Posts Tagged Aretha Franklin
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April 2, 2017 by Simon Sweetman
Moments From (Their) Sweet Inspiration: Listening and Listening Again to Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham
Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham have wonderful careers as journeymen musicians, supporting some of the biggest names in soul music. Penn has performed as a guitarist and singer in his own right – owner also of a wonderful white soul voice. But he’s best known for his producing and songwriting abilities. He, erm, penned a […]Archive
March 23, 2017 by Simon Sweetman
Five Songs For Friday: # 9 – The Greatest Music In The World
Hyperbole – it still has its uses. Hopefully. Tonight I’m doing a DJ set that I have dubbed The Greatest Music In The World. I am not even the greatest DJ in my street. But it’s not about my skills, it’s about the music – it’s always about the music. And though I love music […]Archive
January 16, 2017 by Simon Sweetman
Aretha Franklin’s First 12 Sides: You Have To Hear Them
In 1960 and 1961 Aretha Franklin recorded her first 12 sides. Well, she had – at the age of 14 – released a gospel album (in the mid 1950s). But at 18 she walked in to the studio and laid down some tracks; two sets of sessions – she was making songs to exist as […]Archive
January 5, 2017 by Simon Sweetman
Movies of My Life # 14: The Blues Brothers
I have had the double-pack DVD of The Blues Brothers and Blues Brothers 2000 on my shelf for quite a few years. I didn’t need Blues Brothers 2000 but it was cheaper to buy the double-pack than just the original movie… The Blues Brothers had a profound influence on me. It is possibly the movie […]Archive
November 25, 2015 by Simon Sweetman
Stubs: #171 – Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Wellington, 2010
People seem to want to treat Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings like some second coming, as if it’s the closest – in this lifetime – they’ll get to seeing Aretha or Ella or Etta or whatever…and no, she’s not that great. I come and go with Sharon Jones really, can’t be bothered much at all […]Archive
October 27, 2015 by Simon Sweetman
The Vinyl Countdown # 802
Aretha Franklin, Amazing Grace (1972) Recorded at The New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in LA, with the help of the incredible Southern California Community Choir (and of course her ace backing band with Bernard Purdie as bandleader/musical director) this is Aretha Franklin’s third live album, part of a magnificent run of nearly a dozen must-have […]Archive
August 2, 2015 by Simon Sweetman
The Best Guitarist in The World: # 7 – Duane Allman
When I was about 14 – and at the peak of my guitar-loving “discovery” years, a devotee of Guitar Player magazine, as open to (and obsessed with) Sonic Youth and The Velvet Underground as Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson – I remember watching a History of Rock doc which had a featurette around rock’n’roll guitar […]Archive
November 25, 2014 by Simon Sweetman
Aretha Franklin: Sings The Great Diva Classics
Aretha Franklin Aretha Franklin Sings The Great Diva Classics RCA There was a performance on Letterman to help sell this album. It was fucking atrocious. Worse than that, it was sad. I almost cried – watching the greatest singer of her generation, the Queen of Soul, struggling and warbling. Sicker to hear people tossing out […]Archive
November 1, 2014 by Simon Sweetman
V/A: DJ Snowboy Presents The Good Foot
Various Artists: DJ Snowboy Presents The Good Foot – The Soundtrack To His Soho Night Ace/Beat Goes Public DJ Snowboy is a journeyman disc-spinner, one foot in the past and one angled toward the future – he’s been playing disco and northern soul, R’n’B and hip-hop, trance and techno and all points in-between and he’s […]Archive
September 24, 2014 by Simon Sweetman
The Vinyl Countdown # 1027
King Curtis, Live At Fillmore West (1971) I think I must have read about this album first – and that had me importing a copy of the CD. Ever since that first listen I’ve had it on the list, an album I had to have – on vinyl. That CD’s done the rounds, been loaned […]Archive
June 29, 2014 by Simon Sweetman