TOMORROW ON THE MORNING JOLT: QUEENS

It's only a theme in the loosest sense, but tomorrow on The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick, I'm talking about The Queen Of Soul, Aretha Franklin (albeit from an era before she was really bestowed with that crown) and Queen, the legendary rock band.

Aretha has a new box set, Take A Look, which collects most of the music she recorded for Columbia Records, an under appreciated era, at least in comparison to what she later did at Atlantic Records.  I wrote about the box set here. And Queen is in the midst of reissuing their catalog in deluxe editions with bonus tracks.  I'm concentrating on their first five albums, even though the next five just came out.  I've never been a huge Queen fan, so I'm really discovering the full albums.  I wrote about the first five here. 

I have to say, it's always fun digging deeper with artists who you may take for granted. 

ARETHA FRANKLIN - THE COLUMBIA YEARS - THE ARGUMENT

Aretha Franklin's Columbia Recordings get a weird rap. You have rock critics who have dismissed her years with the label as a mere prelude to her Atlantic era, where she became "The Queen Of Soul." The thinking goes, on Columbia she was more of a product of a record label, and she became an artist (or artiste) with Atlantic.

And then, there's people who are mostly unaware of her time with Columbia, and may only know of Aretha from her Atlantic debut, 1967's I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You.

Sony Legacy's lavish new box set, Take A Look: Aretha Franklin Complete On Columbia presents a compelling argument to the former and schools the latter. (I should mention that I got the box set for free, but with no strings attached:  I decided to review it because I think it's an interesting release.)

First off, I'll say that I do agree with the prevailing opinion that Aretha's Atlantic recordings mark not only the highlight of her career, but one of the peaks of soul music, and even popular music.  I'm not suggesting that her Columbia records approach the stratosphere where I Never Loved A Man... and Lady Soul, and some of the other records of that era live. The Columbia Recordings aren't quite the Aretha you know and love, but it offers glimpses of her.  And anyway, the younger Aretha can still smoke most other singers.  Whether or not you like her choice of material, or the arrangements, that's another story. These recordings aren't as bluesy, they're more of Aretha the gospel singer doing jazz, and she also seems influenced by the music of the era's Broadway musicals and Hollywood scores.  There's big string sections, the material is more Dinah Washington than Otis Redding. Put another way, Columbia's sessions are very New York, and were done in the early '60s.  Atlantic's are more southern, more Memphis, and were in the mid-to-late '60s. Aretha was no label's toy: but the time and place was reflected in her various recordings.

The box set contains all of her albums for Columbia, as well as some compilations of singles and other recordings for the label. Some of the music of the era is a bit too string-section-y for me. But I really enjoyed some of it.  Her debut Columbia album, 1961's Aretha, has her first recording for the label, "Today I Sing The Blues," which is one of my favorites from this era. It's a bit stripped down in comparison to her early stuff. At the same time, the album has great versions of "Over The Rainbow" and "It Ain't Necessarily So." Even as a teenager, she could sing blues, jazz standards and pop.

To a lesser extent, I enjoyed the follow-up, 1962's The Electrifying Aretha Franklin, particularly her version of "That Lucky Old Son." 1964's Unforgettable: A Tribute To Dinah Washington has some really lovely, but lush, performances.  You may think that Aretha should only be rocking the Apollo, but she also wants to dazzle the supper clubs, and you really get that on this album.  The title track is great, but she does show another side on Hank Williams' "Cold, Cold Heart."

Later in 1964, she released Runnin' Out Of Fools, which gave a bit more of a glimpse of what she'd be doing a few years later on Atlantic, with renditions of popular songs of the day like "Walk On By," "Mockingbird," "Every Little Bit Hurts," "The Shoop Shoop Song" and "My Guy." The box set also has a collection of singles that weren't on albums, A Bit Of Soul.

If you love box sets, and you love to actually learn from them, this box set is a great one. On the other hand, if you're on a budget, you can explore Aretha's Columbia era with Sony Legacy's 2002 The Queen In Waiting 2 CD set. But if you've got the money and the time, there's lots of jewels here, many of which deserve spots on the Queen's crown.

ADELE HITS #1 BUT IS SHE "SOUL"?

Congratulations to Adele, whose new album, 21, just debuted at #1.  I think she's a great singer, who has a vision and doesn't really conform to anyone else's idea of what her music should be, or what she should look like, or what "beautiful" is.

I was surprised to see an article in Slate saying that not only is Adele not soul music, but it sort of insinuates that she is an affront to soul music.

I'm all for critical analysis of music, and I wish I were better at that kind of thing myself.  On the other hand, I feel you can overthink things sometimes, and that's how I kind of felt about this article.

One point the writer makes is that white Americans like Aretha Franklin because she represents a caricature. I would argue that white (and black) people enjoy her music because she is one of the greatest singers of all time, if not the.  She sings songs that people to relate to, and when she sings them, you believe her. I don't mean to be simplistic, but I just don't think that everyone listening to Aretha has that narrative in mind. They like to listen to her sing.

Of course I'm not trying to compare Adele to Aretha - I doubt Adele would even be comfortable with that. I don't think Adele is selling much of a narrative: at any rate, I've purchased both of her albums without knowing much about her.  I know that she either has been dumped, or can convince me that she has been when she sings about it. And I know that she isn't interested in looking like other female singers. She's not a waif, and good for her. I react to her voice, which I enjoy, and the fact that I believe her when she sings something. Her influences, which obviously inform her work pretty heavily, are generally artists I enjoy. I don't think she's thought about it much more than that. I know I haven't. I like hearing her sing.

Is she "soul" music? She's been hurt, she gets back up, dusts herself off, and keeps it movin'. There's joy and pain in her voice, and yes, she sounds like Aretha is an influence. She sounds like soul to me.

CATCH IT ON HBO: THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME CONCERT

If, like me, you aren't a millionaire and weren't able to attend the two-night Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concert at Madison Square Garden last week and were really bummed about it, here's a small bit of consolation: HBO will be broadcasting highlights from the show on November 29 (and probably broadcasting repeats afterwards? I don't know, I don't have HBO). You can see the lineup at the right.

In 1995, I attended the "Concert For The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame" celebrating the opening of the actual museum (the Hall of Fame existed in the abstract for years before the building was finally built and opened to the public). The lineup featured Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band (an especially big deal, as they hadn't performed together in a few years at that point), Al Green, The Allman Brothers Band, Sheryl Crow, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, George Clinton & The P-Funk Allstars, John Fogerty (his first performance in a long time), Robbie Robertson (one of his only solo performances ever), John Mellencamp, The Kinks (I think it was their final public performance), Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Soul Asylum (who backed Lou Reed and then Iggy Pop). There were some cool combos: Bruce and The E Street Band backed Chuck and Jerry Lee (although I read that Bruce was unhappy with their performance), Bruce sang "Forever Young" with Dylan, Al and Aretha snag together, Sheryl sang with the Allmans, Larry Graham of The Family Stone performed with P-Funk, it was a pretty good time.

But last week's shows were even better. Rollling Stone wrote up both nights, which were filled with highlights. This time, Bruce & E Street (in top form as opposed to last time) backed up Sam Moore of Sam & Dave, John Fogerty and Darlene Love, plus they were joined by Tom Morello for "The Ghost Of Tom Joad" and The Clash's "London Calling." Wow. They also backed up Billy Joel on a few of his songs. Stevie Wonder collaborted with John Legend (who came to MSG straight from singing the National Anthem at Yankee Stadium at The World Series!), B.B. King, Sting, Smokey Robinson and Jeff Beck. Paul Simon collaborated with Dion and Little Anthony & The Imperials, and did a Simon & Garfunkel set after his solo set. And Crosby Stills & Nash were joined by Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor and Jackson Browne. That was just night one!

On night two, Aretha Franklin was joined by Annie Lennox and Lenny Kravitz, and Jeff Beck (filling in for Eric Clapton) was joined by Sting, Buddy Guy and Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. Then stuff got really crazy as Metallica took the stage. Opening with "For Whom The Bell Tolls," "One" and Bob Seger's "Turn The Page," they were then joined by Lou Reed for versions of The Velvet Underground's "Sweet Jane" and "White Light/White Heat." Whoa. Then Ozzy Osbourne joined them for Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" and "Paranoid." Finally, Ray Davies for The Kinks' "You Really Got Me." Then it was U2, who played their own songs, but also backed Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith for "Because The Night." The Black Eyed Peas also joined u2, as did Mick Jagger for "Gimme Shelter" and "Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of." Wow, I can't wait to see this on TV, and hopefully they release an album of this. And hopefully it will be more affordable than the DVD box set of induction ceremony highlights. (Get it here).

STEVIE WONDER, ALICIA KEYS AND MORE TO CELEBRATE NELSON MANDELA

If there's someone who deserves a concert to celebrate his birthday, it's Nelson Mandela. And producer/Eurythmic Dave Stewart is putting together a big show at Madison Square Garden to celebrate the man's 91st birthday July 18. So far, Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys, Aretha Franklin, Wyclef Jean, Queen Latifah, TLC (now a duo?), Cyndi Lauper, Angelique Kidjo, Baaba Maal, Josh Groban and Carla Bruni-Sarkozy are signed on to perform. Should be a great show - I may have to check that one out. Might I suggest the reunited Specials?