Biography of Aretha Franklin

Introduction :

Biography of Aretha Franklin :

        Aretha Franklin was born in 1942 in the Tennessee and she died in 2018 in the Michigan. But, this women grew up in Detroit, where her father, the pastor C.L. Franklin, pays a lot of attention to civil law. She was a singer, a pianist and a songwriter. She played soul, jazz, gospel and R&B. Her pet name is « The Queen Of Soul ». She was militant of civil rights since she was very young. Her father was close to Martin Luther King and she was too. She is considered the most influential African American singer of the 20th century. She is also one of the most important voices in the history of pop.

Aretha helped define the American experience, former President Barack Obama said in a statement. « In her voice, we could feel our history, all of it and in every shade—our power and our pan, our darkness ans our light, our quest for redemption ans our hard—won respect. May the Quenne of Soul rest in eternal peace. »

The song « respect » :

        Now, I'm going to tell you about the song « respect », released in 1967 by Aretha Franklin. The song was published in the album « I never loved a man the way i loved you » and was number one sales for more than 12 weeks. In addition, Rolling Stone named « respect », number 5 on its list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.

Even if it's one of her signature songs, it was originally released by Otis Redding two years before. Both versions of the song have very different meanings. Redding wrote the song as a man's plea for respect and recognition from a woman, whereas the roles were reversed for Franklin's version.

The singer keeps the verses but includes a chorus energized by the choirs, provided by her sisters Erma and Carolyn, and some new expressions, like "Sock it to me", a slightly provocative expression that can be translated as "Show me of what are you capable of ”. And she spells out this "R-E-S-P-E-C-T", which she no longer seems only to ask but to demand. So, Franklin's song was a voice for the feminist movement.

But, in addition to being a strong symbol of female empowerment, “Respect” also became a powerful anthem for African Americans. Indeed, during the release, the United States were in the throes of a revolution. The Vietnam War was raging, and protests against it were growing in the country. So, racial unrest griped dozens of American cities to demand equality and justice that had been too long coming. Therefore, “Respect” was taken up as a battle cries for civil rights and he became an anthem for the black-power movement. Many black people could really relate to this song and this type of engaged text was new and therefore had a meaning and a message all the stronger.
With the immense scope of this title and her emancipatory message, Franklin also crossed the color lines and inspired a generation of activists from black neighborhoods but also white universities.

Finally, with this song, the soul singer has performed regularly at civil rights events and was present to support Martin Luther King at his rallies.[pic 1]

Why this song :

        Now we'll explain why we chose this musical work. First of all, we already knew the music and we liked it. However, we did not know his history and commitment. After several researches, we chose this work because we were amazed at the number of actions of Aretha Franklin for various causes and the number of committed people she knew in her life. Finally, "respect" was perfectly in the theme of commitment to the rights of the African American community.

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