Aretha Franklin - Aint No Way

Hard, cold and cruel is a man that paid too much for what he got.

Album: Lady Soul [12th album]
Recorded: New York, New York
Genre: Soul, Deep Soul
Album Release: January 22nd 1968
Single Release: February 9th 1968 [3rd single / B-side]
Length: 4:17
Producer: Jerry Wexler
Vocalist: Aretha Franklin [age 25]
Label: Atlantic Records

Official Audio


Live in 2001

Charts, Streams & Sales

US (albums):#2
Spotify: 25,000,000 +
YouTube Music: 32,000,000 +
Pitchfork's Best Albums of the 60s: #29
Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (2021): #11

Credits

Bass, drums, flute, piano, saxophone [x4], trombone, trumpet [x3], vibraphone

Details

• Aint No Way is about a woman trying to get through to her man when he's keeping her at arms length. She feels he's trying to be something he's not and it's making him cold and cruel. The song is easy to identify with because it describes a general feeling rather than something specific which give it a universal appeal. Everyone has had someone we care about who refuses to listen. Certain songs are kept vague to maximise their potential audience which also increases their commercial viability.
  
  The vocals are delivered with a soulful rapture than borders on the religious and it comes as no surprise to learn that Aretha Franklin's father was a preacher and her mother was a singer. She combines both influences in a way that's passionate, optimistic and aching in parts. This sense of pain is present in Aint No Way. Aretha is watching her man grow apart from her and it hurts. He becomes distant while ignoring her impassioned pleas and all she can do is sing and hope something changes.
  
  This combination of pain and hope reflect qualities often found in Christianity. It acknowledges present hardships, as well as the salvation to come. People wouldn't need to be saved if everything was good. Therefore, Christianity accepts the imperfect present and interprets it as a challenge to be overcome, which is why music derived from gospel often focuses on these same themes, for example Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen and Bridger Over Troubled Waters. Everyone suffers on Earth, but in heaven eternal paradise awaits. In other words, life, as viewed through a Christian lens, consists primarily of pain and hope; sin and redemption; trial and reward. 
  
  The song contains outdated attitudes regarding a woman's duty. Aretha sings "I know it's a woman's duty to love her man" and the fact that her man is making it difficult causes her pain. In the modern world I suspect the lyrics would go "I know it's a woman's duty to love herself." Maybe the truth is somewehere inbetween.
  
  Men and women can rely on each other to survive the difficulties of life but if people want to face it solo they can because, at present, the material conditions allow. As life became easier, people became more selfish and the help of others became optional, whereas before it was necessary.
  
  It's easy to think of sixties social attitudes as sexist when you don't consider how and why those attitudes existed in the first place. People listening decades in the future can find it difficult to understand why anyone ever had such an outlook, but for Aretha Franklin, and her contemporaries, it was the norm, as lasting relationships were a necessity. Modern women still think they should love their man, but many wouldn't view it as a duty, which helps to explain the increasing rate of divorce.
  
  
• The ultra-high note heard on the track [at around 1.26] is sang by Cissy Houston, who is Whitney Houston's mum.
  
  

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