ALBUMS: The Best of Otis Redding (ATCO 1972); The Best of Otis Redding (Atlantic 1984)
MVC Rating: Both are 5.0/$$$$$
The best soul singer of all time. And I don’t say that flippantly.
I am a big fan of soul as performed by Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, Smokey Robinson, Wilson Pickett, Little Richard, James Brown, Diana Ross, Janis Joplin, Tina Turner, and Al Green, especially Al Green.
I like the Stylistics, Sly and the Family Stone, Mary Wells, Ray Charles, the Delfonics, the Temptations, Michael Jackson (Jackson 5), The Four Tops, and so on. I own records from most of these.
I do this long list of randomly associated performers to see who Redding was up against. Make no mistake about it, he was the best.
Redding who was influenced by (and played in a band with) Little Richard. James Brown was also from Macon.
Redding, who wrote many of his songs, sometimes sharing credit with Steve Cropper, the legendary session man.
Another session man Eddie Hinton, who worked out of Muscle Shoals did a pretty amazing Redding styled vocal, but Hinton succumbed to alcohol abuse and died young.
Redding died too young as well in a plane crash in 1967, leave a legacy of some great great songs ‘Hard to Handle,’ R-E-S-P-E-C-T,’ ‘I’ve Been Loving You for So Long’ ‘Try a Little Tenderness,’ and of course (Just sitting) on the Dock of the Bay, one of the greatest songs ever written. It skyrocketed to No. 1 but Redding never got to see that. His plane crash came just after the song was recorded and not yet released.
Dock of the Bay marked a departure from the deep soul in its sound and Redding’s singing. He pulled his big voice back a bit and delivered what is considered (by me) to be the most poignant blend of lyrics and music ever recorded. I know I said that about ‘Me and Bobby McGee written by Kris Kristofferson and performed definitively by Janis Joplin.
Both are wistful songs that tell a story of despair and loss. Pretty much a story we all live through as humans. Janis sang ‘Down in Salinas Lord, I let him slip away. He’s going to that place and I hope he finds it.’
Otis sang: ‘Sittin’ here resting my bones, this loneliness won’t leave me alone. Two thousand miles I roam just to make this dock my home.’
I don’t mean to take anything away from Redding’s other songs. I just wish he had lived so we can here what he cooked up to follow that one.