117. Aretha Franklin - Lady Soul (1968)




















Track Listing

1. Chain Of Fools
2. Money Won't Change You
3. People Get Ready
4. Niki Hoeky
5. You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman
6. Since You've Been Gone (Sweet Sweet Baby)
7. Good To Me As I Am To You
8. Come Back Baby
9. Groovin'
10. Ain't No Way

Review

The title of Lady Soul is definitely appropriate to this album. If her previous album reviewed here already showed that Aretha was the best female soul interpreter, this album is the cherry on the fucking cake. You will find yourself nodding your head and singing along, even though it is not very dignified to sing You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman if you are a man.

Aretha really makes the best of her songs, and although some of the best tracks here are covers or were written by other people she does give them her own imprint and they become as much hers as anyone's. The album is an exhilarating, fun affair whne listened to superficially but it does have hidden depths.

The social commentary content is not as pronounced here as in I Never Loved A Man, but the songs are equally touching and even the referencing of other songs, by borrowing lines into her music, the same way that Sam Cooke did in his live performances is also quite fun, she even has Clapton playing in one of the tracks. You need this album. Napster doesn't have it so buy it from Amazon UK or US.

Trsck Highlights

1. You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman
2. Chain of Fools
3. People Get Ready
4. Since You've Been Gone (Sweet Sweet Baby)

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Lady Soul peaked at #1, #2 and #3 on Billboard's Black Albums, Pop Albums and Jazz Albums charts respectively. The single "Ain't No Way" peaked at #9 on the Black Singles chart, and #16 on the Pop Singles chart.

In 2003 the TV network VH1 named Lady Soul the 41st greatest album of all time. It is number 84 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.