ARETHA FRANKLIN

Don't Fight The Feeling: The Complete Aretha Franklin & King Curtis Live At Fillmore West

This title is no longer available from Rhino Handmade.

However, numbered copies from the original edition may be available at select retailers.

An individually numbered, limited edition of 5000 copies from Rhino Handmade.

 In 1971 Atlantic’s Jerry Wexler, who signed Aretha and produced her classic studio recordings, was looking for ways to introduce The Queen Of Soul to a mainstream audience. So he turned to San Francisco’s flower children (“longhairs” as he referred to them) as an inroad to crossover success.  

 San Francisco's Fillmore West theater was a smaller venue than Aretha was accustomed to, but perfect as an intimate setting for a live album, released in May 1971 as Live At Fillmore West. Hot saxman King Curtis, who backed Aretha along with his specially assembled Kingpins and opened the three March shows, saw release of his own Live At Fillmore West set three months later. 

 Aretha had been touring with a band of her own, but Wexler had a different vision. “I finally persuaded her to use King Curtis and The Kingpins, one of the best rhythm sections of all,” he says in David Nathan’s liner notes to this Handmade release. “It gets the magic into a performance that comes out of [a] group that is self-contained. Having this core rhythm section put a whole new thing into her act.” Enter Curtis’s “dream team”: Cornell Dupree on guitar, Jerry Jemmott on bass, Bernard “Pretty” Purdie on drums, Truman Thomas on electric piano, and Pancho Morales on congas. Organist Billy Preston and The Memphis Horns also joined the lineup. 

 As a special, unexpected treat, Ray Charles joins Aretha’s third set on the “Spirit In The Dark” reprise after being summoned from the crowd. “I happened to be in San Francisco,” said Ray. “All of a sudden someone spots me and next thing I know Aretha’s come to get me.” 

 This four-disc Rhino Handmade box includes the tracks originally issued on both Aretha Franklin’s and King Curtis’s respective Live At Fillmore West LPs, plus 42 unreleased performances, including Aretha’s “Call Me” and Billy Preston’s version of George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord.” 

 Don't Fight The Feeling: The Complete Aretha Franklin & King Curtis Live At Fillmore West is available as an individually numbered limited edition of 5,000 copies. 

Selection # 7890

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