VINTAGE SOUL DISCOVERY: ARETHA FRANKLIN

Anyone who knows me well, knows of my extreme admiration of Aretha Franklin's music. Over the past few years, I've made it a point to collect Aretha's older albums on vinyl for my music collection.

A few months ago, I stumbled upon Aretha's 1973 studio album "Hey Now Hey (The Other side of the Sky) and decided to give it a listen. Now, I've always known about this album so trust and believe I'm a true Aretha connoisseur but it had never struck me as a piece of her work that I needed to hear. Now that sounds crazy but any music critic will testify that not all of Aretha's work is good. She had a few misses here and there.

Nevertheless, "Hey Now Hey (The Other side of the Sky)" is unique because it contains some of Aretha's best material and some of her worse but I'm not going to dwell on the latter because of the musical highs found on the album certainly outweigh the lows. For starters, "Angel" is included on this album. Back in 73' it was a massive hit for Aretha signaling her further descent into a new soul territory that was less Memphis and Muscle Shoals and more Harlem.

With help from Quincy Jones on this album, Aretha expands her sound tremendously revisiting her vibe from the 1972 album "Young, Gifted, and Black." The songs are cool and mellow with heavy electrical piano instrumentation. And, although Aretha's vocals are spirited on this album, she sings with a cool and futuristic feeling, utilizing layered and echoed vocal effects.

Standout tracks include "That's the Way I Feel About Cha," "Angel," the Grammy award winning "Master of Eyes (The Deepness)," and "Mister Spain," a profound anti-drug protest song.

Below is a clip of Aretha performing "Mister Spain" on the Flip Wilson Show

Tracklist

1. Hey Now Hey (The Other Side of the Sky)

2. Somewhere

3. So Swell Then

4. Angel

5. Sister From Texas

6. Mister Spain

7. That's the Way I Feel About Cha

8. Moody's Mood

9. Just Right Tonight

10. Master of Eyes (The Deepness)