Lonnie Holley

ARETHA FRANKLIN

“RESPECT” ATLANTIC, 1967

Mama used music to keep us all content – she had 27 children out of 32 pregnancies. We had the radio, the stereo, and then TV. I heard a lot of different music, from the drive-in to the state fairground, and I would lie in my bed beside the ol’ Rockola – I rocked myself to sleep and I rolled out of the bed to the music. Aretha said “– you need to respect yourself enough to know that you need to educate yourself every single second you live. If we learn to respect