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Tell Mama: The Complete Muscle Shoals Sessions
Reissued, Extra Tracks, Remastered
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Free returns are available for the shipping address you chose. You can return the item for any reason in new and unused condition: no shipping charges
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Return this item for free
Free returns are available for the shipping address you chose. You can return the item for any reason in new and unused condition: no shipping charges
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Tell Mama: The Complete Muscle Shoals Sessions (Remastered)
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MP3 Music, February 5, 2001
"Please retry" | $12.49 | — |
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From the brand
Track Listings
1 | Tell Mama |
2 | I'd Rather Go Blind |
3 | Watch Dog |
4 | The Love of My Man |
5 | I'm Gonna Take What He's Got |
6 | The Same Rope |
7 | Security |
8 | Steal Away |
9 | My Mother in Law |
10 | Don't Lose Your Good Thing |
11 | It Hurts Me So Much |
12 | Just a Little Bit |
13 | Do Right Woman, Do Right Man |
14 | You Took It |
15 | I Worship the Ground You Walk on |
16 | I Got You Babe |
17 | You Got It |
18 | I've Gone Too Far (Previously Unreleased) |
19 | Misty (Previously Unreleased) |
20 | Almost Persuaded |
21 | Fire |
22 | Do Right Woman, Do Right Man (Alternate) |
Editorial Reviews
Track listing includes "Steal Away," "Just a Little Bit," "Don't Lose Your Good Thing," plus lots more favorites.
Product details
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- Language : English
- Product Dimensions : 4.88 x 5.59 x 0.47 inches; 3.25 ounces
- Manufacturer : MCA / Chess
- Item model number : 1972476
- Original Release Date : 2001
- Date First Available : December 8, 2006
- Label : MCA / Chess
- ASIN : B00005B7GT
- Country of Origin : USA
- Number of discs : 1
- Best Sellers Rank: #66,670 in CDs & Vinyl (See Top 100 in CDs & Vinyl)
- #86 in Vocal Blues
- #423 in Classic R&B (CDs & Vinyl)
- #2,351 in Soul (CDs & Vinyl)
- Customer Reviews:
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R&B and soul singer Etta James started recording when she was sixteen. By 1968, when these sessions were recorded, she had released nine albums, all on subsidiaries of Chess Records, which dominated the r&b/soul music scene. But her career seemed to have plateaued. She was in danger of becoming old hat. Thus the importance of these sessions, captured at the FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Three years earlier, Wilson Pickett, had recorded there and once he got over playing with a backup band composed of white dudes, he found the surroundings and the players muy simpatico. Chess hoped to use the sessions to rebrand the singer or at least strengthen the brand she already had. They certainly succeeded. Whether it was the state of the art recording facilities which captured even the highest notes of her voice undistorted, or the crisp and funky house band that backed her, or maybe just the challenge of singing in a new surrounding with new players supporting her, Etta turned in a signature performance. She was barely thirty then. She would go on to perform and record for forty-three years: her last album (her thirty-first, not counting six compilation albums) was released two months after her death at the age of seventy-three.
There are signature songs on this album, notably the title song “Tell Mama” and “I’d Rather Go Blind,” but what strikes the listener is how good the whole album is. It doesn’t stray beyond the bounds of blues, soul music and pop ballads (one cut, Erroll Garner’s “Misty”) but one is struck too by how varied and balanced the album is within these constraints. From jaunty to slow cooking to downright nasty and back again, tempos vary and so does mood. Relying on the same restricted background –kick-ass drums, elemental bass lines, keyboard coloring and guitar dominated, with overlays of voice backup and horns –playing in tight harmony —it piques and keeps the listener’s attention. The slow half-ballad near-blues “The Love of My Man” is a model of what 50s-60s r&b could sound like and makes clear the singer’s debt to first, gospel (there’s a descending run in the melody line that gives me goosebumps, it is so good) and second, the similarities and differences between her and Aretha Franklin. She doesn’t imitate Aretha but musically they were cousins, coming from the same gospel background. A song I particularly like is the comic “My Mother-in-Law,” (“Oh, my mother-in-law, she makes me sick / Oh, my mother in law, got to get away from her quick”, with its funky hollers and shouts from Etta and the backup singers. At twenty-one cuts plus one alternate, there’s a lot of music on this album, and all of it, all of it, is first-rate.
albums, but none with this particular song.
Love It!!!!
I love the sound out of the studios.
Definitely a muscle shoals recording.
Worth it if you are James fan.
Top reviews from other countries
Etta at her best. Everything in its right place...
The material is excellent throughout. Etta James is at the top of her game, the musicians behind her are great and the recording is excellent.
Many of the tracks included here are standards in the R&B genre. If you like classic 1950s and 60s R&B, you won't go wrong with this one.
This is arguably one of the essential recordings for anyone interested in 1960s R&B.
Pour y remédier, Leonard Chess , inspiré sans doute par l'exemple Aretha Franklin de l'écurie Wexler, décide d'offrir à sa protégée un voyage vers la terre promise de Muscle Shoals.
Etta James, enceinte, arrive donc en août aux studios Fame de Rick Hall, où les murs résonnent encore du passage récent (janvier) et tumultueux d'Aretha.
Et une nouvelle fois, le miracle s'accomplit.
Ce disque sorti en 68 retrace la totalité des enregistrements réalisés en 67 et lors d'un 2ème séjour en 68.
A chaque fois, Etta bénéficie évidemment, de la fine fleur des musiciens du mythique studio : Jimmy Ray Johnson (g), Roger Hawkins (d) -curieusement appelé Dawkins sur le livret- David Hood (b), Bary Beckett (k) pas encore partis fonder le studio rival (MSSS) , mais aussi Albert Lowe, Carl Banks, Dewery Oldham et bien d'autres. (La liste des musiciens donne tellement le tournis que le détail précis des accompagnateurs n'est pas connu sur certains titres de 68 et que Billy Foster qui apparaît pourtant sur des photos du livret, n'est pas cité dans les crédits. Autres absentes des mentions du livret, les dames qui font les chœurs).
Quoi qu'il en soit, la voix d'Etta, elle, est bien présente.
Le disque offre donc :
- les 12 titres enregistrés en août et novembre/décembre 1967 ;
- en bonus, les 10 titres enregistrés en novembre et août 68, dont 6 inédits.
Ceux qui se sont arrêtés à l'Etta de ses derniers succès ("At Last" ! de 61) vont être surpris : ici, c'est du blues râpeux et de la soul rugueuse qui jaillit des sillons.
"Tell Mama" qui ouvre le bal met d'emblée la barre au plus haut : les cuivres de la section "Bowlegs" Miller/Chalmers/Varnell/Newman combinés à l'impeccable machine rythmique des Swampers allument un feu que des merveilles comme "I'd Rather Go Blind", "Watch Dog" ou The Love Of My man"… alimentent en continu.
Etta acceptera à peine de baisser le tirage sur "I'm Gonna Take What He's Got" ou "The same Rope", compositions tirant davantage vers la soul...mais c'est pour mieux relancer la machine.
Ainsi, à l'écoute de sa reprise du "Security" d'Otis Redding, on se dit que si M Pitful avait pu l'entendre (il est mort trop tôt) , il aurait cru à une malédiction. Etta James lui "vole" le titre comme Aretha l'avait fait avec "Respect".
"My Mother In Law" et sa guitare funky, le déchirant "It Hurts Me So Much"…En fait, il faudrait tout citer; tant le chant de James s'épanouit dans cette configuration où sa voix rappelle qu'elle est une des rares à pouvoir être appelée aussi "Queen of Soul", sans paraître ridicule (quand bien même elle apparait comme ici -cf. photos du livret- affublée d'une hideuse robe-blouse psychédélique et surmontée d'une invraisemblable choucroute blonde).
Et puis, il y a les bonus.
Parmi ces 10 titres, tous intéressants, certains sont vraiment formidables.
Commençons par les 2 versions de "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man" (il faut quand même noter qu'Etta James s'y frotte en 67, alors qu'Aretha vient à peine de la sortir).
Sur la 1ère version figure d'étonnants passages de flûte, mais l'ensemble reste décapant. La 2ème est plus classique, mais tout aussi rude (plus de flûte et plus de chœurs).
Il faut aussi mettre en lumière sa reprise inédite* et musclée de "I Got You Babe", la scie de Sonny et Cher (elle aussi fera son pèlerinage à Muscle Shoals un peu plus tard), sa reprise de "Misty" rappelant ses influences du côté de Billie Holiday ou encore, sa splendide interprétation du "Fire" de Willie Dixon.
Bref, on pourrait s'éterniser sur chaque morceau, mais on perdrait de vue l'essentiel.
Si vous êtes un tant soit peu sensible à ce style de musique, un seul geste s'impose : cliquer sur "Ajouter au panier".
Sinon, cliquez quand même, car ce disque est le meilleur plaidoyer possible en faveur de la musique. Pas celle qui est vouée à être Pro Toolée et laissée entre les mains de marchands de mauvaise soupe. Non, celle qui vous fait entendre le pouls et l'âme des artistes.
Ultimes informations pour les derniers hésitants.
La remasterisation est à l'image du reste : remarquable. Réalisée avec les masters stéréo ou mono originaux, elle confirme l'inanité du débat vinyle/CD).
Le livret de 4 feuilles avec présentation et photos est bien fait.
* On la trouve aussi sur la formidable compilation "The Fame Studios Story 1961-1973 "