Episode 149: “Respect” by Aretha Franklin
A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs
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The Life of Rev. C.L. Franklin
Rev. Franklin was hugely personally ambitious, and wanted to get out of rural Mississippi. They moved to Memphis in 1939, where he got a full-time position at New Salem Baptist Church. He soon developed a liberal theology that was very different from the conservative fundamentalism he'd grown up in. There is an inevitable bias in the sources on Franklin's life - so there's a tendency to soften the very worst things he did,. Some of which were very, very bad.
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