Aretha Franklin
Aretha Now

Days ago, I was rummaging through the cds at a supermarket trying my proverbial luck, hoping to stumble upon the original edition of the debut single from the Unclaimed, marked down to 3 euros and 99, when I happened to spot a bulky package featuring an oversized face with a foolish look and the word "Biagio." Biagio who?

"You're so out," chirps the girlfriend of the day. "Biagio Antonacci... This is the new triple cd collection of 48 hits, with 4 unreleased tracks and 2 new versions, and it includes the exclusive poetry book written by him," that is, by Biagio. "Will you buy it for me?" and she sparkles eyes like a doe that could melt a rock in a heartbeat. But I am harder than a rock, so I yank her away, rush to the counter for sandwiches, mortadella, and pecorino, pay at the register, and most importantly, keep thirty euros in my pocket which will come in handy, and sooner or later, I'll buy the new ones from the Iguana and Bob Mould.

I would have even bought it for her, the cd, because one thing leads to another, but this person signing as Biagio has blown my mind. Who are you, who knows you? It's one thing for Vasco who is Blasko, but not even Hendrix, who is Hendrix, ever signed as Jimi, or say, have we ever seen a Dylan record simply signed as Bob? No! And now this guy comes along and signs as Biagio. Give me a break!

Smoking from the ears, I drag the girlfriend of the day out of the supermarket, push her into the car, take her home, ordering her never to show up again. And I head back to la maison, grumbling curses and maledictions for the weekend gone down the drain. But I quickly cool down, recalling Elvis and especially Aretha: Elvis, before being just Elvis, invented rock'n'roll, Aretha before being just Aretha, gave birth to that trifle that is "I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You."

Let's go with Aretha!

I pick up "Aretha Now" and it's a jolt that sends my mood soaring, without even placing the vinyl on the turntable, because on the cover there's the smiling face of Lady Soul, which is disarmingly sweet, with that beehive instead of hair that the B-52's would turn into a hairdo. She would have never asked me to buy her the triple Biagio, I would bet on it: not once have I found a woman like that by my side, and yes, I would deserve it. But let's set aside the regrets and go with great soul.

Now, I skip the first track without a second thought and go straight to "I Say A Little Prayer"; you might argue that I can't skip "Think" but I counter that, even if it didn't open with that imperishable anthem, halfway between awareness and rebellion, this record would still be a great one. And just to say, I remember that the previous lp opens with "Chain Of Fools" and the one before that with "Respect," so when they say you can tell a good day from the morning.

Returning to "I Say A Little Prayer"... Burt Bacharach wrote it for Dionne Warwick in 1967, Aretha loves it, she thinks for a second and says, "Burt, Dionne, can I redo this track in my new album?" and what do you think Burt and Dionne could answer? It's one of those situations where the author should pay if an Aretha Franklin proposes something like that, a bit like U2 being approached by Johnny Cash, "Hey, can I redo One?", "Holy cow, John, and how much do you want to redo it your own way?". It went just like that and Aretha delivered a monumental version. Then, the beauty is that the glory isn't all Aretha's, but a good slice of it goes to four gals that provide the backing vocals throughout the album as Sweet Inspirations, they've just started their soul career as backing vocals, by which they're phenomenal, they've been following Aretha for a while now and have collaborated and will collaborate with Van Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, and a lot of other great people. Here, the chorus is all theirs, and Aretha steps aside, reaching such heights that it's dizzying.

While the Sweet Inspirations do their dirty work, Aretha rushes back to the phone and proposes to Steve Cropper and Don Covay what she proposed to Burt and Dionne just a few minutes earlier. Same result, so Aretha dashes into the studio, and here goes "See Saw", your love is like a seesaw, it goes up and down, comes and goes, I want more, so either change or leave - this, in a nutshell, is the message that Aretha delivers to her lover - the times when I'm a passive receptor that turns on and off at will are ending, I've already been through that. Many redo this song... indeed, they redo it, but Aretha owns it, and to grasp the concept, lend an ear to a decent version like the one by Joe Bonamassa and Beth Hart and compare it with Aretha's explosive version.

There are many, even more, who redo "Night Time Is The Right Time", with Ray Charles being one of them - here's another one who could have simply gone by Ray. Aretha throws herself into it headlong, and out comes something half blues half soul, the most sexual I've ever heard, and no, I don't mean sensual but really sexual. Aretha's voice is something unspeakable, and with the Sweet Inspirations, it's a real orgy, of notes we mean, and when Lady Soul at some point calls out the classic baby, baby, baby, it truly makes you think that Robert Plant has a long way to go. Awesome track, full stop.

Too much tension, we need to ease off.

Aretha realizes it and places at the end of the side the most beautiful thing, yet another love declaration to Sam who left us, and we all miss something; and if just before the love declaration was that abyss of sensations of "A Change Is Gonna Come," now lightness is needed, and "You Send Me" is the right piece at the right time. Aretha's version is beautiful, from the first to the last breath, but the brief and unusual intro made of piano and drumsticks, goes beyond splendor and grants immortality to a track that is already immortal. And it doesn't really matter that "You Send Me," theoretically, is a light and silly song, if it were by someone else it would be considered minor; Sam Cooke forges a masterpiece, Aretha does it justice, to Sam and to the track.

Once side A is over, I reach the turntable and place side B.

It's Ronnie Shannon's turn, the first unknown to laypeople: for them, let it suffice that he is the author of "I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)," the track. Here, he writes "You're A Sweet Sweet Man" and "I Can't See Myself Leaving You"; the former a sinuous soul funk that is quite danceable that Aretha drinks like a glass of water, the latter slowed down and pondered, almost blues, purposely placed at the closing of the program. Aretha is always and forever Lady Soul, but these two tracks, unlike "I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)," don't make a difference.

Two low-key tracks are what is needed to announce the most explosive clamor, "I Take What I Want". Aretha is unleashed, I take everything I want, and today what I want is you; a full-blown declaration of war, if you're not with Aretha, you're against Aretha, there are no alternatives, she is the first true riot grrrrl ever to hold a microphone; in the revolutionary concert of May in Paris, this would have brought down the Olympia and even the Eiffel Tower. And once again, you can't overlook the Sweet Inspirations, I also see them when with brazen cheekiness they place that "mmmh mmmh mmmh" that says more than a thousand words. Devastating attitude indeed.

Just enough time to write that there is also a stunning rendition by Jimmy Cliff, that in this album there are people of the stature of Spooner Oldham and Bobby Womack, and then I give up because that's enough, I can't go on anymore, because "I Take What I Want" literally blows me away.

Ah, and so that no one can say that I am an insensitive boor - a rude boy, yes, but never an insensitive boor - tomorrow I'll go buy the triple Biagio and gift it to last day's girlfriend, accompanied by a bouquet of flowers, and maybe that will even secure my company for Easter Monday… Iggy and my Bob will understand…