Aretha Franklin in the 1970s-Search & Destroy

There's a 2CD rarities comp included—I'm sure those will be on there.

including the aforementioned version of "What a Fool Believes"

I remember this as being pretty great.

I really like it, though it doesn't trump the original.

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/aretha-franklin-spirit-in-the-dark/amp/

Good piece! So glad he concentrated on her piano.

Spirit and Young, Gifted, and Black are two of my favorites of hers, and don’t get nearly the attention they deserve.

Let Me In Your Life was really striking, w variety unified by dynamics, detail, atmosphere: title track by Bill Withers, incl. the suddenly quiet, dead-on bridge before the resurge---will she scare him away? "Every Natural Thing" by Eddie Hinton, couple originals, with "If You Don't Think" especially appealing, rhythmically suave and flirtatious (confident!) xpost "Til You Come Back To Me" by Stevie (and others), country soul "With Pen In Hand," rocking 60s Aretha "Eight Days On The Road," rippling, hovering "A Song For You"(prob. overrecorded, but her version is the keeper)---smoking the 70s with Cornell Dupree, Pretty Purdie, Deodato, Donnie Hathaway, Joe Farrell, many others,

xgau's take, from Rock Records of the 70s or whatever:

Aretha Franklin: Let Me in Your Life [Atlantic, 1974]
Welcome Tom and Jerry (Dowd and Wexler) back--this isn't great Aretha, but it rocks steady even on the ballads. If she doesn't get away with "The Masquerade Is Over," she does renew "A Song for You" with a fresh electric piano part and a good helping of indiscreet interpretation. Guided indiscretion, that's the key--her great gift is her voice, but her genius is her bad taste. B+ Fuck the grade, but he's not entirely wrong, like does justify "What A Fool Believes" and a number of other kitschy choices over the years.

Young, Gifted & Black is an astonishing album. Daydreaming! All The Kings Horses!

oooh I haven't heard "If You Don't Think" in ages

Young, Gifted & Black, Spirit In The Dark and Sparkle are the only 70s albums I have of hers. They're all fantastic. I need to check out some of the others.

Young, Gifted & Black is an astonishing album. Daydreaming! All The Kings Horses!

Spirit in the Dark is one of my 50 favorite albums.

I've gotten really into "the albums nobody cares about" recently, particularly You and Almighty Fire.

idk how i've lived my life so long without memorizing every second of sparkle. it's almost too good--i have to shield my eyes.

i recently discovered a friend shot the cover photo of Spirit In The Dark!

He has since photographed me... quite a plummet.

Until You Come Back To Me is perfect.

Only vaguely knew the song It Ain't Fair until recently and never knew that was Duane Allman on guitar. That track smokes.

i recently discovered a friend shot the cover photo of Spirit In The Dark!

This is finally happening, for real this time:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/05/business/media/aretha-franklin-amazing-grace-film.html

more here

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6027-aretha-franklin-documentary-amazing-grace-set-to-premiere

sick burn

Congratulations to Sydney Pollack finally directing a great movie.

— Peter Labuza (@labuzamovies) November 27, 2018

Ha. It’s showing in NYC now?

in a week

And only for a week:

https://filmforum.org/film/amazing-grace

Aaron Cohen, author of the essential 33 1/3rd book on Amazing Grace, will give an introduction at the December 8 8:00pm showing (which is sold out).

I saw Cohen talk about Curtis Mayfield once. He’s worth listening to.

Has anyone else seen Amazing Grace?. It is exhilarating.
I can also confirm that the aforementioned Aaron Cohen is a standup person and also a skilled musical historian/educator.

One of the Vinyl Me Please swap titles for June (what you can get instead of the normal subscription titles for the month) was their pressing of Spirit In The Dark. I received it yesterday and am spinning now.

I somehow missed that this edition was the MONO MIX--I didn't even know there was a mono mix! I guess it was done for AM radio or something? They say it's the "First Official Mono Vinyl Release". It's probably just a Stereo fold-down, but it still sounds lovely, really brings out the piano and especially the bass.

Have been on the lookout for an affordable vinyl copy of this for ages. VMP annoy me a lot but they do repress some fantastic stuff.

It's on sale for $25 (or $23 if you're a member) for the next day or so:

https://www.vinylmeplease.com/products/aretha-franklin-spirit-in-the-dark?variant=39326877483098

Looking again at the item description, they kind of bury the info that it's in Mono.

I'm fine with the mono but I fear the postage to the UK would kill me