Customer Reviews

Live At Fillmore West

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Bill Graham was a master at creating an atmosphere at the Fillmore West that brought out the best in both an artist and an audience. Case in point: Aretha Franklin's 1971 concerts in which she showed the world again what an incredible singer she was (and still is in 2006). "Live at the Fillmore West" is just a crackling great show from start to finish. The Top-40 hits may have slowed down for Aretha in 1971, but her live performances were at their peak. This reissue adds a second disc of full performances and they are all keepers. Across 35 years you can still hear how she holds the audience in her hands and brings them on an emotional journey that owes much to her gospel roots. "Love the One You're With," "Dr. Feelgood," and even Bread's "Make it With You," get the full Franklin treatment. Her voice was never better. Things rise to a spectacular climax with the addition of Ray Charles on "Spirit in the Dark." Oh to have been there.

"Hey Nineteen, that's `Retha Franklin.
She don't remember the "Queen of Soul".
Steely Dan wrote those words over twenty-five years ago, less than a decade after "Live at Fillmore West" first appeared. If these words held true then, then they must be even more so now (chances are good that today's 19-year olds don't remember Steely Dan either...). Re-released with unedited tracks and an extra disk, it now provides a golden opportunity for subsequent generations to get a taste of what soul music sounded like back when they were `keeping it real'.
During a raucous run-through of "Respect," Aretha introduces herself to the audience, stating, "I promise... you will have enjoyed this show as much as any that you've ever had an occasion to see." Three songs later, as I sat listening to her rather bizarre reading of "Eleanor Rigby," I had my doubts about that statement. By disk's end, though, I had to admit that she held true to her promise. "Live at Fillmore West" emphasizes the gospel influences of Aretha's music, with rave-ups and free form rhythmic workouts that hold you in their spell until the last song fades away. Even when the material slackens, the musicianship bolsters the pace of the show; Talk about your dream bands, the musicians supporting Aretha are all top-notch. King Curtis is bandleader, with Cornell Dupree on guitar, Bernard Purdie on drums, Billy Preston on organ, and the Memphis horns fleshing out the arrangements.
The contents of this 2-cd set were recorded March5-7, 1971, at a time when Aretha experienced an artistic resurgence that crossed cultural barriers. Most of her hit material from this era was derived from imaginative and often drastic re-workings of contemporary hits, and this mindset is exactly what provides the lion's share of material for this set. Some of it works well (Bread's "Make It with You," Paul Simon's "Bridge over Troubled Water"), and some of it doesn't (the above-mentioned "Eleanor Rigby," and a somewhat shaky reading of Steve Stills' "Love the One You're With"). The second half of the show is when the real heat kicks in, though. A powerful reading of "Doctor Feelgood" signals a mood change and brings some church spirit to the hippie Mecca that was most famous for hosting acts like the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane. From then on, the show feels more like a revival meeting than a concert. "Spirit in the Dark" is the show's climax, and also serves as the first encore. It is revelatory. Ray Charles makes a surprise guest appearance here, and his presence brings a loose, free-form feel that practically forces the band to intense energy levels. The original album release contained extremely edited versions of these tunes so they could fit on a single LP. Here, they are presented in full, stretching out for almost a full half-hour of deep-soul gospel music. Collaborations between "the Genius" and the "Queen of Soul" were rare, so this pairing is more than enough to recommend this set. Add in a bonus disk with alternate versions and a few extra tracks that never surfaced, and you have a very special re-release. Hey nineteen (or twenty-nine, or thirty-nine), you owe it to yourself to check this out.
A- Tom Ryan

Thanks to Rhino for putting out this double CD culled from the too complete, OP and very expensive box set sold only through Rhino's Handmade label. Besides prime era Aretha live in front of a loving audience and a surprise duet with Ray Charles, she's got the great King Curtis behind her (the Handmade set included his complete performances as opening act too, available in part separately). In spite of the vastly superior talent of the backup on this, I always preferred the much maligned "Aretha in Paris" before, because she was so extraordinary (in part due to nervous energy) in front of the off-key backup band on that recording. Her live version of Willie Nelson's "Night Life" is still the best single recording on either set. But now complete in great sound, if you're buying only one live Aretha, this would be the one. She and Etta James are the queens of soul, and there is no one else who can approach their shared throne, to date. Here's hoping the complete "Paris", if there is any more (sets then were shorter) is issued too; maybe with digital technology the off notes behind her on that could even be straightened out. And there's still a mountain of Columbia Aretha to mine, particularly the undoctored studio recordings tricked up to be the fake live LP "Yeah!", which is almost as good as this.

These 2 cd's contain some of the most blazing live performances I've ever heard. Seriously, for those who think that R&B music begins and ends with Whitney, Mariah, Mary J and other so-called "Divas" of our time, one listen to this fantastic collection should set you straight. Aretha wasn't crowned "Queen Of Soul" for nothing! This album, along with her "Amazing Grace" gospel collection, is Aretha at her most raw and untamed. The vocals are just indescribable--Lady Soul was on FIRE during this engagement. From the first number to the last, she never lets up. Much is written in the liner notes about how her Fillmore engagement was the gig that "crossed her over to the white mainstream", but come on! By the time she appeared there, Aretha had become the biggest female singer of her time, bar none. I hardly think someone who, by that point, had already amassed something like 9 or 10 top ten POP hits and several
classic albums needed to be "crossed over". But whatever. She is at the top of her game here, and that's saying a lot. Her version of "Love The One You're With" could have been a smash, as was her cover of "Bridge Over Troubled Water". "Eleanor Rigby" and "Don't Play That Song" are gems, and what can you say about the live version of "Dr. Feelgood"? Wow.
Ray Charles pops in for a reprise duet of "Spirit In The Dark" that makes
one wonder what a powerhouse duo they could have been together had they
recorded an entire album together. The first CD is the "original album",
the 2nd CD consists of alternate versions from other shows from the same
gig, and several songs not on the 1971 album. All are great. I actually
prefer some of the alternates better; on the original CD all the keyboards
are electric, but on the 2nd CD, "Eleanor Rigby", "Don't Play That Song",
"Dr. Feelgood" and "Spirit In The Dark" are played on acoustic piano, which gives those songs more of the classic "Aretha" gospel feel.
Now, I do have one quibble--several of the songs on the first CD are NOT
the same performances on the original release. "Bridge" has an extra
vocal intro in the beginning not on the '71 release, or the original CD
release. "Eleanor Rigby" seems to have some different background vocals,
and "Make It With You" is also different--on the original LP/CD during the instumental break she says "Come on let me whisper in your ear, um hmm...I like ham hocks too!" That's gone. (I'm wondering if there were
some overdubs on the original album which were not used here.) And "Dr.
Feelgood" starts out the same, but the ending riff is TOTALLY different
here. In the original, she sings something like "cross your arms, cross
your legs, look up to heaven and say YEAH!" On this release, she ends with a whole riff with some San Francisco references (fog, the bridge, etc) These differences will only matter to people who, like me, know the
original album, but that's why I think you should hold onto your original
copy if you still have it. But this release will please ANYONE who loves
Miss Ree. She is, was, and always will be the REAL DEAL. ENJOY!

I know this is going to sound fickle - but I TRULY fell in love with the version of "Dr. Feelgood" that appeared on the original LP & CD versions of this release. The buzz (that couldn't be removed), the woman in the audience yelling "SAING IT!!!", Aretha's soulful sermon at the end - in the last 5 years, I have that whole perfomance committed to memory - and I'm disappointed it's not here on this "reissue".

Not that I got that out of the way (LOL), the rest of this reissue is FULLY worth your money. I was too cheap to fork over the $80.00 that Rhino Handmade wanted for all 4 nights, so this will do more than fine for me. To hear "Call Me" live is great - Aretha's level of soul and feeling in her work is matched by very few in her field, and this release proves it. Do yourself a favor and buy this now!

When a concert is released as an album, how accurate a representation of the night should it be? Quite apart from the dubious practice of adding studio overdubs to correct errors and "sweeten" vocals, there is a question of the sound balance - should it reflect the stage monitors that the performers hear, or the sound system that the audience experiences, and since most of the instruments are plugged directly into amplifiers, how important are the building's acoustics to the end result? Then there is the editing - the longeurs between songs while instruments are retuned and technicalities sorted out, the banter and chat between performers and audience - should they be left in? What songs should be excised and should any be shortened?

These questions (and I don't have the answers, by the way) were raised by this reissue of Live At Fillmore West, my third copy of the album, each one a substantial revision of the previous release. Aretha played three nights at the Fillmore and the album was compiled from two of the nights, so it never claimed to be from a single concert, and there is no suggestion of nefarious overdubbing. What fascinates me is how each release adds further clues as to what went down on those nights.

The original album was on vinyl, with all the time constraints inherent in the format. It clocked in at 42:43. Several of the songs were edited and there was little chat between the songs. Dr Feelgood, which ran for seven minutes on its CD debut, was edited to 3:23. The CD ran to 48:12 with most of the rest of the extra time coming from between the songs.

For this CD, Rhino have gone back to the unedited tapes of all three nights, as used on the box set Don't Fight The Feeling: The Complete Aretha Franklin & King Curtis Live At Fillmore West, and used the same performances to recreate the original track list. A note inside says, "Both performances of Spirit In The Dark were edited on the original album release but appear on this release unedited." This means that performances that previously ran to 13:44 on CD now extend to 26:26, with the whole disc now lasting 67:54. Both came from the final night and include an impromptu performance from Ray Charles, plucked from the audience, and are thus especially valuable to hear as originally performed.

I was surprised to discover that many of the other selections were also now longer, apparently the same powerful performance of Dr Feelgood now being 8:58, and there were stage announcements I'd never heard before, which to my mind added to the sense of the event, as Aretha interacted with the appreciative Fillmore crowd, making it more of an occasion. I did notice that the mikes of the band and singers were left open between songs more on this mix, allowing extraneous noise such as coughing and rattling, which may be a more honest representation but which I found mildly intrusive.

The recording dates given here of 5-7 March 1971 differ by a month from those given on earlier releases, and in all the discographies I could check, but are correct, as I was able to confirm from a reproduction of the original psychedelic poster for the event. According to the notes, nearly all of the recordings come from the final night, with Love The One You're With and Dr Feelgood from the second night. However, one very good reason for choosing this particular revamp is the second disc of Alternates And Unused Songs.

This includes seven songs from the opening night, including a Jimmy Webb song, Mixed-Up Girl, not represented on the album. Other unused songs include her own classic Call Me, Bobby Blue Bland's Share Your Love With Me and her current single, a revival of You're All I Need To Get By. The rest of the disc offers alternative performances from other nights to those on the album, with some enjoyable variations and banter, cherry-picked from the box-set which considerations such as keeping a roof over our heads may discourage us from acquiring.

My focus in this review is on this two-CD edition of a very well-known album, originally released in 1971. Therefore I have little to add to the mileage of editorial coverage it has already received. I would say that the perspective of time has been less kind to the material chosen to pander to the Fillmore audience. The lyrically preposterous Love The One You're With and the MOR excesses of Make It With You suffer far more than her fabulous gospel-infused interpretation of Bridge Over Troubled Water, but it is on home-grown material like Don't Play That Song, Dr Feelgood and Spirit In The Dark that Aretha's true brilliance shines. Her new band, featuring King Curtis, the Memphis Horns, Billy Preston, Bernard Purdie, Cornell Dupree and an all-star cast, really make a difference, too. One of the great live albums.

'Live at Filmore West' is an amazing double album showcasing Aretha's awesome live talent. The first disc is the original album in remastered format and the second disc has alternate takes and unused songs from the concerts. The choice of songs are perfect, 'Love The One You're With' is especially note-worthy, and Ray Charles duets with Aretha on 'Spirit In The Dark (Reprise)' which reaches almost gospel revival proportions. The audience atmosphere can clearly be heard and adds to the overall ambiance and feel of the album. When Aretha speaks with the audience it reminds me of Jill Scott today when she talks with real soul to her audiences (I highly recommend her albums by the way). The level of soul and emotion from both artists is staggering. This is an outstanding live album and is well worth a listen whether you're a fan of Aretha or not.

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Aretha Franklin's Live At Fillmore was suggested to me by another fan. This CD is all that and a big bag of chips.
Aretha Franklin has so much energy and you can tell she is a true entertainer.
The crowd screaming her name makes you feel as though you are in San Francisco at the Fillmore West for the concert.
Her calling Ray Charles on stage to perform was awesome.
Every song is crisp and clear. The band is with her song for song.
i was surprised of the two CD's from different performances. I can listen to both and still feel like I want more.

I picked this up along with the King Curtis Live at the Fillmore set. I wanted to get the feel of the whole shebang. Plenty of evidence here why Aretha was rated as the #1 singer in Rolling Stone. Confident, relaxed, unerring she takes the band and audience with her where she's going - must have been a great trip for those who were there. And what a treat to have Aretha backed by King Curtis and his terrific band. Put it on, sit back and relax, empty your mind, and let the music take you to a place where time slips away and what matters most is bathing in this voice, this band, these songs.

Aretha Franklin has always had a knack for taking an already existing, beautiful song and totally re-inventing it with her brilliant arangements. She brings a personal and warm feel to all the songs she covers (see Eleanor Rigby or Bridge Over Troubled Water), making them her own. Not to mention her own original songs (Dr.Feelgood "Don't we all need a visit from you sometimes", And the breath-taking Spirits In The Dark). Truely one of the greatest live albums of the early seventies 'Fillmore' series. Ray Charles guest-appears (God I wish I had been there) and just tears the roof down. And what about the cover of the album, I have always loved the cover, a mature Aretha looking very motherly and angelic. Aretha had definately arrived.