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Amazon.co.uk Review
Despite the presence of the sweetened (and great) single "A Natural Woman", Aretha Franklin's third Atlantic album is even more elegantly gritty than its two predecessors. She finds liberation in James Brown's "Money Won't Change You" and a revved-up take on Ray Charles's "Come Back Baby" much as she had in "Respect" and "Think" earlier, while Eric Clapton's guitar on "Good to Me As I Am to You" stings as much as her rueful, resigned delivery. --Rickey Wright
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
How do you separate Aretha's Atlantic albums from the late 60's to the mid 70's? Each has it's own classic tracks, each it's hidden gems and always that superb voice, soaring from a whisper to a scream with no apparent effort.
Aretha was the acknowledged Queen of Soul, and built on her reputation with this combination of original tracks and interpretations of familiar material. The latter is well represented by "Natural Woman" (Carole King), "Money Won't Change You", here merely uptempo, rather than JBs frenetic original, and a sublime "People Get Ready", which I am sure Curtis would have appreciated.
For original material, the anthem of the hopelessly in love, "Chain of Fools" and the bluesy "Good To Me..." stand out, and as for the hidden gem, then look no further than "Ain't No Way", which finds Lady Soul in fine, if restrained, form.
Jerry Wexler's production is, as always, perfectly pitched to emphasise that unique voice, and you will get to hear how the original cuts sounded with mono versions of 4 tracks
You can buy a Greatest Hits package if you want to, you'll know lots of the tracks, but for the real essence of Aretha, and of Soul itself, you need to listen to her Atlantic albums as they were released. Pick any one, Lady Soul is a great one, but do yourself a favour and get them all, and immerse yourself in the finest female vocalist of all
Aretha was the acknowledged Queen of Soul, and built on her reputation with this combination of original tracks and interpretations of familiar material. The latter is well represented by "Natural Woman" (Carole King), "Money Won't Change You", here merely uptempo, rather than JBs frenetic original, and a sublime "People Get Ready", which I am sure Curtis would have appreciated.
For original material, the anthem of the hopelessly in love, "Chain of Fools" and the bluesy "Good To Me..." stand out, and as for the hidden gem, then look no further than "Ain't No Way", which finds Lady Soul in fine, if restrained, form.
Jerry Wexler's production is, as always, perfectly pitched to emphasise that unique voice, and you will get to hear how the original cuts sounded with mono versions of 4 tracks
You can buy a Greatest Hits package if you want to, you'll know lots of the tracks, but for the real essence of Aretha, and of Soul itself, you need to listen to her Atlantic albums as they were released. Pick any one, Lady Soul is a great one, but do yourself a favour and get them all, and immerse yourself in the finest female vocalist of all
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
"Lady Soul" is a high-quality reissue of one of Aretha Franklin's greatest, most important records, dating from 1968, the midst of the most hit-filled period of her career. It was her third highly successful, gritty album for Atlantic: She had ten Top Ten hits in eighteen months of 1967-68. "Lady Soul" peaked at #1, #2 and #3 on Billboard's Black Albums, Pop Albums and Jazz Albums charts respectively.
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.
This album is a no-brainer purchase, containing her mega hits "Chain of Fools," "People Get Ready," and "You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman," plus several more memorable takes that show her at her very best.
But Franklin, also honored as the Queen of 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 me 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.
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.
This album is a no-brainer purchase, containing her mega hits "Chain of Fools," "People Get Ready," and "You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman," plus several more memorable takes that show her at her very best.
But Franklin, also honored as the Queen of 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 me 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.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
The album "I've Never Loved A Man..." usually gets the vote as the best Aretha album but for me this is the one. A little more gritty amd knowing, and as well as the hits there's a couple of great songs that won't be on a standard "best of" such as "Since You've Been Gone" and "Good To Me As I Am To You".
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
fantastic
i heard a song that i had never heard on the radio that i really loved and i found out it was aretha fraklin
so i brought 2 ablums and absolutely loved listening to her... Read more
so i brought 2 ablums and absolutely loved listening to her... Read more
Published on 11 April 2009 by L. Capocci
Well worth it
This was the first Aretha album that I had bought which was not a greatest hits - If you want classic Aretha, which has four classic tunes on, then this is one to buy!
Published on 13 Feb 2002 by r.massiah@rca.ac.uk
You cannot live without this...
Wow. This is mind-blowing and era-defining. The voice, the songs, the invention and musicianship. wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow. Get the picture? Read more
Published on 28 April 2001
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