Some of y’all may be familiar with Otis Redding and his music, but do you really know Otis Redding? As in, are you thoroughly familiar with his story? I can humbly tell you that all these years that I’ve familiarized myself with Otis’ discography, I never really knew this legendary man’s life story. At least not completely. Only a few years ago, while watching the bonus features on the documentary to Monterey Pop Festival did I really learn about the celebrated and tragic life of Otis Redding. While I won’t be going into full detail about the man’s legacy (you can catch most of that in the two links I provided above), I will give you a brief summary. Otis was one of the architects and more powerful voices of the classic and timeless sounds of the esteemed, Memphis, TN based Stax Records. In the early 60s, Otis penned his first single that would become the immortal R&B song, These Arms of Mine which would eventually lead him to release his debut album, Pain In My Heart which charted pretty high on the Billboard R&B list. Otis eventually went on to perform an acclaimed show at Whisky a Go Go which was recorded live and is responsible for the highly sampled dialogue, “We’re gonna do a song, that you never heard before.”
In 1967, Otis went on the road again, bringing Stax backing band The Bar-Kays on as his personal band. Together, they performed at the historical Monterey Pop Festival alongside Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. The festival / show was a major success for Otis & The Bar-Kays. That same year, Otis penned the famous Sweet Soul Music sung by Arthur Conley, celebrating some of Soul music’s greatest musicians. Later that year, Otis fell sick and, while at a friends house in San Francisco, penned a great song that will put a smile on anyone’s face, (Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay. A few days later, Otis and his band, The Bar-Kays decided to fly to Nashville, TN to play a gig. On a subsequent trip to Wisconsin, Otis and four members of The Bar-Kays tragically died in a plane crash due to very poor weather, only a few days after writing and recording The Dock of the Bay. Two other members of the band did survive the devastating accident, having taken different planes, The Bar-Kays’ trumpeter Ben Cauley and bassist James Alexander (father of Hip-Hop producer Jazze Pha). One year after this horrible loss in the music industry, Stax released Dock of the Bay which quickly shot to the top of the Billboard R&B charts. Soon after Otis’ death, Atlantic Records, (now owned by Warner Bros.) released a string of posthumous albums on Atlantic’s subsidiary label, ATCO. The rest is, as they say, history. Otis, as well as The Bar-Kays’ music would in turn, live on eternally, becoming the foundation for many Hip-Hop cuts we’ve all come to love.
Otis Redding – Try a Little Tenderness
Masta Killa – DTD f. Raekwon & Ghostface
Damu the Fudgemunk – Overthrone (Try a Lil Skillfulness)
Kanye & Jay-Z – Otis
The Bar-Kays – If This World Were Mine (instrumental cover of the original by Marvin Gaye)
Rick Ross & Kanye West – Live Fast, Die Young
The Bar-Kays – In the Hole
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo – Crime Pays
GZA – Living In the World Today
Ben Cauley (one of only two survivors of the tragic Otis Redding / The Bar-Kays plane crash) performing Dock of the Bay in memory of Otis
Nice!
This post is top ill. My folks have his collection of records.
These posts are the best man! Love how you call it Beatminer League too, Duckdown for life!
These posts are the besssssttttt!!!! big ups JES!