Aretha Franklin : Aretha Now (LP, Vinyl record album) -- Dusty Groove is Chicago's Online Record Store
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Aretha Now

LP (Item 18593) Atlantic, 1968 — Condition: Very Good-
One of a handful of crucial early Aretha Franklin albums for Atlantic – and a key example of her genius pairing with arranger Arif Mardin! Instrumental backing is by a hard burning Memphis/Muscle Shoals lineup that includes Spooner Oldham on electric piano and organ, Tommy Cogbill on guitar, Andrew Love and Charles Chalmers on tenor, Wayne Jackson on trumpet, and Roger Hawkins on drums – and even Aretha herself gets to play a bit of piano on the set. But the really amazing thing here is the way that this core live mode of backing is also given some airier, loftier overtones by Mardin and co-arranger Tom Dowd – in a way that lifts up the tunes a bit more, and pushes them away from straight indie southern soul – into the range of greatness that made Franklin stand apart from most of her contemporaries. A key example of this is the album's seminal reading of "I Say A Little Prayer" – but all cuts are great, and other tunes include "Think", "A Change", "You're A Sweet Sweet Man", "I Take What I Want", "See Saw", "Hello Sunshine", and "You Send Me".  © 1996-2024, Dusty Groove, Inc.
(Stereo blue & green label pressing. The back cover has a lot of pen, light wear.)

Very Good - (minus)

  • Vinyl may be dirty, and can lack a fair amount of luster.
  • Vinyl can have a number of marks, either in clusters or smaller amounts, but deeper.
  • This is the kind of record that you'd buy to play, but not because it looked that great. Still, the flaws should be mostly cosmetic, with nothing too deep that would ruin the overall record.
  • Examples include a record that has been kept for a while in a cover without the paper sleeve, or heavily played by a previous owner and has some marks across the surface. The record should play okay, though probably with surface noise.

Additional Marks & Notes

If something is noteworthy, we try to note it in the comments — especially if it is an oddity that is the only wrong thing about the record. This might include, but isn't limited to, warped records, tracks that skip, cover damage or wear as noted above, or strictly cosmetic flaws.



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