There was a popular song stating- Its All About The Bass https://youtu.be/Fccz4gz5erM Its really all about POV or Point Of View.
Please, allow me to share my long-established practice, which I started using as a college professor years ago to show students that women are more capable than men in so many ways, including when it comes to getting their message across.
Take Aretha’s version of "Respect"... She did not write the song, but she fixed it right and made it her own, helping her to become the "Queen of Soul"
The original lyrics were penned by Otis about a man’s demand from his woman when he comes home. Chauvinism on steroids.
Aretha's amazing genius idea was to change the song and its warped values espoused on a spouse by adding these stirringly famous chorus lines "R - E - S - P - E - C - T"
She made Otis Redding's 1965 lament of an exhausted working man demanding that his wife serve his needs into a rallying call for downtrodden women of the world demanding an end to sexual authority.
Looking back at her signature song, listen and decide for yourself.
https://youtu.be/3JGJXmpKGXY OTIS ORIGINAL vs ARETHA IMPROVED https://youtu.be/6FOUqQt3Kg0
Otis also wrote other classics like "Dock of the Bay" https://youtu.be/rTVjnBo96Ug and "Try a Little Tenderness" https://youtu.be/UnPMoAb4y8U but he had to acknowledge that Ms. Franklin’s's Respect version really belonged to Aretha.
At the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival in California, Otis Redding said: "This next song is a song that a girl took away from me." https://youtu.be/7BDw-H_hUzw Five months later at 26 years young, the "King of Soul" died in a plane crash.
Franklin was a local gospel singer from Detroit when she went into the studio to record "Respect" with her sisters Erma and Carolyn. They increased the tempo of the song with the famous and provocative"Sock it to me" which became such a popular phrase that even President Richard Nixon later used it on nationwide TV https://youtu.be/3e9iWizfsm8
But it wasn’t about adding lyrics, its all about the point of view of the song from the male perspective to that of a female. Aretha gave it an entirely new energy and a soulful POV. She turned the song into an anthem for women’s rights and civil rights.
"Not only did she add that famous R-E-S-P-E-C-T chorus, but her remaking of the song gave it a whole different empowerment message, both sexually and politically.
This smash hit won Aretha the first of her 18 Grammy awards, and she as well as her song went on to be featured in more than 30 major films including "Platoon" "Forrest Gump" and "The Blues Brothers". https://youtu.be/WY66elCQkYk
It’s all about Point Of View and Empowerment. That’s what I’m talking about folks.
Finally, check out this Reuters story below quoting The Associated Press, aka my old Alma Mater, AP.
