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On the eve of one of the last Sanremo festivals, already buried in eternal oblivion, the former Italian queen of dance for brainless individuals, Alexia, sensationally announced her blues turn...(!) Of course, it was a hoax: it ended up being the usual Sanremo song, spiced up with some screeching and disjointed howls, that would supposedly be the blues component. More recently, I was reading an interview with good Adelmo Fornaciari, known as Zucchero, who lamented the loss of a city he felt was his, destroyed by a hurricane. “Wow,” I thought, “it's true that the Apennines are in between, but is it possible that a hurricane destroyed Reggio Emilia and we didn’t even notice around here?” Then reading more, I discovered that the city in question was New Orleans, because even Zucchero, there's little to do, feels like a blues singer. While waiting for Gigi D'Alessio to reveal that deep down he has always had a pure blues spirit, let's clear things up a bit, as usual going quite far back in time, when roles were well defined and the Alexias of that time didn’t even think of blabbering about blues (imagine a Rita Pavone or a Caterina Caselli claiming to be blues singers...). To emphasize the gulf between these frauds and real African-American music, there's no need to invoke a B.B King or a John Lee Hooker, but just to return to the '60s, to a great soul singer, thus without the blues pedigree but with antennas perfectly capable of perceiving the suffering intensity of this music, also thanks to the rather somewhat blurry boundaries that separate but not too much the various genres of African-American music.
The daughter of Reverend Franklin strengthened her vocal muscles in a truly respectable gym, that of gospel, and when she ventured into more profane singing, she had such extraordinary vocal qualities that even one of the worst musical disinformers of all time, Paolo Limiti, couldn't help but acknowledge it, even though he then preferred to burden us in the same program with the presumed daughter of Claudio Villa, recommended but completely unable to sing. Aretha had a penetrating voice, sharp, strong as vinegar, yet never overbearing towards the orchestras or instrumental groups she encountered. In this collection "Aretha Sings The Blues" she proves capable of adapting with the same ease to a classic string orchestra or a smaller, more jazz-like formation.
Certain tracks seem to be there to demonstrate the miraculous flexibility of this decisive and powerful voice: in "Drinking Again" she first duets with a harsh and pungent cornet, then with a languid and buttery baritone sax, in "Today I Sing The Blues" she draws from the spirituality of gospel to dialogue with the evocative tremor of a Hammond organ, in the more brisk "Nobody Knows The Way I Feel This Morning" she outlines perfect vocalizations on the precise rhythm marked by a crisp drum and the same organ, in "Evil Gal Blues" she deals with the highs of an electric guitar and a harmonica, asserting herself without overdoing it.
A chapter on its own is represented by an impeccable sequence, unfortunately of only 3 tracks, recorded live in a nightclub. Here the voice seems to take flight with even more absolute freedom than in the studio tracks, perhaps also thanks to the discreet accompaniment of a quartet. "Without The One You Love", which is among other things the work of Aretha herself, is perhaps the masterpiece of the entire collection: a sublime ballad where the burning blues lament is punctuated by precious and rarefied notes of piano, but the more swinging "Trouble In Mind" and "Muddy Water", which complete the triad, are also of the highest level. Among the orchestral blues, the very sweet "Only The Lonely" is noticeable, where Aretha’s powerful voice melts into a languid caress, "Take A Look", almost equally tender but revived by fiery highs, and the bitter "This Bitter Earth", perhaps the most formally blues among these splendid 14 songs. Suffice it to say that each of them provides that unmistakable thrill inherent in great music, the kind that never goes out of style. The kind that takes us, indeed, to the antipodes from certain smoke-sellers.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Drinking Again (03:29)
Drinkin' again
Thinking of when you loved me
Having a few
Wishing that you were here
Making the rounds
Buying a round for total strangers
Just being a fool
'Cause I keep hoping, hoping, hoping you'll appear
Sure I can borrow a smoke
I can sit here all night and tell these jokers some jokes
But who wants to laugh, who's gonna laugh at a broken heart
Oh, my heart is aching, I swear it's breaking
And I'm drinking again
Thinking of when you loved me
And I'm tryin' to get home
With nothin', nothin' but a memory
Yes, I'm dying to get home
Dying to get home
And I got nothin' but a bottle of beer
And just my memory
02 Today I Sing the Blues (02:48)
Without a word of warnin' blues
walked in this mornin'
and circled 'round my lonely room.
i didn't know why i had that sad
'n lonely feelin' until my baby called
and said we were through, hooo.
for yesterday this time
i sang a lovesong but today
... i'm singing the blues.
Hmmmm...
strikes me kinda funny how love can be this way
we were lovin' 'til last night honey, yeah.
i'm alone again today
and it strikes me kinda funny
how fate can be unfair
that i come right on the losin' end
in every, every love affair!
yes it must be, it must be meant for me
that i should be the one,
be the one to always lose, hooo.
for yesterday!
yesterday this time i'd sing a love song whoaoohhh!
yeah, but right now - im singin the blues!
who-o-oh ye-he-heah! -- today i sing the blues
13 This Bitter Earth (03:37)
This bitter earth
What fruit it bears
What good is love
That no one shares
And if my life is like the dust
That hides the glow of a rose
What good am I
Heaven only knows
This bitter Earth
Can it be so cold
Today you're young
Too soon your old
But while a voice
Within me cries
I'm sure someone
May answer my call
And this bitter earth
May not be so bitter after all
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