"Sock It to Me"

[Wilson Gray]

On Jun 5, 2005, at 3:03 AM, Sam Clements wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Sam Clements <SClements at NEO.RR.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "Sock It to Me"
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Wilson Gray" <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Sent: Sunday, June 05, 2005 1:03 AM
> Subject: Re: "Sock It to Me"
>
>
>> Of course. It will be my honor.
>>
>> In 1968. there was a television show on one of the Big Three devoted
>> to the careers of two uknown female song stylists, one white and one
>> black. Unfortunately, the unknown white singer's career came from
>> nowhere and went nowhere. I'd never heard of her at the time and have
>> not heard of her since. Hence, her name escapes me.
>
> Her name was Gloria Loring.  The show, titled "The Singers," was aired
> on
> ABC on May 11, 1968.   But your characterization of the show as
> "devoted to
> the careers of two unknown female song stylists" is incorrect.

It's not *my* characterization. it's the way that the show was
advertised and presented. Maybe you had to have been there and seen the
TV program and seen the TV ads preceding it. That program was memorable
for only one thing: equating Aretha with a nobody, despite the fact
that Aretha had long been somebody. What could have motivated that, do
you think? The fact that ABC's boss was Aretha's number-one fan,
perhaps? And why would Aretha have acceded to such an insulting
juxtaposition? We could have been wrong, but, at the time, most black
people figured it was that she needed the exposure to white America.

-Wilson Gray

> Every major
> newspaper I can read on Proquest make it clear that Aretha was big
> time

That is precisely my point. Oh, I'm sorry. You mean that old newspaper
stories have persuaded you that she was considered big time by *white*
people.

> ("Respect" had won her a Grammy

And, of course, given that the Grammy-winners are selected by means of
a vote by the general public, it naturally  follows, as the night the
day, that Aretha was clearly the darling of the general white-American
public.

>  earlier that year) and Loring was a
> newbie.

The word that you're searching for is "nobody."

>
>> The unknown black singer was Aretha, if you can believe that. Given
>> that her career went back to at least 1964 and probably farther, I was
>> stunned to discover that, clearly, no one at ABC/CBS/NBC had ever
>> heard of her.
>
> Her career went back to at least 1961, when she was recording for
> Coumbia.
> Trouble was, Columbia tried to make her a pop/jazz performer.  It
> didn't
> work. When she switched to the Atlantic label, and they promoted her
> r&b
> talents, she became very popular.

Yes.

>
>
>> Clearly, neither the white power structure nor the average person on
>> the white street had any idea who Aretha Franklin was or even gave a
>> Roosevelt damn. Aretha Franklin had not crossed over the color line by
>> 1967. Q.E.D.
>
> Are you saying that all of her records were sold only to blacks?  On
> March
> 19th of 1967, "I Never Loved A Man" topped out at #9 on Billboard's
> Top 40.
> On May 6th of that year(a year before that poor "unknown" was in that
> tv
> show), "Respect" topped out at #1.   No doubt at least one or two
> "white"
> stations were playing her songs.

No. Not sold only, merely sold primarily. Clearly, her name meant
nothing in particular to ABC's execs. "White" doesn't require quotes,
given that, in Los Angeles, for example, *all* radio and television
stations were and, perhaps, still are owned and operated by whites.
However, "black" stations does require quotes, since, at that time,
there were few, if any, radio stations owned and/or operated by blacks,
not even those stations that were directed toward a black audience and
advertised themselves as being "First in sports and news! First in
rhythm and blues!" or as playing everything "from be-bop to ballaaads
and blues to boo-GEE!" Till the '60's, there were no black DJ's in the
Los Angeles basin. and very likely none anywhere else on the Left
Coast.

>
>
>> Jesus! - you should pardon the expression - how long have you been
>> living in this country, Ben? Are you really so unaware of the way that
>> things were and are? Don't you recall that, in the _'Sixties,_ the
>> lynching of blacks and even of some Jews was still a commonplace
>> practice?
>> -Wilson
>
> Assuming you're referring to Goodman and Schwermer, I'd hardly call
> lynching
> of Jews in the Sixties a "commonplace practice."

How many would it take to make it commonplace, in your opinion? Very
likely, you recall the lynching in Tyler, Texas, in which a black man
was tied to the back bumper of a pickup truck and dragged to his death.
That's enough to motivate me to say that the lynching of blacks is
*still* a commonplace practice, given that the victim was lynched on a
whim or "jes fuh fee-you-in," as we black Texans say.

-Wilson Gray

>
> I notice that Ben has replied better than I can.
>
> Sam Clements
>