388. Aretha Franklin, "Young, Gifted and Black"

 


To hear an artist at the absolute peak of their talents is a magical thing, and Aretha Franklin just did it over and over and over again.  This was her, incredibly, nineteenth album, recorded when she was just 29 years old.  When I was 29 I was still trying to figure out how to do laundry and Aretha had already had like 4 full recording careers.

The title track, a Nina Simone cover (or, I guess, a complete owning of the Simone song by Franklin) is a perfect example.  Franklin toys with the melody, swatting it around a bit, just plaing with it, before exploding later as the song builds up.  The dynamics of her voice are, of course, otherworldy, but there's also the amount of emotion she can covey in that powerful instrument.  I honestly thought I would put this on and be like "oh yeah, Aretha Franklin, she's great," but I really had no idea.  

And it's not just a showcase for her to go wild vocally (like some artists I could name, *cough*Mariah Carey*cough*), there are some great songs on here too!  I loved the fuunky groove of "Rock Steady," written by Franklin herself.  There are also a bunch of great covers, like Dusty Springfield's "A Brand New Me" and Otis Redding's "I've Been Loving You Too Long."  And Franklin's version of the Lennon/McCartney "A Long and Winding Road" really rethinks and rebuilds what the song is about.  In Franklin's telling, it changes from an I'll-never-get-over-you lament into a Black Power anthem.

The album closes with the wistful Elton John/Bernie Taupin song "Border Song (Holy Moses)," which Elton has said was lyrically about the alienation Taupin felt in London at the time.  But, just like the other covers, it sounds like it sprang fully form from Franklin's voice.  Just an amazing piece of work.

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