"Ain't no preacher like Aretha when I'm feelin' real blue" is a sentiment I share deeply with one of my favorite current artists Emily King. It's a lyric from her song "Radio" off her brilliant "Seven EP." Not to mention, it's a brilliant lyric and scripture as far as I'm concerned. Being that I've been feeling "real blue" lately from lack of closure in certain areas of my life, I felt it appropriate to give you this Gem Of A Jam, and my personal favorite "Re-Re" Record "This Girl's In Love With You."
This may be my favorite Aretha album on a subconscious level because it's likely her most personal. At this time she was coming out of a 7-year marriage with an abusive husband who was outed in a controversial Time Magazine as such. Even though there is only one sole writing contribution from Aretha here, the material covered has a poignant, soul-stirring, melancholy undertone--even though there are plenty of up-tempos here. In that Time article, Miss Re was quoted as saying something that is so relevant to me emotionally at this very moment:
"Trying to grow up is hurting, you know. You make mistakes. You try to learn from them, and when you don't, it hurts even more. And I've been hurt --hurt bad. I might be just 26, but I'm an old woman in disguise--26 goin' on 65."
As I said before "Ain't no preacher like Aretha when I'm feelin' real blue." This album is yet another testament in my personal bible from my god: MUSIC.
Opening with "Son Of A Preacher Man," a song originally offered to Aretha but turned down by her due to it's religious nature, it became an iconic hit for another brilliant soulstress Dusty Springfield on her historic "Dusty In Memphis" album. According to Dusty's biography "Dancing With Demons," Aretha heard Dusty's recording of the song and in passing said to Dusty "Girl, you can sang!" This sent Dusty to the stratosphere as Aretha was a huge influence on her. In later interviews Dusty would always say she prefers Aretha's version to her own. They are markedly different, one is more a come-hither, dripping with sinful sex and Aretha's is more a blues/country story version--not to mention in a different time signature.
"Share Your Love With Me" is a slow scorcher of a tune that says everything about the mistake one has made on passing up Aretha: "And there's no one blinder, than you won't see, it's a shame if you don't share some of your love with me. I can't help it, oh no, he is gone; I must try to forget because I've got to live on." Hashtag truth.
"Dark End Of The Street" is, quite honestly, the best version of this song. Written by Chips Moman and Dan Penn, (responsible for the "Memphis Sound" that made Elvis' later work and Dusty Springfield's masterpiece what it is) it's a song lamenting an affair of forbidden lovers. Aretha's vocal goes straight for the jugular and delivers. You'll collapse in tears when she sings: "And when the daylight rolls around, if by chance you shall go downtown, If we should meet, baby just walk on by, please, please, please, please darlin' don't you cry; 'cause tonight we'll meet, we will meet at the dark end of the street." It'll bring you to your knees, I promise.
Rumor has it that "Let It Be" was written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon specifically for Miss Franklin. Initially she allegedly didn't take to the song but recorded it and managed to release her version before The Beatles released theirs. I mean, the song is practically tailor-made for her. When she belts out "Leave it alone! Let it be!" at the bridge of the song I'm sent. Aretha does another Beatles cover here with "Eleanor Rigby" putting her own spin on it, so much so that it sounds like a totally different song!
"This Girl's In Love With You" is a Burt Bacharach/Hal David song that was recorded a couple times before Aretha's; one of the previous recordings was by Dionne Warwick. But nobody's compares to this version, which will simultaneously break your heart and make you fall in love at the same time!
"People all around me, but I don't even have a friend, lord knows I've been trying, and he knows I just can't win. Everything I do, yeah, seems to turn out wrong, sometimes I wish now, that I'd never been born...It just ain't fair." Aretha puts a hurtin' on us with this jam "It Ain't Fair."
Aretha's cover of "The Weight" made famous a few years earlier by The Band, is a bluesy, countrified version of the song that, although not as great as the original, holds up nevertheless.
One of my all-time favorite Aretha tracks is "Call Me." It's a gorgeous ballad between two people so in love they need reassurance that each has made it safely to their destination. Aretha's inspiration for the song came from seeing a couple parting on Park Avenue in New York, the man crossed the street and shouted, "I love you!" to the woman who replied "And I love you too." To which the guy responded, "Call me the moment that you get there!" She said "I will!" and the song went down in history as a gorgeous hit for Miss Re.
Closing the set is a song that I think is appropriate for those moments where we just need to "Sit Down And Cry." "No one, no one could have warned me, that you would scar me, yeah, and hurt me so bad, and that I'd sit down and cry, baby, over you." When Aretha screams on the word "scar" you know someone did her wrong and hurt her real bad. I know how you feel Aretha; I know how you feel. I'm gonna sit down and cry with you.
Released in January of 1970, Aretha would release another album later in that year, the lovely "Spirit In The Dark" which may get a GOAJ entry of its own at some point. Until then, let Aretha be your preacher, especially if you're feelin' real blue.