How Aretha Franklin coined a catchphrase with ‘Respect’
In her 1999 autobiography, Aretha Franklin described ‘Respect’ as an ongoing blessing. “It was the need of a nation,” she wrote, “The need of the average man and woman in the street, the businessman, the mother, the fireman, the teacher – everyone wanted respect.” Released in 1967 against a backdrop of the worsening conflict in Vietnam and ever-complex socio-political struggles with the civil rights and feminist movements, the sense of personal autonomy she distilled made it an anthem.
Originally an Otis Redding song, Franklin took his version and drove it to gospel heights. Despite her lack of credit on its arrangement, she’d been revitalising it during live shows, adding a punchy backbeat and some inner-Detroit slander. Most crucially, she pared down all the instrumentation at the moment she sang: “R-E-S-P-E-C-T / Find out what it means to me”.
Her backing singers, sisters Erma and Carolyn Franklin provided the lines: “Give me my propers when I get home”, “sock it to me”, and “TCB” – which stood for “taking care of business” in such a snappy, instantly commercial way, Elvis Presley went on to borrow it, using it on jewellery and naming his brand “The TCB Band”.
“I do say propers,” she once explained. “I got it from the Detroit street. It was common street
slang in the 1960s.” She was also forced to explain the “sock it to me” line wasn’t inherently sexual, although producer Jerry Wexler seemed to disagree. In his autobiography, Rhythm and the Blues: A Life in American Music, he said: “The fervour in [Franklin’s] voice demanded that respect; and more respect also involved sexual attention of the highest order. What else would ‘sock it to me’ mean?”
Tom Dowd, who was an engineer for the session, said the track’s use of slang was as spontaneous as it was effective. “I walked out into the studio and said, ‘What’s the next song?’ Aretha starts singing it to me, I said, ‘I know that song, I made it with Otis Redding like three years ago,'” he explained.
“The first time I recorded ‘Respect’ was on the Otis Blue album, and she picked up on it. She and Carolyn were the ones who conceived of it coming from the woman’s point of view instead of the man’s point of view, and when it came to the middle, Carolyn said, ‘Take care, TCB.’ Aretha jumped on it, and that was how we did ‘Respect’.”
As well as earning Franklin two Grammy’s and a Billboard number one, the “sock it to me” line took on a life of its own, inspiring Syl Johnson’s ‘Come On Sock It To Me’, as well as becoming a catchphrase on the 1970s TV show Laugh In. Her version always maintained a political relevance outside of the success of these lines, a timeless track about gender roles and personal freedom.
