I submitted this review a year ago didn't include my name.

MUSICAL REINVENTION AT ITS BEST, June 30, 1999 Reviewer: A music fan from L.A. (Silverlake) California Easily my favorite Aretha Franklin recording, Soul '69 combines the singer's great jazz, blues and pop instincts to produce a fusion that sounds like nothing in her extensive catalogue. The recording's title is oddly misleading, providing little clue as to what this remarkable song package really offers. The wailing vocals, bluesy and jazzy, echoed by the screaming horn arrangements, and the big band productions offer some remarkable interpretations and rearrangements to a list of some well chosen contemporary -- 1969? -- songs . Aretha has never sounded so inspired. I have returned to this masterpiece many times. In an odd way, it has a seamless feel, much like Van Morrison's "Astral Weeks", that sets a consistent tone -- heartbreak? discontent? The character in these songs may be lamenting, but with a fierceness and toughness (and ocassional tenderness) that makes each song soar. The singer's reworking of Smokey's classic "Tracks of My Tears" transforms sadness into defiance. If someone has ever really done you wrong, put on this record. Believe me, you will not cry. You'll CELEBRATE having everpienced the pain. You won't walk away from these songs feeling like anyone's victim. These songs are bewitching chants on LOVE.

What - no 10 star option??

This is one of the supreme recordings in the history of the medium! Aretha in the absolute prime of her self-discovery on Atlantic, the hippest Muscle Shoals musicians around, musical arrangements that are unafraid of themselves, and a superior choice of material make this THE Aretha Franklin album, in my view! Every cut is a highlight- the natural, high-flying vocal improvisations of 'Ramblin' and 'Bring It On Home To Me', Aretha's astonishing interpretation of Billie Holiday's 'Crazy He Calls Me', the remaking of 'Gentle On My Mind' into something finally so distinctive- what can one say about an art this Right, this Complete? Just keep repeating the mantra...a RE tha .... a RE tha ... a RE tha......not much else to say. Thank god the Rev. C. L. had his baby girl in our lifetimes!