Aretha Franklin

Listen/Download Aretha Franklin – I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)

 

NOTE: Our web host has been experiencing major tech problems since yesterday (5/14). This caused Funky16Corners to be offline completely for several hours last night and this morning.

Though the site is currently up there is no ETA on full restoration of services, so the possibility of another outage is still there.

Please bear with me and hopefully everything will be ok soon.

Thanks

Larry

 

Greetings all

The end of the week is nigh, so I will take this opportunity to remind you that the Funky16Corners Radio Show hits the airwaves of the interwebs this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. You can also keep up with the show by subscribing to it as a podcast in iTunes, or by grabbing an MP3 in the archive here at the blog.

I should also let you know that the Funky16Corners 2014 Allnighter and Pledge Drive will be arriving in a few weeks. Once again we’ll have a stellar line up of DJs and mixes, including many of the regulars from past Allnighters and some new blood as well. I’m getting a new Funky16Corners badge made for donors, and there will be some prize giveaways as well. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for more details coming soon!

I recently had the opportunity to check out the ‘Muscle Shoals’ documentary. I had missed it in the theaters, thought I’d catch it on Netflix, but lo and behold it popped up on PBS a few weeks back.

I’d heard a lot about the film – some good, some bad – but so much of the music I love was created in those environs I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to check it out.

There were parts of the film that were genuinely moving, and there was a lot of exciting music, but by the time the movie was over, and I’d survived the idiotic rambling of Bono (can we have some kind of a moratorium on his pontificating in documentaries?), I was left oddly unsatisfied.

The film seems based on a kind of ‘producer as auteur’ approach, focusing on Rick Hall, which is all well and good until you discover that it is to the detriment of the musicians that worked for him and were largely responsible for anything you might consider a Muscle Shoals sound.

I found the fact that Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham and the Swampers were left floating in Hall’s wake galling.

That, and the fact that my recent reading of Joel Selvin’s ‘Here Comes the Night: The Dark Soul of Bert Berns and the Dirty Business of Rhythm and Blues’ and Robert Gordon’s ‘Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion’ had done nothing but lower my already poor opinion of Jerry Wexler (a prominent voice in the history of Muscle Shoals, and the film) gnawed at me through the viewing.

That, and the fact that the later part of the film spends too much time focusing on the birth of Southern rock ended up leaving me cold.

This is not to say that the film is without merit, nor would I suggest you avoid it (there’s too much good stuff in there to dismiss it outright).

What I would do, is suggest that you go out and get yourself a copy of Peter Guralnick’s indispensable ‘Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom’, which is not only the finest book I’ve ever read about Southern soul (or soul music in general), but would serve as an important companion piece to ‘Muscle Shoals’.

Guralnick’s book spends a decent amount of time explaining how these white musicians, especially Penn and Oldham, got to the point where they were so important to the creation of some of the finest rhythm and blues and soul music of the classic era.

The same can be said about Gordon’s tome, though in that case specifically about the same phenomenon at Stax in Memphis.

That all said, one of my favorite moments in the film concerned Wexler taking Aretha Franklin down to Muscle Shoals. Franklin had recorded several albums for Columbia following her transition from gospel to secular music.

She left that label for Atlantic in 1967 and Wexler, who had already had success recording Wilson Pickett at Muscle Shoals, thought that Franklin would flourish in the same environment.

He had no idea.

The album she recorded there (and also at Atlantic’s NYC studio) – her first for Atlantic – was both an artistic and commercial breakthrough.

‘I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You’ provided Aretha with dynamite material (the LP included her epic reading of Otis Redding’s ‘Respect’, her reworking of Ray Sharpe’s ‘Help Me’ as ‘Save Me’) and a remarkably sympatico backing group.

The tune I bring you today was one of two big hits for Franklin written by Ronnie Shannon (the second being ‘Baby I Love You’).

One of the pivotal scenes in ‘Muscle Shoals’ describes the recording of ‘I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)’. Franklin and the band had apparently been struggling to find the right vibe, until Spooner Oldham sat down at the electric piano and whipped out the riff that opens the record.

If you need proof that the essence of an entire sound can be distilled into one particular moment, one need only listen to the slow rolling piano riff at the beginning of this record. Oldham’s piano, paired with the bass drum, snare and closed hi-hat is pure soul, with one foot firmly in the amen corner.

When Aretha comes in – pure perfection – followed by the organ (very subtle) and eventually the acoustic piano and the horn section shifting gears, what you’re hearing is pure brilliance.

Though it’s less than three minutes long, the combination of the artful layering of the instruments, coupled with Franklin’s powerful, authoritative reading of the lyric gives ‘I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)’ an epic depth that places it among the finest recordings of the classic soul era.

So dig it, educate yourself (or someone who needs it) with a good music book (and maybe a movie) and I’ll see you on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

 

 

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

 

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Mr Maceo Parker (above) and his book and music (below)

Listen/Download Maceo and All the King’s Men – Got To Getcha

Listen/Download Maceo and the Macks – Parrty Pt1

Listen/Download Maceo and the Macks – Parrty Pt2

Greetings all

I hope the day finds you all well.

In the universe of funk, especially the swirling nebulae of James Brown and Parliament Funkadelic, there exists a supernova of the saxomophone known by a single name, one that represents cool, funk, swagger and the cutting sound of brass.

That name is Maceo.

Known more fully to his mother and the folks at the motor vehicle bureau as the mighty Maceo Parker, he was one of the brightest lights of the James Brown Band, the JBs, Maceo and the Macks, Maceo and All the King’s Men, Parliament Funkadelic and various and sundry permutations therein.

Devotees of funk probably wake up in the night with the sound of James Brown calling his name, requesting a saxophone solo or directions to the bridge.

Mr Parker is a master musician, and icon of the classic era of funk, and now (happily) the author of an autobiography covering all of the above called ‘98% Funky Stuff: My Life In Music’.

Truth be told, I was a lot more excited to see this fall through the mail slot than I was when RJ Smith’s (excellent and thorough) biography of the Godfather came out last year.

While there is probably very little about James Brown that has not at some time been driven deep into my brain, there hasn’t been nearly enough out there that explores the lives of the men that helped to make his amazing music a reality.

’98% Funky Stuff’ is a brisk read, with time spent on Maceo’s early years, his first connection with the James Brown band and its (temporary) interruption by the draft.

What I found most interesting about the book – other than getting to know Parker himself – were his contrasting impressions of working as part of the James Brown organization through the 60s and early 70s, and his transition into the world of George Clinton and P-Funk.

The feeling I get is that Brown didn’t value his sidemen nearly as much as they deserved, and as straight and disciplined a player as Parker was, he found the chaotic world of Parliament Funkadelic a refreshing environment in which to express himself.

The book doesn’t contain the kind of trainspotter’s detail that I might have liked (though I don’t know what book would, outside of an encyclopedia), but if you’re eager for a look at the life of one of the really important funk and soul musicians of the last 50 years, ‘98% Funky Stuff’ is a treat indeed.

I took this review of the book as an opportunity to dip into my crates and pull out some prime Maceo vinyl.

The first track hails from one of the periodic acrimonious episodes when Maceo (and pretty much the rest of the Godfather’s band) took off and did their own thing.

‘Got To Getcha’ (R&B Top 40 in 1970)is a dynamite piece of funk, with vocals by Maceo, a heavy groove (that manages to step outside of the JB feel) a groovy sax solo and some crazy lyrics (also courtesy of Mr Parker). It was recorded in 1970 for Lelan Rogers’ House of the Fox label. It also appears on the excellent ‘Doing Their Own Thing’ LP.

The second track  is one of the finest examples of Maceo working within the JB-context, that being the 1973 R&B Top 40 hit ‘Parrty Pts 1&2’. Built on a classic JBs groove, with a churning riff, band (and James Brown) chants and Maceo himself soloing over the whole thing, ‘Parrty’ is a killer..

If you want to dig deeper into the soundof Maceo Parker, you can pick up any of the many James Brown, JBs, Maceo and the Macks (or any of the other variations) 45s easily located, or if digital is your thing, iTunes has most of that, as well as his many solo albums available.

I hope you dig the tunes (and grab the book) and I’ll see you soon.

Keep the faith

Larry

 

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).

Click here to go to the ordering page.
Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

 

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.