Aretha Franklin - 'I Never Loved A Man' question

Aretha Frankin/Never Loved A Man question

Re: Atlantic R2 71934

This CD was released with the MONO tape sound dominating the release. There's stereo cuts as bonus selections. Damage on the mono tape was left alone. (Not a bad thing)

Real boring question.... Why mono over stereo? I'm thinking both mixes wasn't on the CD for price ($) point, correct?

 

Maybe irrelevant to your question, but the mono mix is much preferable to the stereo as it's got much more punch. One man's opinion, however.

 

Yes, with Atlantic in 1967, the mono still beat out any stereo.

"I Never Loved A Man..." was recorded in Muscle Shoals, and the rhythm track for "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man" was also recorded there.

The mono vs. stereo on those two tracks is like night and day! The mono is bright, brassy, clean, has a full dynamic range, and is very dynamic. The stereo, on the other hand, is muddy and very hissy. With the other tracks, there are mostly differences in the mixes. There is a sax on the end of the mono mix of "Dr. Feelgood" where on the stereo there is none.

 

You could be right, Scott, Rhino may have done that to keep the cost down.

How about the MFSL Ultradisc? Is that in stereo?

 

One of my prized garage sale finds a few years ago was a mono copy of that LP for 25 cents. It's just great.

 

Wow that is nice.

Yes, I totally agree about the mono. Beautiful and direct mix.

 

Yes, the MFSL cd is stereo.

 

To tell the truth, nearly all of Atlantic's singles released in that era sound much better in mono. Especially with the heavy type of vocals and horn-oriented stuff on the Aretha records, you need to have the mono recording to give that extra "gut bucket" in-your- face sound. Trouble is, just like with the Motown remasters on CD, even the mono stuff does not have quite the punch that the original 45s had. Unless of course we get lucky enough to have someone (I wonder who?) redo them!

 

FWIW, the 4 Men With Beards LP release is also Stereo. Not as good as the Inglot Mono, pound for pound.

They're both great tho.

 

Yes - and I never was too impressed with the sound of the MFSL "Lady Soul/Aretha Now" - but would never part with a MFSL 2 fer of vintage "Aretha:"