I Never Loved a Man the Way I Loved You: Aretha Franklin, Respect, and the Creation of a Soul Music Masterpiece
- Book Review,
by Matt Dobkin
From Booklist
Among the greatest singing voices ever recorded, Aretha Franklin's is so distinctive that the fact that the album that made her a star was her tenth is just dumbfounding. She essayed jazz singing for seven years under the sympathetic auspices of John Hammond, rediscoverer of Bessie Smith, discoverer of Billie Holiday, and organizer of the seminal Carnegie Hall "From Spirituals to Swing" concerts, but despite a fine first album, she had no hits. Then Atlantic Records' Jerry Wexler signed her, married her to the fine rhythm section--all twentysomething self-described rednecks--at Fame recording studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and ba-whommm! Dobkin gets seemingly every living soul responsible for Franklin's epoch-making album (save Aretha herself) to impart his or her perspective on its making. This involves much more than a track-by-track account of the recording sessions. Dobkin exuberantly, but never quite gushingly, relates Franklin's earlier life, other involvements, and the civil rights impact, for women as well as blacks, of the album's biggest hit, "Respect." A standout in the current crowd of classic-album histories. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Book Description
I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You, Aretha Franklin's first album for Atlantic Records and famed producer Jerry Wexler, was a pop and soul music milestone that jump-started Franklin's languishing career. Almost overnight, Aretha became a top-selling recording artist and a cultural icon. But the album almost didn't happen. Matt Dobkin has unearthed fascinating details about the recording session in Muscle Shoals, Alabama: about the volatile behavior of Aretha's manager/husband, Ted White; about Aretha's reaction to the lack of black musicians in the session; and about how tempers and alcohol almost derailed the session with only a track and half in the can.
This book goes far beyond anything that's been written about "The Queen of Soul" or her music before. I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You is the story of a great achievement and includes scores of fresh interviews: Wexler, the session men from Muscle Shoals, Aretha's own musicians, and others. It gives insight into a star more complex and determined than her modern diva image would seem to indicate. Aretha, a teenage mother and daughter of a commanding preacher father, rose above her circumstances and transformed them into art. She gave the civil rights movement, already well under way in 1967 when the album came out, a passionate call to arms. And with "Respect"-along with the title track, one of the album's first two singles-she provided the burgeoning feminist movement with an enduring theme song.
The first serious, nonbiographical look at Aretha Franklin's work, I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You will deepen even ardent fans' understanding of one of the great soul artists of our time, a direct descendant of Bessie Smith and Billie Holliday.
About the Author
Matt Dobkin is the author of Getting Opera. He is the former classical music editor at Time Out New York, and his work has appeared in New York magazine, Bazaar, Out, and a variety of other publications. He lives in New York City.
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