Aretha Franklin

Aretha's bluesy soul has always sounded best when it's a little rough around the edges, so this collection of demos, outtakes and b-sides from 1967 to 1973 is a gem. The piano warbles off key, and Aretha coughs and needs a second take, but once "Sweet Bitter Love" gets off the ground it's a study in sweltering melancholy. The droopy Motown gospel of "The Letter" is equally great and should be required listening for anyone who's ever loved from a distance

Scattered across these two discs of detritus from the first seven of Aretha Franklin's thirteen Atlantic years is a fine grab bag of a 45-minute album. It's dominated by songs you know, several by the Queen herself. Relaxed demo of "Never Loved a Man"? Organ-soaked original of "Rock Steady"? Why not? Aretha doing "Suzanne," "You Keep Me Hanging On," and "My Way" her way? Absolutely. There are a few less familiar winners--a televised Ray Charles duet, the gospel-style B side of "Spanish Harlem," two Young Gifted and Black rejects, and some marginalia that's worth hearing even if it doesn't make our cut. But most of these tracks were outtakes because the Atlantic sachems counted them wanting as songs, and though surviving sachem Jerry Wexler makes a typically persuasive case for them--the man could sell records--he was right the first time. Hey Now Hey (The Other Side of the Sky) underwhelmed in 1973. There are eight more tracks from it here. (Grade - ***)