Thursday, February 6, 2014

"Rock Steady" (Aretha Franklin)

"Rock Steady" from Aretha Franklin's 1971 album Young, Gifted, and Black is pure groove from beginning to end.  Franklin says it herself in the lyrics: Rock steady, baby / That's what I feel now / Let's call this song exactly what it is.
It also features a who's-who of 1970s R&B: Franklin (of course) on vocals and piano, Donny Hathaway on organ, Bernard Purdie on drums, Mac "Dr. John" Rebennack on percussion, and Chuck Rainey on bass.
In a 2012 article on the No Treble website, Rainey reveals that the track was only supposed to be a demo.  Basically, Franklin showed the session musicians what she had in mind, and the recording engineer on the session, Gene Paul (Les Paul's son), pressed record and let them do their thing.  The idea was just to get a rough take on tape before producer Jerry Wexler arrived at the studio so they could work on it at a later date.  Instead, it turned out that Wexler couldn't improve upon the groove laid down in the rough take, so the rough became the final.  No overdubs.
Speaking of Rainey, check out the little ascending three-note pattern he does every few bars; it subtly elevates the track from "great" to "classic."
(As evidenced by this classic Soul Train clip.)






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