The 1985 Project Part 9 - Aretha Franklin - Who's Zoomin' Who

This record is more of a mishmash than I remembered

The 1985 Project takes a look back at the albums of, well, 1985. We’re starting with the 40 albums listed in the 1985 Village Voice Pazz and Jop Poll and plans are to carry on investigating many of the albums that didn’t make that cut.

Narada Michael Walden is barely remembered these days, but for a while there, he was quite the hot hand in the smooth jazz and r&b worlds. Aretha Franklin chose him to co-write and produce most of this album, with the avowed attention of connecting with younger audiences. It worked – the single “Freeway of Love” was in heavy rotation on MTV, and Aretha Franklin was once again hot on the pop charts.

By 1985, Aretha Franklin had been a recording artist for 29 years since she put out her earliest gospel 78s as a young teenager. Who’s Zoomin’ Who was the 30^th full-length album in her career. She ruled as Queen of Soul in the late 60s and early 70s, but had seen fewer and fewer hits after working with Curtis Mayfield on the Sparkle soundtrack. Luther Vandross had helped her connect with contemporary audiences in the early 80s, but she wanted to get back the success mojo she’d had before. Hence Walden.

The classic tales of Aretha’s artistic triumphs when she started recording for Atlantic Records in 1967 all speak of the freedom and exhilaration her singing achieved when she recorded live with a band and played piano at the same time. Of course, the music business changed quickly after that, and I’m sure many of Franklin’s great singles were done with her adding vocals to already assembled backing tracks. But still, it’s a shock to read in the story of this album that Walden didn’t even work with Franklin until most of these tracks were completely assembled sans her voice. She may have been ready to sing of the “Freeway of Love” but she did not want to travel away from Detroit to connect with musicians in Los Angeles.

Walden had a long-standing relationship with songwriter Jeffrey Cohen and the two of them wrote three of the nine songs here, including “Freeway of Love.” This record sounds hemmed in compared to the likes of ‘Respect” or “Spanish Harlem,” but in 1985, this was still a major blast of gospel-drenched soul vocals over a rockin’ groove. Aretha was perhaps driving the same pink Cadillac Bruce Springsteen had championed a few years earlier. The multiple drums in the rhythm section provide all the fuel needed, and Aretha just has to sing it like the top is down.

Walden also wrote a couple tracks here with Preston Glass, with whom he’d worked before and who had previously played with Franklin. The three of them are credited with the title track here. First thing to note is the joy inherent in the sound of that title – even separated from its meaning, those words just evoke a sense of fun. The song itself is built on a neat electro-synth groove that allows Aretha a chance to show off her ability to sound simultaneously coy and dominant, as we try to determine just who’s pulling a fast one in this relationship.

My favorite song on the record is “Sweet Bitter Love,” written by Van McCoy. This was actually the third version of this ballad she’d recorded, and the second to be released. It first appeared in 1965 when she was on Columbia Records, then she did a version in the late 60s for Atlantic that didn’t get released until 2007. Neither of those versions ever sold nearly as many copies as this album did. The song, a clear throwback to the soulful inflections and feel of her prime years, feels like an intrusion in between hits “Another Night” and “Who’s Zoomin’ Who.” Franklin produced this track herself (as she did the funky album-closer “Integrity” which she wrote herself). The piano sounds like she’s playing it herself, and I’d like to think she sang and played it at the same time.

One more track deserves to be discussed here, the Eurythmics number “Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves.” Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox wrote this song for their album Be Yourself Tonight and somehow couldn’t convince Tina Turner, riding very high as the template for former soul superstar coming back to the pop charts in the mid-80s, to join them. So, they flew to Detroit and recruited the much more perfect choice Aretha Franklin. Interesting that Eurythmics, who had made a name for themselves with synth-pop textures were now looking to play gospel-inspired soul music just as Aretha was trying to dip her toes in the other direction. (Yeah, I take credit for mixing and matching metaphors.) At any rate, the song is kinda histrionic, kinda exhilarating, and definitely a call to arms for feminism going mainstream. The decision was made to put it on both Eurythmics and Aretha Franklins albums that year.

I enjoyed revisiting this album, but it was never a huge favorite of mine. I mean, the songs I mention here hold up, but I’d still rather here “Jump To It” than any of these except “Sweet Bitter Love.” I wonder how much of the critical enthusiasm in 1985 was a result of long-time loyalty to a perfomer returning to the charts after meaning so much in the past. I think I can feel comfortable giving the record 7 out of 10 points.