Is there anyone else still out there who was alive during the Sixties? I'd really like to know, because lately every one of the Sixties albums that I've been reviewing was recorded by some great artist who died too early. Frank Zappa was not quite fifty-three when he died in 1993, Jim Morrison of the Doors perished in 1971 at age twenty-seven, Jimi Hendrix died in 1970 at age twenty-seven, and Otis Redding was just twenty-six when the plane he was on plunged into the icy waters of Lake Monona in Madison, Wisconsin, on December 10th, 1967. Well, I suppose there's some small comfort in knowing that Bob Dylan and half of the Beatles are still around. Still, there's too little of the spirit of the sixties left – now when we really need it!

The death of Otis Redding was an enormous loss for music lovers. He was a gifted and influential singer who played possibly the preeminent role in the rise of Soul during the Sixties, as a kind of amalgamation of Gospel with Rhythm & Blues into an elevated form of "funky secular testifying" [Rock & Roll Hall of Fame]. Born Otis Ray Redding Jr. on September 9th, 1941 in Dawson, Georgia, Ray grew up in Macon, Georgia from age five on. He sang in the local Baptist Church choir and, as a teen, thrilled his friends and neighbors by winning a local Sunday night talent show fifteen weeks in a row. Redding began touring the South in 1960 with Johnny Jenkins and The Pinetoppers.

Redding soon began recording for Volt Records, a subsidiary of Memphis-based Stax, which specialized in the gut-wrenching Soul music that was coalescing out of the troubled lives of Southern blacks. For black artists of the time, Stax/Volt, with its gritty music of raw emotionality, was the main alternative to the Motown label, which preferred to distill and polish black music into something more palatable to middle-class white audiences. Redding had his first minor hit on Volt records in 1962 with a ballad called "These Arms of Mine." He slowly built a fan base by touring extensively with fellow Stax artists "Sam and Dave." Additional hits came in 1964, with "Mr. Pitiful," and in 1966, with "I Can't Turn You Loose" (later made famous as the Blues Brothers entrance song). Redding's style during this time was closer to the Rhythm & Blues shouter mode of Little Richard or Wilson Pickett than either Soul or Blues. That changed abruptly in 1965 with the release of Otis Blue, subtitled "Otis Redding Sings Soul." Although three of the songs on the album, "Respect," "Shake," and "Satisfaction," still reflected his earlier stomper approach, Otis Blue was the album that immortalized Redding as the quintessential practitioner of Soul music.

Redding was posthumously awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999 and his home city of Macon erected a memorial statue of Redding to honor their favorite son. Rolling Stone Magazine listed Redding as #21 on their list of all-time greatest popular music artists.

Redding's music benefited enormously from the availability of the Stax house band, often referred to as Booker T. Jones and The MG's, which included saxophonists Andrew Love and Floyd Newman, Booker T. Jones on keyboards, bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn, and drummer Al Jackson Jr. That group was augmented on occasion (and for this recording) by horn players Wayne Jackson and Gene "Bowlegs" Miller from the Mar-Keys. Isaac Hayes filled in for Jones on keyboard when the latter was away at school. Steve Cropper, playing lead guitar, was also important to the success of this particular album. This was a solid group of musicians who played with energy and precision. On some tracks, the contribution of the backing musicians is as important to the music as Redding's raspy and passionate vocal delivery.

Track Listing:

1. Old Man Trouble 2:55
2. Respect 2:05
3. A Change Is Gonna Come 4:17
4. Down in the Valley 3:02
5. I've Been Loving You Too Long 3:10
6. Shake 2:35
7. My Girl 2:52
8. Wonderful World 3:00
9. Rock Me Baby 3:20
10. Satisfaction 2:45
11. You Don't Miss Your Water 2:53

Track Analysis:

Old Man Trouble is one of three songs on the album written or co-written by Otis Redding. This track revealed immediately to Redding's fans that they were encountering a newly matured musician, now fully able of deliver heart-rending anguish with his quivering voice. This poignant song is one of Redding's best self-penned songs ever and benefits considerably from some exceptional guitar work by Cropper.

The next song, Respect, also written by Redding, is a throwback for Redding to his up-beat stomper style. It's a brilliant rendition, but suffers just a bit by comparison with Aretha Franklin's later cover version that was so magnificent in its defiant feminist delivery that Franklin virtually made the piece her own. Redding himself often sang cover versions of songs that exceeded the originals in quality, so turnabout has to be considered fair play.

A Change Is Gonna Come is the first of three covers of songs made famous by one of Redding's mentors, Sam Cooke, and since Cooke had recently died when this album was released, it's not much of a stretch to interpret the three tracks as a kind of tribute to the late gospel-turned-soul singer. This track is rooted in the gospel tradition, but Redding makes it his own by giving the song a pleading kind of quality not evident in the original.

Redding then wields out a funky New Orleans style version of Solomon Burke's Down in the Valley, again exceeding the original in intensity. The fifth track, I've Been Loving You Too Long, was Redding's all time top hit in the United States, and deservedly so. Redding gives this achingly beautiful ballad an utterly heartrending delivery. Redding co-wrote this great song with soul singer Jerry Butler.

Shake, the second Sam Cooke song, provides a welcome respite from the foregoing, returning to the kind of up-tempo, dance-friendly shouter that had been Redding's regular fare earlier in his career. Al Jackson keeps this piece hopping with some sparkling work on the drums. Redding next turns to a cover version of a song made famous by the Temptations, My Girl. Nowhere is the contrast between the Stax and Motown styles more evident than in the comparison between Redding's intensely emotional rendition of this piece and the sanitized pop pabulum delivered by the Temptations. "My Girl" was Redding's all time biggest hit in the U.K.

Wonderful World is the third of the Sam Cooke numbers and every bit the equal of the original. Then, Rock Me Baby, covers a Blues song made famous by B.B. King, providing further evidence of Redding's versatility. Satisfaction completes the trio of rockers on the album. It was a cover of a Rolling Stones song, but Redding makes his rendition so completely his own that many people during the sixties assumed that the Stones had borrowed the song from Redding rather that the other way around. I have to give the Stone's version the edge over Redding's rendition, but the version here is certainly worth hearing. The album closer is You Don't Miss Your Water, a cover of a song by William Bell. Redding again finds his way straight down to core emotions, ending the album in a fine fashion.

Evaluation: The CD version of Otis Blue , digitally remastered by Bill Inglot and Dan Hersch from the original monaural masters, is identical in content to the original vinyl album. This album finds Redding at his artistic peak and was listed as #74 on Rolling Stone's list of 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In contrast to some later Redding albums, this one has a flow from song to song and a conceptual continuity that suggest the album was put together with a great deal of care. There are no tracks that qualify as mere filler, though I personally am more fully enamored with the Soul and Blues tracks than the three rocker/shouter tracks.

The influence of Otis Blue can certainly be seen in the music of such later artists as Aretha Franklin, the Allman Brothers, the Rolling Stones, and Van Morrison, to name just a few. Redding's breathtaking vocal delivery is perfect for Soul music and is foremost in the factors that make this album great, but the performance by the instrumentalists is also excellent and crucial to the effectiveness of many of the songs. The musical quality of the songs varies, but the best of the pieces are classics. This is a magnificent album, essential for any fan of Sixties music or Soul music. It also stands up exceptionally well to repeat listening. I highly recommend this album as one of the greatest pop albums in history and the optimum starting point for exploring the artistry of Otis Redding. For follow-up, you might try Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul: Complete & Unbelievable as well as Dock of the Bay.

************************************************************************

You may want to check out my list of all the Top-50 albums from the sixties:

Metalluk's Top-Fifty Albums from the Sixties Part I (Nos. 1-25)
Metalluk's Top-Fifty Albums from the Sixties Part II (Nos. 26-50)

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Listening