Episode 149: “Respect” by Aretha Franklin
A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs
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Aretha Franklin and Clara Ward
Clara Ward was one of the three major female gospel singers of the middle part of the century, and possibly even more technically impressive as a vocalist. Ward had become a singer in 1931, when her mother had what she later talked about as a religious epiphany,. She decided she wasn't going to be a laborer anymore, she was going to devote her life to gospel music. Aretha Franklin talked about the moment she decided to become a singer, when she saw Ward singing Peace in the Valley as a funeral.
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