The song Aretha Franklin wanted to be remembered for: “A battle cry by the civil rights movement”
It’s impossible to singularly define someone like Aretha Franklin. Quite rightly so, too, because for a musician cited by the Pulitzer Prize as having made an “indelible contribution to American music and culture” for over half a century, there’s no individual achievement that outweighs the rest in making Franklin the legendary force she was, and forever always will remain to be.
But in many ways, if it weren’t for the starkest trials of adversity thrown her way at such a tender age, the singer wouldn’t have possessed the fire to carry through her life and produce her most ferocious hit. It almost goes without saying that this was, of course, ‘Respect’ – a song that, although originally not of her own making, carried the electric power of an anthemic spirit that proved pivotal not only to just Franklin’s life, but to the world at large.
The transcendental ode to one single word, first performed by Otis Redding in 1965 before being reimagined by Franklin two years later, became the heart of protest for causes the world over, but in the Queen of Soul’s eyes, it became so definitive for its message that said: “Give me my purpose. Everyone should have respect, be respected, give respect,” as she put it in a 1990 interview.
Even though ‘Respect’ became a monster hit, and Franklin had every right to eschew it as time wore on and she could have understandably become sick of performing it, the blazing call to arms nature of the song always remained close to her vision. This was, in no small part, down to the family connections that the tune bore in its recording process, particularly to her sister, Carolyn, who was the equal brains behind Franklin’s rearrangement of the song.
In that sense, despite its global notoriety, the appeal of ‘Respect’ never tarnished in Franklin’s eyes, not only for the family memories, but for the universality of its message. She expanded on this same notion in later years, by explaining in a 1999 interview with NPR that: “When I recorded it, it was pretty much a male-female kind of thing and more in a general sense from person to person. I’m going to give you respect, and I’d like to have that respect back – or I expect respect to be given back.”
But, as often happens with such rousing calls, Franklin’s message for gender equality somewhat became reappropriated into another equally seismic and worthy cause. “In later times, it was picked up as a battle cry by the civil rights movement,” she acknowledged – and although it wasn’t the song’s original purpose, she was more than happy to oblige on its use. It’s precisely what made the song so seismic, both in its forthrightness and outspokenness with the “world famous cliché” of “sock it to me”, as the singer said herself, to the impact it had on other artists.
Almost 60 years on from its release, ‘Respect’ has provided a transcendental reckoning to the music industry, both for artists old and new. Take Alicia Keys, for example, who noted in 2016 regarding the song: “It was the first anthem of gender equality, really. And Ms Aretha just felt it. She’s one of the biggest reasons I write songs for us as women. The clear message of ‘Respect’ is something that we are still fighting for, and will continue to fight for and sing loudly about, until there are equal opportunities for all.” Having an effect on the contemporary landscape is one thing, but even original singer Redding had to concede – jokingly – it was a song “that a girl took away from me.”
For Franklin herself, all of this co-existed beside her true passion for making change in society, and the cause for feminism being at the forefront of that bill. “In terms of helping people understand and know each other a little better, music is universal—universal and transporting,” she told Elle in 2016, and it was this exact legacy ‘Respect’ set out to achieve.
After a life of fighting against the grain and fundamentally changing the fabric of soul, all Aretha Franklin really wanted to be remembered for was championing the underdog, and there is no greater legacy to that than ‘Respect’.
