He had not reached some kind of a dead end in his life.

The odd thing about the song is that at the time he wrote, Otis had everything to live for. There's great melancholy in this song, in lines like 'Cause I've had nothing to live for / Looks like nothing's gonna come my way.' But there's also a sense of peace and acceptance. But in California, he had time to reflect on where he had been and a little bit on where he was going. He hadn't achieved a million-selling record. What he hadn't achieved was that - while he had big hits, including crossover hits that were top 40 hits - he hadn't achieved a No. But Otis found himself at the end of that summer - his voice was troubling him, he would have to have a voice operation in a couple of weeks - looking back on what he had achieved and what he hadn't achieved. He spent some time in California toward the end of the summer of 1967. Your purchase helps support NPR programming.

The plan called for Otis to drive Johnny to Memphis from Macon, and then hopefully to find a chance to sing after Johnny had finished his work there.Ĭlose overlay Buy Featured Book Title Otis Redding Subtitle An Unfinished Life Author Jonathan Gould And Phil and a colorful character named Joe Galkin engineered an opportunity for Johnny Jenkins and Otis Redding to record at Stax Records in Memphis. They were managed by the young white college boy in Macon who eventually went on to manage Otis as well - but at that time, the whole focus of Phil Walden, his future manager, was on Johnny Jenkins. He was a singer in a band that was led by a very flamboyant guitarist named Johnny Jenkins. This is the Hollywood aspect of Otis' story. How did Redding walk into the door of Stax Records in Memphis?

I think that that sort of summed up the response of the whole crowd there, which had never really seen anything onstage quite like this. Jonathan Gould: Bob Weir, of course, was the rhythm guitarist in the Grateful Dead, and his comment about Otis was that he was pretty sure that he had seen God onstage. Scott Simon: You open your book with the most stunning quote from Bob Weir, who had seen Otis Redding at Monterey. In the liner notes, musician-journalist Bob Terug naar ProductenStanley writes: “This album is the first indication of a new Otis Redding, one that has slayed audiences in Europe, one which won him a whole new crowd at the Monterey International Pop Festival.Music News Capricorn In Retrograde: Macon's Endangered Musical History Although the individual tracks have been previously released across a smattering of posthumous albums and compilations, this marks the first time they have been assembled to resemble what this album could possibly have been. 2018 EU issue on 180g vinyl LP-The 12-song DOCK OF THE BAY SESSIONS collection was compiled with input from Roger Armstrong of Ace Records and Otis biographer Jonathan Gould and has the Redding family’s full endorsement.

Otis Redding by Jonathan Gould