Aretha Franklin was totally in her prime as America’s Queen of Soul when this recording was made in 1971 at San Francisco’s legendary Fillmore West auditorium. Franklin, who had already captured the hearts and minds of young, black America, was eager to break out to a new, mainstream white audience, who had embraced her hit singles, but not really delved deeper into her musical repertoire.
It was the idea of her producer, Atlantic A&R head Jerry Wexler, to record three complete performances at the Fillmore West using King Curtis as her bandleader. Not only would these shows help…entire summary
Aretha Franklin - vocals, piano
King Curtis - sax
Billy Preston - organ
Cornell Dupree - guitar
Jerry Jemmott - bass
Bernard Purdie - drums
Pancho Morales - percussion, drums
Truman Thomas - piano
Brenda Bryant - backing vocals
Margaret Branch - backing vocals
Pat Smith - backing vocals
Andrew Love - tenor sax
Wayne Jackson - trumpet
Roger Hobbs - trumpet
Jack Hale - trombone
Jimmy Mitchell - baritone sax
Lou Collins - tenor sax
Aretha Franklin was totally in her prime as America’s Queen of Soul when this recording was made in 1971 at San Francisco’s legendary Fillmore West auditorium. Franklin, who had already captured the hearts and minds of young, black America, was eager to break out to a new, mainstream white audience, who had embraced her hit singles, but not really delved deeper into her musical repertoire.
It was the idea of her producer, Atlantic A&R head Jerry Wexler, to record three complete performances at the Fillmore West using King Curtis as her bandleader. Not only would these shows help bridge her to a wider audience, it would also give them more than enough recordings for a single and live albums to be culled for both Franklin and Curtis.
The album, Aretha Franklin at the Fillmore West released shortly after she performed this and the other two shows, was a doctored recap of her three-night stand that failed to capture the pure electricity of these shows. In 2007 Rhino Records released all three shows in one brilliant CD collection entitled Don’t Fight the Feeling: The Complete Aretha Franklin & King Curtis Live at the Fillmore West. However, that release was limited to 5,000 copies and is now out of print.
This performance, played on the third night of the run, March 7th, 1971, features a kick-ass combination of the King Curtis Kingpins band and the Memphis Horns, and is probably the best of the six performances Franklin gave. She opens, ironically, with the song that she often closed her shows with, “Respect,” written by the late Otis Redding. There are hot versions of her other hits, such as “Call Me,” “Don’t Play That Song,” and “Spirit In The Dark,” performed here with Ray Charles. She also does a bevy of soulful covers including Stephen Stills’ “Love The One You’re With,” Bread’s “Make It With You,” a stinging version of the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby,” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” which was then a hit for Simon & Garfunkel.
Franklin, who was Atlantic’s answer to the Motown sensation, actually closes with a pair of Motown classics: “You’re All I Need To Get By” and “Reach Out And (Touch Somebody’s Hand),” which she absolutely crushes in comparison to the Diana Ross version.
Give this recording a solid listen and you’ll understand what R-E-S-P-E-C-T is all about.
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