more domineering sense of total control, but both are brilliant, and it'd be difficult to find many soul artists who produced two similarly great albums within a year of one another.

Track Listing:

1. Chain Of Fools (Don Covay)

2. Money Won't Change You (James Brown & Nat Jones)

3. People Get Ready (Curtis Mayfield)

4. Niki Hoeky (Jim Ford, Lolly Vegas & Pat Vegas)

5. (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (Gerry Goffin, Carole King & Jerry Wexler)

6. Since You've Been Gone (Sweet Sweet Baby) (Aretha Franklin & Ted White)

7. Good To Me As I Am To You (Aretha Franklin & Ted White)

8. Come Back Baby (Walter Davis)

9. Groovin' (Felix Cavaliere & Eddie Brigati)

10. Ain't No Way (Carolyn Franklin)