Otis Redding toured Europe with Booker T and the MG's (of Green Onions fame) in the spring of 1967. On March 21 in Paris, history was made, recorded, and preserved. This was recorded 8 months before Redding died in a small plane crash near Madison, Wisconsin; 9 months before Dock of the Bay became the first posthumous album to hit #1 on UK charts. Something about rockers dieing young, 26 in Redding's case, that forces us to re-examine our own mortality, reminds us to carpe a little more of that diem. Again, I'm familiar with many of the songs on the album, but I've never listened to the album straight through, until today.Respect- don't I feel stupid... all this time I thought Otis was covering Aretha Franklin's song--he WROTE it! Aretha added the spelling lesson required to make it her feminist anthem. In Otis' original version he's not demanding recognition, he's pleading for something else--Respect as euphemism for sex.
Can't Turn You Loose- The Blues Brother's made this their live intro... well Steve Cropper and Donald Dunn were members of both the Blues Brothers and Booker T. and the MG's so perhaps they just carried the torch. The energy of the band is only eclipsed by Redding's electricity. "I know you think I'm gonna stop now, " spoiler alert: He doesn't.
I've Been Loving You Too Long- A tender torch song, and one of Redding's first hit singles from 1965. He works the crowd over and plays with pregnant pauses. The Rolling Stones covered this song shortly after its release, and introduced Redding to a white audience crossing over.
My Girl- a cover version of the Smokey Robinson penned hit by the Temptations. There's a sense of urgency in this version--Hell, in almost all of Otis' songs--he's "gotta gotta gotta gotta" tell you about her.
Shake- and a quick transition from the Temptations to Sam Cooke. Eric Burdon and the Animals would also cover this song, but Redding put the song on the map, and on the air. Watch and take note, Ready Steady Go (the English version of American Bandstand), 1966: This is how you set a room on fire.
Satisfaction- The Stones covered Otis, so he returns the favor and puts the horns in the original three note riff, just like Keith Richards had first intended. Otis improvises his own words, including his signature "gotta gotta gotta"
Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)- Co Penned with Steve Cropper ("play it Steve" from Soul Man). You probably will recognize the hook, referenced in the Arthur Conley song (co penned with Redding).
These Arms of Mine- Damn there's some girl yelling for the song "good to me"... I mean, like over and over again. I wonder where she is today. Ha, someone in the horn section hit a wrong intro note! Well, now we know it's live. A tender song that was one of the first Otis had ever recorded in the studio, and the first time I've heard this gem, Clams and all. I wonder if Otis motivated the MG's like Buddy Rich did his band.
Day Tripper- It's a rare artist who could completely bastardize a Beatles song and arguably make it better. Sprinkle a little "gotta gotta" sauce on it, and then turn up the heat and bring it to a boil.
Try A Little Tenderness- actually was a song that Otis didn't write. It was first recorded (albeit in a completely different feel) back in the 30's: Give it a Listen. In the same way however, that Aretha took Respect and never looked back, this will always be Otis Redding. I'll forgive him all the other misplaced "gotta gotta's" as long as I can have it in this song. A train that starts at an almost stand still; before you know it this runaway hit can not be contained.
We all wonder what music would have followed, from the artists we lost too soon. Hendrix, Joplin, Lennon... more recently Cobain, Winehouse. Would their music have been powerful enough to change the world? Would the world have been powerful enough to have changed them?
After touring, Otis Redding suffered from polyps on his larynx (much like what Adele is now working through) and took some time off. He returned to the studio later that winter, wrote and recorded a song that was inspired by the Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Album. It was a change in his sound, a change everyone around him disagreed with... they wanted him to keep doing what worked, what people expected. Otis didn't listen, he knew it was the best he'd written so far. He whistled the song's legendary ending; Three days later in a plane crash, his legendary end would come too.
Next Up #473 Coldplay- A Rush Of Blood to the Head (2002)
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