All Time Top 1100 Albums (Aerosmith - Big Ones) P265

RandolphMABlue said:
My favorite Dylan album and Like a Rolling Stone is easily in my top ten favorite songs. When someone says Dylan couldn't sing, I always point to Like a Rolling Stone - yeah, he didn't have a good voice, but he could sing!

I was 11 in 1965, and I may have heard my older sister playing some Dylan, but I distinctly remember the first time I heard the song. On Friday afternoons we would always hang out listening to the Top 40 countdown on one of the local radio stations and debating what would be and what should be #1. We heard like a Rolling Stone (not #1) at 6+ minutes, and we really had no idea what we had just heard . . . something totally new and different and popular music would never be the same after that.

My other distinctive memory of one of this album's songs was from November 2016. It was the depressing morning after T**** had been elected. I was waiting for the train to work and I put on some music. The first song that came on from my shuffle was Ballad of a Thin Man. I realized I was Mr. Jones; I knew something was happening but I don't know what it is. The next song was For What It's Worth. The universe was trying to tell me something!

Any album with Like a Rolling Stone, Ballad of a Thin Man, Desolation Row, and Queen Jane Approximately has to be at least a 9 for me. However, there are a couple of songs that I am not particularly fond of so that's my final score.

9/10
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Ballad of a Thin Man is the most devastating attack on the media (and journalists) made in any song. The album is a masterpiece from start to finish.
 
I’m not a huge connoisseur of soul but I just know when it’s done right, it is unbeatable for power and emotion.
This album is superb.
I hadn’t played it before but would recognise most of the songs on it and if I’m going to criticise Aretha, it would be just to say, that she has ruined these songs……
for anyone else to sing. I’ve heard other versions of a lot of the songs and thought I liked them, but sorry. You just don’t follow Artetha. There isn’t a filler on that album. She is just perfection, to my ear anyway.
Chain of Fools, Groovin’ and Natural Woman are the standouts, but they are all brilliant.
I am tempted to give it a 10, but in an attempt to be more critical I have followed up playing it twice this morning, with playing some of my other limited taste in this genre. I’m playing Marvin at the moment and will follow it with Stevie.
Pieces of Trouble Man and What’s Going on and Innervisions by Stevie are on my playlists already, but I’m not sure I would listen to the whole albums too often.

Lady Soul though, I will have no hesitation in playing again.
I’ll go with a 9/10.
Put Say a little Prayer on that album and it would be a 10.
 
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We’ve had the great woman before so no need to recapitulate the plaudits I gave her the first time around, nor do I need to reiterate soul isn’t my jam. But who cares? Talent is talent.

This one is different I think than the other one we had – she gains power because the mix is better with Aretha’s voice up at the top; the background singers are there as exclamation points as opposed to ellipses; the faster tunes are sprightlier, punchier and funkier; the slower ones (I nearly always struggle with “slower ones”) showcase her magnificently emotional vocals so well, though there are too many slow ones here for me.

The classics will always be classics. “Chain of Fools” is so iconic it might as well be the Statue of Liberty; "Groovin'" might as well be the Empire State Building. But it is very hard, unfortunately, for an American white man of my age to shake The Big Chill feeling from this when is comes to “Natural Woman” (Gen Xers really find that self-indulgent Boomer film grating), which isn’t Aretha’s fault – blame Lawrence Kasdan or whoever greenlighted it.

Of the 6 I hadn’t heard before, or don’t remember, I really enjoyed “Since You’ve Been Gone” (which was a hit I guess!) and “Good To Me” (slow as it is I still loved it -- it’s so bluesy and she battles note for note with that great guitar . . . . which was so good I looked it up . . . . and it’s Eric Clapton!).

Anyway, if I knew anything about soul, this would be a 10, but I don’t, so it’s a 7/10. And the 7 is just cuz I would have liked to hear more fast ones. On a chilly Saturday afternoon after a long workout this was a nice way to relax.
 
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FogBlueInSanFran said:
We’ve had the great woman before so no need to recapitulate the plaudits I gave her the first time around, nor do I need to reiterate soul isn’t my jam. But who cares? Talent is talent.

This one is different I think than the other one we had – she gains power because the mix is better with Aretha’s voice up at the top; the background singers are there as exclamation points as opposed to ellipses; the faster tunes are sprightlier, punchier and funkier; the slower ones (I nearly always struggle with “slower ones”) showcase her magnificently emotional vocals so well, though there are too many slow ones here for me.

The classics will always be classics. “Chain of Fools” is so iconic it might as well be the Statue of Liberty; "Groovin'" might as well be the Empire State Building. But it is very hard, unfortunately, for an American white man of may age to shake The Big Chill feeling from this when is comes to “Natural Woman” (Gen Xers really find that self-indulgent Boomer film grating), which isn’t Aretha’s fault – blame Lawrence Kasdan or whoever greenlighted it.

Of the 6 I hadn’t heard before, or don’t remember, I really enjoyed “Since You’ve Been Gone” (which was a hit I guess!) and “Good To Me” (slow as it is I still enjoyed it -- it’s so bluesy and she battles note for note with that great guitar . . . . which was so good I looked it up . . . . and it’s Eric Clapton!).

Anyway, if I knew anything about soul, this would be a 10, but I don’t, so it’s a 7/10. And the 7 is just cuz I would have liked to hear more fast ones. On a chilly Saturday afternoon after a long workout this was a nice way to relax.
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Aha, so you didnt read my little review ?
 
Had a listen to this today and it's very good. I wasn't a fan of the other Aretha Franklin album as I found it too samey and one paced.

This is much better and you can hear that real swagger she has in her voice. She must have been absolutely outstanding live. There is more variation in the songs and the music too.

I like soul music, but I prefer the 70s to the 60s. I'm not sure why, but I think the production isn't as good. I know it's probably an unfair criticism but it would stop me listening to the album more times.

7/10
 
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