Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay

This week I’ve had trouble thinking about what to write. This morning I sat at my computer, opened up my iTunes and set it to “shuffle.” Who should happen to grace my speakers on such a hazy morning? Otis Redding! I thought to myself, Yes! I will write about Otis.

I got into Otis about a year ago, though I have been familiar with his classic “(Sittin' On) the Dock of the Bay” for years. I can’t believe I waited this long, but I’m glad I found him when I did. Music is meant to be relevant, important, interesting, soulful... Otis’s music possesses ALL of these qualities without sounding calculated or (dare I say) boring. When you listen to his voice, you can HEAR his emotion, like he is crying or laughing instead of singing—such a rare quality, especially nowadays when it seems nearly every radio-friendly singer has lowered the quality of their sound to something I could compare to processed cheese or a Styrofoam cup. Sad. What happened? Oh yeah, AutoTune (an “audio processor” that corrects the pitch in vocal and instrumental performance—thank you Wikipedia!)

Anyway...

Otis wrote, arranged and composed all of his material and has sold over 3 million records—not bad for the son of a Baptist minister from Dawson, Georgia. He dropped out of high school and joined Little Richard’s former band, the Upsetters, as an attempt to help his family financially. Years of hard work paid off, allowing him to tour all over the world—his concerts were some of the biggest box office successes for touring performers in his time.

His most famous song, “(Sittin On) the Dock of the Bay,” was influenced by Otis’ adoration for the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album during the summer of 1967. How amazing is that? The Beatles pop up in almost every music biography in one way or another, it seems, although I’m sure Otis was somewhat of an influence to them... This was among his final recordings before he died in a plane crash in December 1967.

I could go on for another couple paragraphs about him, but I guess I should stop now before I sound like an obsessed nerd! If you aren’t familiar with Otis, no matter WHAT kind of music you are into, stop what you are doing and go pick up a record. You will not regret it (well, maybe you will—sorry about that if you do). They just don’t make ’em like they used to. Otis, wherever you rest, thank you for restoring my faith in singers.

Over,
Louise