Aretha Franklin - Swing In, WDR Studio-L, Cologne, Germany, 5-17-1968

It's frustrating how little well recorded live soul music there is from the 1960s and 1970s. Even for big names like Aretha Franklin, you're lucky if you get an official live album or two, usually short and flawed, and quality bootlegs are extremely rare. But this is one of those nice rare instances.

Franklin became a big star in 1967, and arguably had an even bigger year in 1968. A lot of Europeans discovered American soul music in the late 1960s. When soul stars toured Europe then, they usually were surprised by the size and passion of the fans there. Franklin was so big in 1968 that she was given her own entire episode of a German TV show called "Swing In."

This show has its plusses and minuses. A minus is that there was a very talkative MC who spoke in German a lot. I edited him out entirely, even carefully removing a bit where he talked over part of the end of the song "Respect." He also did a short interview with Franklin right in the middle of the show (with everything being painstakingly translated in German and English in real time). I cut that out too. The video of this concert has appeared on YouTube around 2018, so if you want to see it, including the missing German bits, you can watch it there.

One other minus is that Franklin pretty much never says a word between songs. I'm guessing this is because she surmised the German audience wouldn't understand her, as well as the fact that she only had an hour for the concert and couldn't afford to waste any time. 

One minus is also a plus in the sense that the German audience was unusually polite and subdued for a soul music audience at the time. They were even subdued compared to other European audiences, because one can see video on YouTube of a much more lively Aretha Franklin concert in Amsterdam in 1968. But this is a plus because one can clearly hear the music instead of lots of screaming and cheering. Also, it's a big plus that the recording exists at all, since this sort of soul bootleg from the time is so rare, as I mentioned above.

By the way, there's an official live Franklin album called "Aretha in Paris." Not only is it also from 1968, it was recorded only about a week before this concert. But I much prefer this recording to that one. The sound quality is similar, and the performance here is as good or better. Plus, especially with the extra songs I've included, this is longer.

I've added three songs at the start of the German concert, and three more after its end. These extra songs are arguably the most interesting of all, because she played some unusual songs, none of which were on the "Aretha in Paris" album. Highlights include a duet with Frankie Valli, of all people, and a strange medley with Sammy Davis. Jr. I put some at the start because those are chronologically earlier (including two songs from 1967), while the songs at the end are from later in 1968.

01 Do Right Woman, Do Right Man (Aretha Franklin)
02 That's Life (Aretha Franklin & Frankie Valli)
03 Groovin' (Aretha Franklin)
04 You Are My Sunshine (Aretha Franklin)
05 [I Can't Get No] Satisfaction (Aretha Franklin)
06 Night Life (Aretha Franklin)
07 [You Make Me Feel Like] A Natural Woman (Aretha Franklin)
08 Baby, I Love You (Aretha Franklin)
09 Dr. Feelgood [Love Is a Serious Business] (Aretha Franklin)
10 Since You've Been Gone [Sweet Sweet Baby] (Aretha Franklin)
11 Good to Me as I Am to You (Aretha Franklin)
12 I Never Loved a Man [The Way I Love You] (Aretha Franklin)
13 Chain of Fools (Aretha Franklin)
14 Soul Serenade (Aretha Franklin)
15 Respect (Aretha Franklin)
16 I Say a Little Prayer (Aretha Franklin)
17 Come Back Baby (Aretha Franklin)
18 What Is Soul - Think - Respect - What I'd Say (Aretha Franklin & Sammy Davis, Jr.)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15117225/ArethaF_1968c_SwngInWDRStudioLCologneGermany__5-17-1968_atse.zip.html

For the cover art photo, I could have used a screenshot from the actual show. But that was somewhat low resolution. Instead, I found a high quality photo from a rehearsal for the "Swing In" show that took place a couple of days earlier. I colorized the black and white photo to make it more interesting. (The video of the concert is in black and white as well.)

I did grab a screenshot of the "Swing In" logo from the video, and I included that as well. Note that most bootlegs that exist of this show claim it was from the German TV show "Rockpalast." But that show didn't start until 1974, and the logo clearly proves this was "Swing In" instead.