The Mojo Collection. Various Mojo Magazine
Laxton (t); Ernie Royal (t); David Hood (tb); Charlie Chalmers (ts); King Curtis (ts); Joe Arnold (ts); Willie Bridges (bs); Carolyn Franklin, Erma Franklin; Cissy Houston (bv); Tom Dowd (e); Arif Mardin (e)
Track listing: Respect (S); Drown In My Own Tears; I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Loved You) (S); Soul Serenade; Don’t Let Me Lose This Dream; Baby Baby Baby (S); Dr Feelgood (Love Is A Serious Business); Good Times; Do Right Woman, Do Right Man; Save Me; A Change Is Gonna Come
Running time: 41.26
Current CD: Rhino 8122719342 adds: Respect (Stereo Version); I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You) (Stereo Version); Do Right Woman-Do Right Man (Stereo Version)
Further listening: Lady Soul (1968)
Further reading: Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm And Blues And The Southern Dream Of Freedom (Peter Guralnick, 1986); Higher Ground: Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin And Curtis Mayfield and the Rise And Fall Of American Soul (Craig Hansen Werner, 2004); www.aretha-franklin.com; www.legacyrecordings.com/arethafranklin
Download: HMV Digital; iTunes
At 24 years old, Aretha Franklin could have been forgiven for thinking she had seen it all already. Daughter of a famous gospel preacher, already a mother and wife, a professional singer for some years and a much experienced performer, she had already rubbed shoulders with the greats from Sam Cooke and Ray Charles to boxer Joe Louis and more. After her deal with Columbia Records expired, Jerry Wexler wasted no time signing her to Atlantic in November 1966.
The soul music scene was rapidly growing with Wilson Pickett, Sam And Dave, Otis Redding, Carla Thomas and the more urbane Motown acts already achieving great chart success. But Wexler knew he had something special. Aretha’s first six weeks with Atlantic were spent choosing the proper material. On January 24, 1967 Wexler, Franklin and her then husband Ted White flew to a tiny country airstrip outside of Florence, Alabama and drove over to Muscle Shoals. There Chips Moman had assembled what is now rightly considered a legendary band, but it was a legendary band with no black faces; Wexler had specifically asked for an integrated band. With Aretha on piano they cut I Never Loved A Man – producer/writer Dan Penn: ‘Less than two hours and it was in the can and it was a killer, no doubt about it. That morning we knew a star had been born.’
However, a drinking contest had begun between White and one of the horn section, degenerating into an ugly, name-calling argument, and work on the second song, Do Right Woman-Do Right Man, ground to an abrupt halt. Wexler pulled the plug and with White (who doubled as Aretha’s manager) refusing to step foot in Alabama again, the sessions were rescheduled for New York City, where they were eventually completed in February.
‘Of the hundreds of sessions I have participated in,’ Spooner Oldham recalls today, ‘I can honestly say those first few times with Aretha Franklin were simply and magically unforgettable.’
The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground And Nico
New York’s brutally realistic, genre-spawning riposte to the West Coast dream of psychedelia.
Record label: Verve
Produced: Andy Warhol and Tom Wilson
Recorded: Mayfair Studios, New York; November, 1966; TTG, Hollywood; May, 1966; Sceptre Studios, New York; April 25, 1967
Released: March 15, 1967
Chart peaks: None (UK) 197 (US)
Personnel: Lou Reed (g, v); Nico (v); John Cale (va, k, b); Sterling Morrison (g, b); Maureen Tucker (pc)
Track listing: Sunday Morning (S); I’m Waiting For The Man; Femme Fatale; Venus In Fur; Run Run Run; All Tomorrow’s Parties; Heroin; There She Goes Again; I’ll Be Your Mirror; The Black Angel’s Death Song; European Son
Running time: 48.51
Current CD: Polydor 5312502
Further listening: For the vicious side, White Light/White Heat (1968). For beautiful stuff, The Velvet Underground (1969).
Further reading: Up-Tight – The Velvet Underground Story (Victor Bockris and Gerard Malanga,1983); What’s Welsh For Zen (John Cale, 1999); www.velvetunderground.com
Download: iTunes; HMV Digital
Now acknowledged as one of the most influential albums of all time, The Velvet Underground’s 1967 debut barely limped into the Billboard chart at 197, then disappeared. New York’s avant-garde art overlord Andy Warhol financed it, securing three days in Cameo-Parkway studios, Broadway, for $2,500. In return, the Velvets were obliged to use Warhol’s latest ‘superstar’, Nico, as their vocalist, and to credit Warhol, who rarely visited the studio, as producer.
‘The studio was still under construction,’ remembers Velvets’ viola player John Cale. ‘The floorboards were up, the walls were out.’ Understandably, this did nothing to mitigate their open hostility to Nico. ‘We’d hear her go off-key or hit the wrong pitch. We would sit there and snigger.’ Nico’s worst trial was I’ll Be Your Mirror, which her relentless tormentors forced her to sing endlessly until she broke down in tears.
According to drummer Mo Tucker, time restrictions meant that most tracks were recorded live, virtually no overdubs and engineering limitations forcing the band to play unusually quietly. ‘Heroin is such a good song,’ says Tucker, ‘but it’s a pile of garbage on the record. The guys couldn’t have their amps up loud in the studio, so I couldn’t hear anything.’
Once the album was complete, the band began hawking it around. ‘We took it to Ahmet Ertegun (at Atlantic) and he said, “No drug songs,”’ remembered the late Sterling Morrison. ‘We took it to Elektra and they said, “No violas.”’
They finally scored a deal with Dylan’s producer Tom Wilson, who arranged for its release on Verve. But, like Warhol, Wilson’s primary interest was Nico. He made Reed write another song for her, which he would produce and release as a single. Reed delivered Sunday Morning but, once in the studio, insisted on singing it himself. By the time the album hit the streets, Verve had lost interest and was concentrating instead on marketing another recent signing, The Mothers of Invention. Yet, despite the album’s tortuous genesis, its patchy sound and the limited playing ability of its creators, for the few who did discover The Velvet Underground And Nico, it was like that first glimpse of a Fellini movie after a lifetime of Disney. In Lou Reed’s songs, tenderness and violence were overpowering, the drugs were dangerous, and the music could scar you for life. The Record Mirror scribe who wrote ‘It’s solid and by no means freaky’ was presumably one hell of a weird dude.
Merle Haggard And The Strangers
I’m A Lonesome Fugitive
All hail the first New Traditionalist.
Record label: Capitol
Produced: Ken Nelson
Recorded: Nashville; August 1–3, November 16 and December 16, 1966
Released: March 1967
Chart peaks: None (UK) None (US)
Personnel: Merle Haggard (v, g); James Burton (g, dobro); Glen Campbell (bv, g); Lewis Talley (g); Shorty Mullins (g); Billy Mize (g, bv); Jerry Ward (b); Bonnie Owens (bv); Glenn D Hardin (p); Ralph Mooney (ps); James Beck Gordon (d)
Track listing: I’m A Lonesome Fugitive (S/US); All Of Me Belongs To You; House Of Memories; Life In Prison; Whatever Happened To Me; Drink Up And