309th Commencement at Yale
Doctor of Music: Aretha Franklin
Among the many hits of the so-called Queen of Soul are "Respect" and "Chain of Fools." She has won the Living Legend Grammy and Lifetime Achievement Grammy, and Rolling Stone has named her the No. 1 greatest singer of all time. She sang “My Country ’Tis of Thee” at President Barack Obama’s inauguration in January 2009.
America's New Dr. Franklin: Anger's Anthemnist
I am a little troubled by the phrase "the so-called Queen of Soul" in Yale's award blurb (above). Wouldn't "the culturally anointed Queen of Soul" have been more dignified and less open to pejorative interpretation?
Be that as it may, it is significant that Yale has made Aretha a Doctor of Music. A one-woman recital she gave a Carnegie Hall last year received an unheard of glorious review in The New York Times which suggested that her voice is a national treasure whose richness has accrued with age.
After such a rare review, Yale's imprimatur seems almost a postscript.
Aretha's most famous and influential song is Otis Redding's 1965 "Respect". Aretha reversed the Redding male/female roles in her 1967 version, making it a rally cry for feminism.
I contend that it has become much more than just the liberated declaration of a woman in a frustrating relationship: it became the Anthem of Anger to an entire people who were throwing off the oppression of a century of second rate citizenship, (built on a previous century and a half of enslavement) at the moment of its release by Redding in 1965----the very year of President Johnson's Civil Rights Act was passed after a decade of turmoil in integrating our nation's schools.
Aretha sings these words in verse five of "Respect":
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Find out what it means to me
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Take care, TCB
In the context of the entire song (below) this verse is the challenge of a woman to the man who oppresses her.
In the context of the Civil Rights Movement, it became a call to action: We are Takin' Care of Business (TCB) white nation, and it's up to you to find out what R-E-S-P-E-C-T means to us, your black brothers and sisters. We are suppliants no more.
Maybe Aretha didn't intend it this way, but this is how culture co-opted her song and used it to move a liberation movement along its path to success.
All this cultural baggage remained neatly packed in the suitcase of Yale's polite, almost dainty, blurb (cited above) with the unfortunate "so called" phrase delivered today at Yale's 309th Commencement upon the occassion of Ms. Franklin's being awarded the honorary doctorate of music.
It deserves unpacking and laying out for the public to see.
I do so here.
(With great respect for America's second most influential Dr. Franklin: Aretha, the Anthemnist of Anger)
Respect Lyrics
Aretha Franklin
(oo) What you want
(oo) Baby, I got
(oo) What you need
(oo) Do you know I got it?
(oo) All I'm askin'
(oo) Is for a little respect when you come home (just a little bit)
Hey baby (just a little bit) when you get home
(just a little bit) mister (just a little bit)
I ain't gonna do you wrong while you're gone
Ain't gonna do you wrong (oo) 'cause I don't wanna (oo)
All I'm askin' (oo)
Is for a little respect when you come home (just a little bit)
Baby (just a little bit) when you get home (just a little bit)
Yeah (just a little bit)
I'm about to give you all of my money
And all I'm askin' in return, honey
Is to give me my profits
When you get home (just a, just a, just a, just a)
Yeah baby (just a, just a, just a, just a)
When you get home (just a little bit)
Yeah (just a little bit)
------ instrumental break ------
Ooo, your kisses (oo)
Sweeter than honey (oo)
And guess what? (oo)
So is my money (oo)
All I want you to do (oo) for me
Is give it to me when you get home (re, re, re ,re)
Yeah baby (re, re, re ,re)
Whip it to me (respect, just a little bit)
When you get home, now (just a little bit)
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Find out what it means to me
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Take care, TCB
Oh (sock it to me, sock it to me,
sock it to me, sock it to me)
A little respect (sock it to me, sock it to me,
sock it to me, sock it to me)
Whoa, babe (just a little bit)
A little respect (just a little bit)
I get tired (just a little bit)
Keep on tryin' (just a little bit)
You're runnin' out of foolin' (just a little bit)
And I ain't lyin' (just a little bit)
(re, re, re, re) 'spect
When you come home (re, re, re ,re)
Or you might walk in (respect, just a little bit)
And find out I'm gone (just a little bit)
I got to have (just a little bit)
A little respect (just a little bit)
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