Day 64: Aretha Franklin - I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You
Album cover courtesy of Atlantic Records
My post-holiday return to work went as well as expected today: it was busy and pretty full-on. I’m tired and I need something good to keep me going. Yesterday, I went for the King of Soul, so it was only fitting that today I’ll go for the Queen of Soul herself, Aretha Franklin.
Like Sam Cooke, Aretha is also a preacher’s daughter whose background is in gospel music. Her mother died when she was 10, and when she was 12, her father became her manager. They toured churches together, with her father preaching and her singing. By the time she was 16, she had toured with Sam Cooke’s Soul Stirrers and sang on tour with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
When Aretha started recording I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You, she was already somewhat of an industry veteran, having recorded her first album at just 14 years old. She made nine albums as a jazz singer but to limited success, with Columbia Records feeling like she hadn’t realised her potential. I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You is her first record under a new contract with Atlantic, where she worked with producer Jerry Wexler, who was known for signing and producing acts like Led Zeppelin, the Allman Brothers Band and Bob Dylan.
The album is so raw and emotional that it’s almost hard to listen to, but in a great way. There’s pain in her voice, and songs like “Baby, Baby, Baby” and “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Loved You)” shows that there was a man in her life who she valued a great deal more than herself.
Aretha doesn’t seem like a woman who would want me to view her as a victim, but she had a difficult life regarding men, to say the very least. On “Respect” and “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man”, she’s asking just to be respected and treated well by her partner. The album cover features her looking down with a fairly melancholic expression and the titular track does not paint a picture of a happy relationship, with cheating, lying and pain inflicted on her. She’s never loved a man the way she loves this one, and that’s not necessarily a good thing.
Despite being laced with heavy emotion, the resulting songs are beautiful. It’s a hell of an album, a decent 9/10. Researching background information about this album and listening to it after just makes me wish the world had been kinder to Aretha – I say world, but I mean men.