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"Live At The Apollo Theatre 1963"
(Recorded
November1963, Released in 1964 on the Various Artists set 'Live At The Apollo';
Re-released as part Of 'Otis! The Definitive Otis Redding' Box Set In November
1993)
"I just need me somebody to treat
me right!"
You
wouldn't know, listening to the two songs taped at the Apollo in November 1963,
that Otis was a new star, still a full two months away from releasing his debut
album. Redding already sings with a confidence and charisma that belies his
young age and his voice is gloriously smokey, sounding like he's packed a lot
of living into that time. The songs are no surprise - both had been
showstoppers in Otis' set for some time and are both highlights of his debut
LP, but it's the way Otis sings them with even more intensity than later years
that makes this gig stand out. Redding was one of many up and coming and
established stars captured in concert for an all-star record released as
'Saturday Night At The Apollo' in 1964 - a yearly event that had been running
since the late 1940s showcasing the best of soul. This was, however, the first
album taken from the shows, for which we have to thank James Brown, whose full
length set from the Apollo the year before had set new records for soul album
sales and proved that there was a big market for these sort of live shows. How
lucky, then, that Otis' early years were captured that year alongside
performances by Ben E King, The Coasters, Rufus Thomas, Doris Troy and a band
known as The Falcons who feature future stars Wilson Pickett and Eddie Floyd in
the line-up. It's a testament to how great the soul music scene was back then
that all the acts on the original record either were or went on to become stars.
Though the Falcons come close, it's clearly Otis who steals the show despite
reportedly shaking with stagefright before he went on to play to his biggest
audience at that time (Rufus Thomas, already a friend after meeting on tour
before, is said to have put his arms round Otis, told him he'd be great and to
ignore the sea of faces and imagine he was singing to just one pretty girl in
the front row...) A wonderfully warm 'Pain In My Heart' was the only track to
make the original record, but the 'Otis!' box set from 1993 includes both that
track and a lovely slow version of 'These Arms Of Mine' that should have made
the record too.
"In Person At The
Whiskey-A-Go-Go"
(Atco,
Recorded April 1966, Released October 1968)
I
Can't Turn You Loose/Pain In My Heart/Just One Day/Mr Pitiful/(I Can't Get No)
Satisfaction)//I'm Depending On You/Any Ole Way/These Arms Of Mine/Papa's Got A
Brand New Bag/Respect
"You're sweeter than honey - and
I'm about to give you all of my money!"
Otis'
second full live album was the third of the archive sets to be released in
tribute to him after his death and so was actually taped a year before his
first (this collecting lark can be really confusing sometimes!) Though the
concert was only a couple of years old by the time of its release, it already
sounded like it came from a different era altogether, with Otis at
full-throttle grunt and captured on tour promoting the 'Soul Album' released a
couple of weeks prior, a sound very different to 'Dock Of The Bay'. You can
tell that Otis is near the end of a weary tour, that his voice is husky and
beginning to give way, while the Bar-Keys (who played these smaller club-style
dates with Otis, with the MGs held back for the bigger venues) are towards the
looser end of their usual slick selves. This means that on the more intense
passionate ballads like 'Pain In My Heart' and 'These Arms Of Mine' the band
sound slightly lacking, scrappy rather than intense. However at other times
this sense of things being on the edge brings out the best in everyone: 'Just
One Day', for instance, is a remarkable performance with Otis somehow
overcoming his vocal restrictions to suddenly start soaring at full throttle
with the band going right out to the edge with him. The up-tempo numbers like
'Mr Pitiful' and 'Satisfaction' also benefit from this looser, rawer edge as
Otis comes at both songs less like a soul singer than a rock star. Otis also
turns in a song that, at the time, was exclusive to this set - a cover of James
Brown's 'Papa's Got A Brand New Bag' which gets the full Otis treatment. The
band are a little too rough to truly nail the song but you can at least hear
Redding making it his own. Though short at thirty-five minutes and less
interesting to the collector than the second volume released years later which
contains the more interesting songs (and is taken from a slightly earlier run
of dates when Otis' voice is still in good health), 'In Person' is still a fine
purchase with Otis' charisma shining through any restrictions. Better live
albums have been released since and you wonder why Stax chose this concert in
particular to remember Otis by, but in a world that had never heard a live Otis
album before (unless you were lucky enough to see him in concert) this was more
than enough. Respect!
"Good To Me: Live At The
Whiskey-A-Go-Go Volume Two" re-issued as
"Recorded Live - Previously
Unreleased Performances!"
(Stax,
Recorded April 1966, Released 1982/Re-Released 1993)
Introduction/I'm
Depending On You/You're One And Only Man/Good To Me/Chained and Bound/Ole Man
Trouble/Pain In My Heart/These Arms Of Mine/I Can't Turn You Loose/I've Been
Loving You Too Long/Security/A Hard Day's Night
Note:
This running order is for the 1982 album 'Good To Me'. A shorter edit of the
album in a slightly different order appeared on the 'Recorded Live' album in
1993
"It's worth it just to hear you
say you're gonna give me everything"
Usually
soul never sounds more sober than when it comes in the hands of Otis Redding.
Full of morning after worries and regrets and fears over the future, Redding's
is the thinking man's soul, not the boozy knees up of Mother James Brown or the
rave of Sam and Dave. This album might well be the exception, however, as a
combination of a slightly blurry recording technique, a speed that sounds a
gnat's crotchet slow of real time and Otis pouring out his soul with even more
passion than normal combine to make this the booziest of Redding recordings.
Actually that's not the disaster it sounds. Though Otis always sounded like he
meant it, here he sounds as if he's living each and every word, pulling most of
the songs long past their natural ending point with improvisation after
improvisation. It's not just Otis either - the Mar Keys are all slightly
skee-whiff tonight as if their horns have all been slightly squashed out of
shape, while Al Jackson Jnr drops his usual on-the-money groove to sound like
he's auditioning with a part in The Who. Only Booker T himself, almost
inaudible in amongst all this noise, keeps his cool - everyone else is treating
the show as a rave-up and cutting looser than they've ever cut before. 'Good To
Me', a song I'd never really rated before, flies out of the blocks like it's
got somewhere good to go, 'Security' goes from muted introspective ballad to
extrovert singalong and a rare take on The Beatles' 'A Hard Day's Night' has
the band working like a dog. 'Your One and Only Man' meanwhile, perhaps the
greatest Redding song you may not know, sounds glorious with the tension
between Redding's voice hard on the accelerator and the horns putting the
brakes on the perfect way to arrange this song. Soul's consummate professionals
always, you've never quite heard the band like this before and as a one-off I
rather like it. The first volume with the 'hits' on it was pretty good, but
this may well be the best live Otis album of them all (after the half-album of
Monterey anyway).
In case
you were wondering, the reason behind the changes of name are that Stax
'accidentally' passed the rights of the original album 'Good To Me' over to
Atlantic, who then realised that actually Otis was an artist they wanted to
keep only for Stax so they quickly bought up the rights and stuck it out again.
Stax slightly tweaked track listing and a different name a decade later with
the addition of a few extra tracks at the beginning and end. 'Good To Me', the
later one from 1993, is the one to get being longer and coming in ever so
slightly better sound.
"Live On The Sunset Strip"
(Recorded
April 1966, Released May 2010)
CD
One: Security/Just One More Day/These Arms Of Mine/(I Can't Get No)
Satisfaction/I Can't Turn You Loose/Chained and Bound/Respect/I'm Depending On
You/I can't Turn You Loose #2/(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction #]2/Chained And
Bound #2/Just One More Day/Any Old Way
CD
Two: I've Been Loving You Too Long/(I Can't Get No)
Satisfaction/Destiny/Security/Good To Me/Respect/Chained and Bound/Mr
Pitiful/(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction #4/Ole Man Trouble/I Can't Turn You Loose
#2/A Hard Day's Night/These Arms Of Mine #2/Papa's Got A Brand New Bag/(I Can't
Get No) Satisfaction #5
"I remember those sweet kisses you
gave me that night, man they were so good to me..."
Where
have all these live Redding albums been sitting for forty years? After some
thirty with only one full live Otis album to go on, suddenly we have our sixth
Redding in concert album and it seems that Otis couldn't have gone anywhere
across 1966 and 1967 without a microphone in his face. Though new fans will
probably be better off with the one official set 'Live In Europe' or the
essential 'Monterey' set, for collectors this may well be the most interesting,
containing effectively a double dose of the early Otis who across 1966 was
adding all sorts of interesting and rare material to his set lists. Some
selections from the record had already been released on the two
'Whiskey-A-Go-Go' sets out and arguably there's a lot more still in the vaults
so prepare yourself for a full box set of each complete show one day. However
this is by far the fullest version out yet and reveals subtleties to Redding's
performances over the four nights away from the twenty-five-minutes-and-stop
drama of each of the other albums. Fascinatingly, too, it's our best chance to
hear the short-lived 'Otis Redding Orchestra', a ten piece band 'hand picked'
by Otis from the Mar-Keys, Bar-Keys and other friends who rival even the MGs
for precision and power. Redding sure was lucky to have so many great bands
willing to go out on a limb for him and this set's high points are as often as
not due to them as much as him. Uniquely for a Redding band, they tend to play
most of these show stoppers as 'medleys, specialising in the most unlikely
segues - which is fun for listeners but must have been hell for the people
editing the highlights records!
Though
there's an awful lot of repeats across this album, which was taken from three
gigs across a four night stand in Hollywood (a big deal back then and probably
Otis' biggest claim to fame in his homeland before Monterey) and spread across
two action packed CDs (live shows were short back then!) what's fascinating is
hearing how Otis makes each gig different. The first disc is perhaps the best, with
Otis particularly on form, but the second is worth hearing too for both the
rarities (both 'A Hard Day's Night' and 'Papa's Got A Brand New Bag') and the
ways that Otis' mindset changes the set: sometimes he's in a slow yearning
wistful mood, sometimes he's ready to rock and roll, sometimes he's aggressive
and assertive and sometimes he leaves big silences for the Bar-Keys to show
their stuff. Hopefully one day all four shows will be released complete so we
can see how different each gig seemed as a whole, but cobbling the best of them
together here, with some big differences night to night, is a fair compromise.
Highlights
include the definitive 'Can't Turn You Loose' from the first disc, with Cropper
stand in James Young playing a killer guitar part that just challenges Otis to
keep up over the course of six of the most energetic minutes in the Redding
catalogue, a brilliant 'Security' (actually two of them!) doubled in speed and
toughened up considerably via Elbert Woodson's drum rolls, a thumping great
'Your One and Only Man' strangely re-titled 'Destiny' here, a charming 'Any Ole
Way' (rarely heard live for some reason - it stands up well especially with a
new horn part) and, on disc two, an extended seven minute epic version of
'Chained and Bound' with a gloriously extended finale. Only the complete and
rather drunken emcee announcement and a couple of slightly shakier performances
('Respect' and 'Satisfaction' suffering the most) really gets in the way of a
fine live set that's the most 'complete' yet. The first 'Whiskey-A-Go-Go' album
is probably more than enough for most people, but in my opinion the best songs
from the shows got left behind on both volumes one and two and were only
released for the first time here.
"In Concert"
(Stax,
Recorded April 1966 and March 1967, Released '1999')
Respect/Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa
(Sad Song)/Chained and Bound/Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay/I've Been Loving
You Too Long/Security
"I ain't goin' no further 'cause
you got me chained and bound"
A rather
odd CD this, which despite being on Stax itself has the ring of cash-in about
it. The rather tacky packaging is enough to put you off for starters (including
an off-centre shot of Otis grinning mid-song with his eyes closed in front of a
bored audience - check out the grumpy kid peering up at his microphone
seemingly unaware that he's in the presence of a musical giant). The music too
is redundant if you own the sources it comes from already, none of them
mentioned on the sleeve: the rowdy 'Live On Sunset Strip' gig from Easter 1966,
the slightly more 'polite' 'Live In Europe/London/Paris' sets from March 1967
and - bizarrely - the studio outtake of 'Dock Of The Bay' from a month earlier
than the 'famous' version (which is kind of 'live' I guess without any overdubs
going on, though that definitions' still a bit cheeky!) At the time this set
was a handy way of getting hold of the 'Sunset Strip' material released a year
later, though even then it felt like little more than a sampler for a
forthcoming bigger event and at seven tracks decidedly under-sells Otis'
talent. There's really little reason to own it now, unless you can't get hold
of the bigger sets around it and it's going cheap.
"Live In Europe"
(Volt/Atco,
Recorded March 1967, Released July 1967)
Respect/Can't
Turn You Loose/I've Been Loving You Too Long/My Girl/Shake/(I Can't Get No)
Satisfaction/Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)/These Arms Of Mine/Day Tripper/Try A
Little Tenderness
"Fa Fa Fa Fa Fa Fa - Your
turn!"
The only
live album of Otis' lifetime, released a month after 'Monterey' in order to
cash in on the success of that concert, is not the one I'd have chosen having
heard the other Redding live recordings sitting in the vaults with less
character than the 'Whiskey A Go Go' and 'Apollo/Sunset Strip' recording. It's
not even the gig I'd have chosen from this tour, given that the later CD
re-issue combines the superior London show with the Paris gig that makes up the
backbone of this concert. I'm surprised that perfectionist Redding allowed the
gig through given that he sounds husky and sloppy most of the night, while the
MGs are as ropey as you will ever hear them, including their own slightly wonky
live recordings. However there's still a sort of manic brilliance about this
album, with Otis getting by through sheer force of charisma as he realises his
voice is beginning to give out and he can't sing with his customary subtlety.
This really suits the rockers in the set which now have a
hold-on-tight-it-could-go-wrong-at-any-moment-feel, with an 'I Can't Turn You
Loose' that's far funkier than the studio cut and a 'Day Tripper' that's played
so faster it's less a scenic journey than a car crash and extra thrilling as a
result. 'Shake', though, sounds as if it was recorded in a shower, 'I've Been
Loving You Too Long' features the all-time worst Redding vocal as he struggles
to nail the tricky 'peak' section in the middle and roars huskily instead of
sings and 'Try A Little Tenderness' is horrifically raw and should perhaps have
taken its own advice. There's none of the sense of drama and character you get
watching Otis or which comes over loud and clear on his other live records and
even the reviews of the time said that Otis was shown up by both the MGs' own
set and Sam and Dave's support act. The last album of 'new' material in Otis'
lifetime is, like the Carla Thomas album, a misguided cash-in that proves how
low Redding had fallen in the first half of the last year of his life. Get this
on CD as 'Live In Paris and London' if you must get it, but I'm not sure you
really need either.
"Live In London and Paris
1967"
(Stax/Universal,
Recorded March-April 1967, Released February 2009)
London:
Introduction/Respect/My Girl/Shake/Day Tripper/Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)/(I
Can't Get No) Satisfaction/Try A Little Tenderness
Paris:
Introduction/Respect/I Can't Turn You Loose/I've Been Loving You Too Long/My
Girl/Shake/(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction)/Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)/These
Arms Of Mine/Day Tripper/Try A Little Tenderness
"You're on the record - you, you
and you! The man who sings our favourite songs it's W-I-L-S-O-N-P-I-C-K-E-T-T.
Whoops, sorry, wrong gig, it's O-T-I-S-R-E-D-D-I-N-G!"
Having
already released Otis' studio albums several times, Otis' live record - only
made available once, briefly on CD - was a natural contender for re-issue.
However rather than simply re-issue an album that neither artist nor fans had
really taken to that much Stax did the sensible thing and went back to the
original masters, offering up not only the Paris show the original record came
from but the London show taped four days earlier as 'back-up' as well. Though
shorter (seven songs rather than ten) and a lot rougher (with Otis at his most
aggressive and husky), the unheard London show is to my ears the better of the
two, with the fast pace of the whole act pushing the band to new exciting
heights. The Paris show- already released complete on 'Live In Europe' - is
rather tamer and closer to the records, though you can see why it was released
at the time for those reasons. The Paris show is one you bought at the time to
impress your granny with - The London show is more the sort of album you use
now to annoy your neighbours with. 'Respect' is screamed rather than debated,
'Shake' is so dementedly manic you sense any of the audience trying to join in
are getting into a tangle, 'Satisfaction' is harder rock than the Stones live
version on 'Get Yer Ya-Yas Out!' in 1970 and 'Try A Little Tenderness' is
stretched out to a powerful seven minutes of peaks and troughs that leave both
singer and audience breathless. Only 'Day Tripper' maintains its respect,
strangely treated as the 'light ballad' song in the set and the chance for the
Bar-Keys to get their breath back (I didn't see that coming!) Neither album
quite matches the Monterey show for power and guts, but this welcome set offers
new insight into the sheer scale and oomph of a Redding live show and is far
better than a straight re-issue of the record.
"Historic Performances: Live At
The Monterey Pop Festival"
(Reprise,
Recorded June 1967, Released '1970')
Side
One: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Side
Two: Shake/Respect/I've Been Loving You Too Long/(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction/Try
A Little Tenderness
"This is the love crowd, right? We
all love each other don't we? Let me hear you say YEAH!"
'Shake!
Let me hear you all say it...' After a day and a half of laidback hippiedom,
mellow acoustic numbers and peace and love vibes this was a real shot of
adrenalin that takes the entire 90,000 crowd by surprise. Believe it or not,
few people attending the Monterey Pop Festival had ever heard of Otis Redding.
Though Otis was big in soul circles and had managed to cross over quite well to
the white pop market in Europe, his records had always sold far better overseas
than his homeland. Suddenly, two and a half years after his debut, the whole
world knew Otis Redding. In a meticulously planned five song set Otis and
Booker T and the MGs (returning to Otis' side for what was such a prestigious
event and who played their own set before the singer hit the stage) give their
all, nailing five very different sides to Otis' art. Warming to what he calls'
the love crowd', Otis responds to the peace and love vibes of the festival with
a powerful soul-rock crossover that's all about breaking barriers rather than
building them, as Otis pours his heart out on themes of equality and
frustration similar to those already heard across the June weekend, but in a
very different style. The crowd, their attention snatched in the most brutal
way with 'Shake', are shocked to find that the Aretha Franklin feminist anthem
'Respect' that had only just fallen out of the charts was actually a minor hit
first for the soul giant in front of them, turned back instantly into a song
about first race but also a more hippie-esque philosophy of equal rights and
values and shared respect between generations. The most intense 'I've Been
Loving You Too Long' of his career features Otis dropping his manic glint for
some of the most naked confessionals outside Simon and Garfunkel's set, with
Otis playing cat and mouse with the crowd as he breaks away from the
'ah-oh-woah' middle eight to grin at the MGs and ask to do it again, performing
this hook a third and fourth time before finally moving on with the song. By
the end of the song every eye is on the stage. Switching things up, Otis then
owns the hippies at their own game, bravely performing the Stones'
'Satisfaction' with all the passion but none of the sneer of the original. Any
doubts that Otis is an interloper playing at hippie philosophy is dispelled by
a rare speech from the stage from a performer who rarely spoke to his
audiences. 'We're the love crowd right? We all love each other now don't we?
:Let me hear you say yeah!' By now there isn't anything the crowd won't do for
Otis, who has become firmly one of them. Finally, Otis brings things to another
peak with a gorgeous 'Try A Little Tenderness', another very hippie-esque soul
song about mini-skirt dresses which switches from laidback love song into
intense feminist anthem by the end and has Otis yelling for all he's worth by
the end. 'I've got to go' he pleads at the end 'Lord knows I don't want to go'.
The crowd don't want him to go either.
The
single most important show of Otis' career finds both singer and band living up
to the scale of the occasion. Though always a nervy and stagestruck performer,
who spent most of the run-up to this show shaking, it's Otis' confidence in
front of an audience that cowed even some of the festival's biggest names that
weekend that made his mark (Simon and Garfunkel struggled for instance, while
The New Animals and The Byrds turned in disappointing sets). Despite what
legend tells you, Otis was not the only soul singer who played the festival,
but whereas Lou Rawls played his usual set early on on the opening day, Otis
tailored his set to the 'love crowd' and offered the hippies both something
that stood out from the other acts of the day and appealed quite genuinely to
their own ethics and ethos. It was the perfect match between band and audience
and Otis nailed every line. Of course he was the star of the show (joining
Janis Joplin from earlier in the day and Jimi Hendrix the next day, whose
explosive performance appears on the 'other' side of Otis' official recording,
Janis being stuck on a different label); the wonder is that it had taken his
American crowd so long to take him to their hearts.
Tragically
Otis wouldn't have long to enjoy the fame he'd been searching for for so long.
In fact in a way Monterey came along at just the wrong time: Otis was
struggling for a new direction (most of the songs performed on the night were
older songs dating back to 'Otis Blue' a full year or so earlier) and simply
ran out of time to record a fully hippie-pleasing album to make the most of his
new cross-over audience. With the failure of the Carla Thomas duets record
still ringing in his ears, Otis won't actually release another album in his lifetime,
with 'Dock Of The Bay' - a song quite different to any performed here - his
only major recording to come. But even if Otis never got the chance to make the
most of his success afterwards, he certainly made the most of his chances on
June 16th 1967 when he gives the single greatest show of his life. 'Shake' and
'Respect' can be seen in the 'Monterey' film released in 1968 (six months after
Otis had died), with the other three songs in the 'Monterey' DVD box set. The
music has been released several times too, best heard complete as part of the
'Monterey Pop Festival' 30th anniversary four disc box set in 1997 as well as
various Otis releases (including the final two songs of the 1993 'Otis!' box
set). However the most poignant release remains the first, released in 1970 as
a tribute to both Otis and Hendrix, the two stars who passed too soon given a
side each to prove their very different respective styles. One of the best
selling live albums of the year, it proved that the magic in the room (well,
field) had been every bit as strong as the people lucky enough to be there
claimed it had been. Even with all the many other Redding live albums in this
book, most of them played to his 'own' crowds, this is still hands down the
best Redding show. Every Otis fan needs to hear it; heck every fan of music
needs to it - this is one of those occasions when a show truly deserved to pass
into legend.
"The History Of Otis Redding"
(Volt,
November 1967)
I've
Been Loving You Too Long/Try A Little Tenderness/These Arms Of Mine/Pain In My
Heart/My Lover's Prayer/Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)//Respect/(I Can't Get No
Satisfaction)/Mr Pitiful/Security/I Can't Turn You Loose/Shake
"I've been loving you too long -
and I'm not about to stop now!"
The
timing of the one and only compilation album of Otis' lifetime seems spookily
timed, released mere weeks before his death and unexpectedly reaping the
benefits of the extra publicity surrounding the singer's death (most labels get
accused of being tacky by releasing best-ofs after their artist dies - but Stax
managed to avoid them given that this album was already riding high in the
charts anyway when Otis died). In retrospect that title, suggesting that
everything Otis had to offer is already passed, seems mighty spooky, although
it's pretty much in keeping with most soul compilations back then (where acts
tended to go 'bigger' and more 'epic' than their rock cousins - we've already
seen it in the way the singer became 'The Great Otis Redding' as early as his
not that hot selling second album). Actually the timing of the record makes
perfect sense: Otis was on a creative roll with three album's worth of material
being recorded the very same time this album made the shops, but even Otis at
speed would never have got a record ready for Christmas 1967. Far better, then,
for the Monterey 'love crowd' to get a timely reminder in their festive stockings
a mere five months after they'd discovered who Otis was. The resulting
compilation is cheap and cheerful, understandably handicapped by the short
playing times of records back in the mid-1960s and marred slightly by the sense
that Stax are keeping a few songs back for what must at the time have seemed an
inevitable volume two. As a result this set is not really recommended, being
superseded by better and longer albums several times over and particularly hit
by the fact that 'Dock Of The Bay' is only just being recorded this same month
so understandably doesn't appear. You could do worse though: all the big hits
are here, as are lesser selling fan favourites like 'Security' and 'My Lover's
Prayer' alongside the B-side oddity 'I Can't Turn You Loose'. Though nobody who
bought this album in the first month of release knew it, they were buying the
last Otis Redding album to be given the singer's stamp of approval and it's
full of his customary value for money and hallmark of quality.
"The Dock Of The Bay"
(Volt/Atco,
February 1968)
(Sittin'
On) The Dock Of The Bay/I Love You More Than Words Can Say/Let Me Come On
Home/Open The Door/Don't Mess With Cupid//The Glory Of Love/I'm Coming Home To
See You/Tramp/The Huckle-Buck/Nobody Knows You (When You're Down and Out)/Ole
Man Trouble
"Look likes nothing's gonna
change, looks like everything always stays the same..."
The
timing of Otis' death was doubly cruel because after a slow start to his career
he'd really found his voice across 1967. Though he only released one solo album
that year, he had enough for at least another two in reserve thanks to a
lengthy run of recording sessions in the second half of the bay of which 'Dock
Of The Bay' was only the tip of the iceberg. This first of four attempts at
releasing some of that mass of material, this is so much better than it has any
right to be for an 'outtakes' set and suggests that Otis' sixth solo album
would have been one of his best. Though 'Dock Of The Bay' is clearly the
stand-out track and by far the biggest switch of gears, the rest of the
material points towards a slight softening of Otis' stance and a more introspective sound all
round. It would have been fascinating to see how well the public would have
taken to such a change in Otis' work (would 'Dock Of The Bay' have even been a
hit coming out of the blue like that without his death to push it up the
charts?) but I have a sneaking suspicion that even if it hadn't sold this
mythical 'sixth album' would have been at least a fan favourite. 'Dock Of The
Bay' predecessor 'The Glory Of Love' is just gorgeous, Otis unwinding slowly
rather than unravelling quickly over the course of a song, while 'I'm Coming
Home' is one of Otis' loveliest love
songs for Zelda and perhaps reflects his eagerness for a rest after a gruelling
year, imagining a return home that sadly would never come.
However
it's important to remember that 'Dock Of The Bay' isn't quite what Otis would
have wanted for his sixth album - given that the sessions were still ongoing at
the time of his death it's unlikely that he'd have though too much about what
to keep and discard anyway. Stax, perhaps sensing they can get a few extra
sales by including a few old favourites sneakily add a few old singles here to
pad the album out - even though, as we know now, there was more than enough
stuff left in the vaults. 'Nobody Knows You' and 'Ole Man Trouble' really stick
out a mile possessing Otis' younger more aggressive voice, while 'Tramp' sounds
even more clueless and above all soul-less than ever, it's fake comedy tones
grating in amongst all the real naked vulnerability Otis offers here. 'Don't
Mess With Cupid' too is a B-side from 1966 and much played on tour that year
that never quite found a home and isn't up to the 1967 material here either. Thankfully
Stax have also included both sides of both of the last singles released in
Otis' lifetime which are sort of the
long lost stepping towards from his pure soul period to 'Dock Of The Bay',
Though neither were big hits (peaking at #78 and #60 in the US respectively),
both 'I Love You More Than Words Can Say' and 'The Glory Of Love' are welcome
important releases in Otis' discography, yearning ballads that are ever so
nearly matched by their fine and similarly titled B-sides 'Let Me Come On Home'
and 'I'm Coming Home' that perhaps hint at how much 'home' was becoming an
obsession for Otis in this period. I've always been surprised that all four
don't crop up on Redding compilations more often.
That doesn't leave an awful lot on this album
you can't find elsewhere then to be honest, although chances are maybe even
half of this album would have made it onto whatever record Otis would have
released next ('Open The Door' and 'The Hucklebuck' are the two songs exclusive
to this set at the time and neither are what I would have chosen from the piles
still in the vaults). Still, given all that, Stax have still put together an
album that's more of a worthy tribute than a blood-sucking cash-in. Hiring
Steve Cropper in to oversee the track selection is a strong move and the
guitarist copes well sifting through recordings he'd have made only weeks
before in such very different circumstances. The cover, too, says it all
without being direct about anything: Otis is on a black background, lost in
deep thought, with a gold border round the album, an inversion of the usual
tacky 'black border' tribute albums. I've always considered this record the
equal of any main album in the Redding catalogue, maybe even the better of a
few of them - though treasured as a last will and testament from a great man and
the biggest seller of Otis' career by far, this record has never perhaps been
given the love it quite deserves. Well worth digging out.
"The Immortal Otis Redding"
(Volt,
June 1968)
I've
Got Dreams To Remember/You Made A Man Out Of Me/Nobody's Fault But Mine/Hard To
Handle/Thousand Miles Away/The Happy Song (Dum-Dum-De-De-De-Dum-Dum)//Think
About It/A Waste Of Time/Champagne and Wine/A Fool For You/Amen
"Big O, everything's gonna be
alright!"
The second
posthumous Otis Redding release of 1968 is as close as we have to what that
mythical sixth solo album might have sounded like. Taken entirely from the
recording sessions Otis recorded in the last few weeks of his life, its proof
that Otis was going through a real creative renaissance after a year or so in
the doldrums with some of his most impressive and experimental work to date. Of
course, chances are the album wouldn't have looked exactly like this - Otis had
a lot of strong material to choose from, another two-thirds of which will be
spread across the next two retrospectives 'Love Man' and 'Tell The Truth'
across the next couple of years. Without his death the previous December the
record certainly wouldn't have had that choice of title or the album's funeral
elegiac air. But one thing the album Otis might have lived to make would surely
have matched are the high sales figures, amongst the best of his career,
because the record's brilliance and crossover appeal so soon after that
Monterey performance would surely have made this a career highlight no matter
how many more albums Otis might have gone on to make.
Though
there are a couple of slightly weaker cover songs towards the end I'd gladly
swap with the better stuff from 'Love Man' and 'Trust Me' and 'Dock Of The Bay'
and to a lesser extent 'The Glory Of Love' and 'The Hucklebuck' sound like they
'belong' to this album too, so this set could and should have been better -
Otis, generally a good judge of his own material despite some slightly
inconsistent albums, would surely have made this album even better had he
lived. But even with some of the stronger songs missing this album is quite an
achievement and represents the biggest single step up in Otis' work since 'Otis
Blue' back in 1965. What will hit you if you're coming to these albums in order
is how many of Otis' own songs are here: the November/December 1967 sessions
actually doubled the amount of recorded originals Otis had managed across his
career. Redding has a lot on his mind and has found a new way to communicate
the struggles of his personal life into music. Most of the songs here are about
his increasingly fragmented relationship with wife Zelda, but like 'Dictionary
Of Soul' they represent a see-saw ride: one minute Otis is holding back the
tears as he steels himself to make the break; the next he's realised how
perfect the couple are for each other and all the great times they shared. Otis
was always a singer who came from the heart, but his heart has never been open
as wide or for as long as it is here, with Otis agonisingly, terrifyingly real
throughout. Hearing the record together in one go is exhausting in fact, an
emotional rollercoaster that leaves you drained. Otis sure put a lot of living
and writing into those last few months, to almost unanimously great effect -
once again what a tragedy that he got taken from us before he could reap the
reward of what would surely come to be seen as hopefully the first in a series
of truly grown-up work. Mr Pitiful at last has a reason to sound sad and a way
of communicating it to us without relying on past glories or soul cliches.
Anyone
who thought that all the best stuff from the vaults had already been raided for
'Dock Of The Bay' would have been met with a surprise as soon as this record
starts up. 'I've Got Dreams To Remember' is perfect from Staxc's point of view,
a ghostly Otis waving us goodbye but telling us not to worry because he had
some great times - actually it's a lyric by wife Zelda about what must surely
have been their impending split sung by her husband with eerie accuracy and
detached cool. 'Dock Of The Bay' sequel 'The Happy Song' is a clever pop song,
the single most happy go lucky moment in the Redding canon and yet one that
fits perfectly, a brief moment of brevity from a man who knows how rare these
special fun times are. 'Hard To Handle' is such a famous composition (a
Grateful Dead setlist regular among many dozens of other cover versions) that
it comes as a surprise the song was never released in Otis' own lifetime. 'A
Waste Of Time' is an overlooked classic, the obvious update of Otis' slow
yearning ballad style for this darker, deeper modern age. And these are just
the highlights: the album's only weak inclusion really is the Ray Charles cover
'A Fool For You' and even that stands up against the covers from earlier in
Otis' career. A mood piece that hangs together well thanks to its head-hanging
guilty conscience and deeply moving thanks to the feeling of shadows circling
the horizon, 'The Immortal Otis Redding' is as good as any other record in
Otis' catalogue, matched for consistency and power only by 'Otis Blue'. To
think how much greater it would have been still with 'Dock Of The Bay'
surely a shoe-in for the record, perhaps
with hit single 'Love Man' and the one highlight from the archives missing here
'I'll Let Nothing Separate Us' included over 'A Fool For You' and 'Amen'. What
an album, what a talent, what a career and what better way to remember Otis
than to hear him searching out new ground, his artistic talents re-awakened
after a rather quiet start to the year. Usually I hate records that have title
like 'Immortal' or 'Great' or 'Mega-talented' but for once Stax got the title
spot on. Immortal, for the ages, timeless and to be enjoyed by every generation
to come: yeah, they got that right. Highly recommended.
"Love Man"
(Atco,
June 1969)
I'm
A Changed Man/(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher/That's A Good
Idea/I'll Let Nothing Separate Us/Direct Me/Love Man//Groovin' Time/Your
Feeling Is Mine/Got To Get Myself Together/Free Me/A Lover's Question/Look At
That Girl
"When this whole world comes to an
end I'll be standing there holding your
trembling hand, I won't let anything separate us, woah for now"
Posthumous
album number four (if you count 'Live At The Whiskey A Go Go) and for the first
time there's a slight sense of barrel-bottoms being scraped. Otis had, after
all, been even more prolific in death than life with double his usual output
across the year - it was inevitable that something would have to give way soon.
This time the album was taken exclusively from the final sessions in 1967 but
throws a new light on Otis' art. Instead of 'Dock Of The Bay' style ballads,
this is a new form of his old fast-paced soul, sung with as much gusto and
energy as the old days but with a slightly quieter, relaxed feel about
everything. 'I'm a changed man!' Otis soars rather than screams on the opening
track and it sounds like it too with a number of Otis; happiest and most
uplifting songs, a million miles away from 'Mr Pitiful' - a million miles
upwards in the case of the charming cover 'Higher and Higher'. 'Love Man' is
the song from the album that everyone knows after being lifted as a single -
though it only peaked at #72 in the singles chart, this song and the even
better full on soul ballad 'Free Me' also from this album were Otis' last ever
hits.
This
album doesn't quite live up to the last two in terms of consistency mind -
there are a few cover songs here that you'd have hoped Otis would have
rejected, both because they don't quite mould to his style and because his
performance is clearly a take or two away from his usual perfection. 'A Lover's
Question', another strangely popular song, is one of his weakest recordings
since the earliest days, while 'Look At That Girl' is grooving nicely until the
gospel choir come along to ruin things, an uncharacteristic lapse in taste.
This album remains important, however, for showcasing Otis' development as a
songwriter over the last year of his life and amazingly for a posthumous
compilation contains far more originals than any of his 'real' records.
Admittedly not all are prime Otis -'Groovin' Time is the usual Booker T and the
MGs funk filler with added worlds and 'Got To Get Myself Together' re-uses the
standard Otis Redding rhythm without really adding anything interesting.
However, there are some crackers here too that really deserved release sooner
and deserve to be more widely known. 'That's A Good Idea' is nicely slow and slinky
in the 'Hard To Handle' mould, 'Your Feeling Is Mine' is almost folk rock with
a softer, less solid feel than usual that could have been a really nice future
direction for Otis in 1968 and 'I'll Let Nothing Separate Us', one final love
song for Zelda, is a beautiful track that's almost too painful to bear. No it's
not perfect and Otis would no doubt have sat on a good third of this album
without releasing it, but if you come to this album in mind then this last
majority-unreleased Redding album is so much better than it has any right to
be. Had 'Love Man' come out in time to reach the end period of the 'love crowd'
Otis might have been even bigger than he had been in 1967 had he lived.
"Tell The Truth"
(Atco,
July 1970)
Demonstration/Tell
The Truth/Out Of Sight/Give Away None Of My Love/Wholesale Love/I Got The
Will//Johnny's Heartbreak/Snatch A Little Peace/Slippin' and Slidin'/The Match
Game/A Little Time/Swingin' On A String
"For just as long as I may live my
love to you I will give"
There
are two ways of looking at 'Tell The Truth', the fifth of the posthumous
Redding albums, unusually licensed out by Stax to their soul rivals Atco (a
branch of Atlantic, the other biggest soul label of the decade). It is, on the
one hand, the weakest collection of 'all new' studio Redding material and
easily the weakest of the three late 1967 recording sets, full of the material
that you'd have hoped Otis would have been most likely to discard. Oddly it's
more barrel-scraping than the unreleased songs from 1992's 'Remember Me' or the new 'old' material released on 'The
Story Of Otis Redding' and the 'Otis!' box set. However, what other artist
could provide a third album from six weeks' worth of sessions that was still
this listenable? The set still includes a whole seven Redding originals, which
brings his total for the sessions up to twenty-five: a ridiculously productive
amount. While none of them match the best of the previously released work like
'I've Got Dreams To Remember' or 'Dock Of The Bay', there's still a lot of
great stuff here including the emotional 'Give Away None Of My Love' (another
great song about the on-off relationship with Zelda), the slow cooking slinky
MGs groove 'Just A Little Time' which is even eerier than 'Dreams To Remember'
with its talk of something good being over before the narrator was ready to say
goodbye and the intriguing 'Johnny's Heartbreak' a one-off collaboration with
the only soul/R and B writer who could ever hold a candle to Otis/Cropper's own
talents: Arthur Alexander. Of course we also get a lot of Otis on auto-pilot,
jams that don't go anywhere and sound like warm-ups for the MGs to rehearse a
typical 'Otis' style rhythm and more than this album's fair share of sloppy
cover songs (Redding treats outside writer's material more and more hurriedly
as he begins to spend more and more time crafting his own work in this period).
Most of this relatively rare record can be heard on various Redding
compilations nowadays anyway, which is probably how it's best heard, as a few
extra sprinkles to go alongside the main Redding course rather than a full meal
in its own right. But, seriously, who expected a third album of outtakes from
the same period to be even this good or - momentarily - brilliant? Tell the
truth, not me. There won't be any more 'new' Otis releases for another twenty
years, with fans naturally assuming the four active studio records between them
must have captured everything releasable: actually there was a lot better than
this waiting in the vaults for another day. For now, though, the first Otis
Redding album of the 1970s kept his legacy safe for that little bit
longer.
"The Best Of Otis Redding"
(Atco,
'1972')
Shake/Ole
Man Trouble/Good To Me/I Can't Turn You Loose/I've Been Lovin' You Too
Long/Tell The Truth/(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction/Cigarettes and Coffee/Down In
The Valley/These Arms Of Mine/Tramp/Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)/Try A Little
Tenderness/Rock Me Baby/That's How Strong My Love Is/My Girl/Love Man/A Change
Is Gonna Come/Just One More Day/Respect/Pain In My Heart/My Lover's
Prayer/Chain Gang/You Don't Miss Your Water/(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay
"I've been loving you for a long
time - and you're still good to me!"
Released
to commemorate the fifth anniversary of Otis' death, this double set is a key
compilation in the Otis catalogue. It's the first to be released that isn't
just a knee-jerk re-action to Otis' death and as such is the first to look at
his career as a 'whole', setting the tone for future sets to come that will
largely take their track listing from the selections included here. For the
most part you can't fault the 25-song-long track listing, which offers a range
of songs a little deeper than previous sets and gives a real flavour to all
sides of Otis' canon: the more aggressive stance of 'I Can't Turn You Loose',
the happy-go-lucky 'Shake' , the wistful 'Dock Of The Bay' and the desperation
of 'Pain In My Heart'. Otis comes across as a far more 'complete' singer than
he does from listening to any of his album individually and we more modern fans
owe this set a lot for keeping Otis in the public eye into the 1970s. However
there are two things that prevent this set from being definitive: firstly the
songs are in a complete jumble here, switching from one extreme of Otis' style
to another, while the album cover illustration - supposedly a drawing of Otis
with a beard made up of collages from newspaper cuttings, though he looks more
like the first Master from Dr Who - is appalling. So far this compilation has
never been released on CD, which is a surprise actually given how many other
Otis sets there are out there and how beloved this set once was: the only
Redding compilation to make the charts outside his own lifetime. Astonishingly,
it's also the last for fourteen years until a growing interest in Otis from the
younger rock and soul communities lead to a sudden burst in releases in the
1980s and 1990s.Not before time.
"The Ultimate Otis Redding"
(**,
'1986')
Respect/(Sittin'
On) The Dock Of The Bay/These Arms Of Mine/Pain In My Heart/Come To
Me/Security/That's How Strong My Love Is/Mr Pitiful/I've Been Loving You Too
Long/(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction/Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)/Try A Little
Tenderness/Chained and Bound/Shake/Old Man Trouble/Let Me Come On Home/Open The
Door/That's What My Heart Needs/Tramp/I Can't Turn You Loose
"Well, we've all been wrong a time
in our life..."
Another
decade, another compilation with a different twenty track choice to most of the
previous LPs. Most of what you need is here though most of what you will want
after you hear it is different: no 'Cigarettes and Coffee' 'Day Tripper' or 'Love Man' for instance -
but rarer single material like 'Open The
Door' and posthumous songs like 'I can't Turn You Loose' are probably a fair
substitute actually. The biggest problem with this album, though, is how boring
and ugly it looks. Otis was a colourful performer with any number of images
that come to mind from his music - a black background with chunky yellow 'n'
peach writing was way down my list. Ultimate? Not quite. But at the time it was
a cheap and easy way of getting hold of a lot of classic material and on that
level at least is a qualified success.
"The Otis Redding Story"
(Atlantic,
'1987')
CD
One: These Arms Of Mine/What My Heart Needs/Mary's Little Lamb/Pain In My
Heart/Something Is Worrying Me/Security/Come To Me/Your One And Only
Man/Chained and Bound/That's How Strong My Love Is/Mr Pitiful/Keep Your Arms
Around Me/For Your Precious Love/A Woman A Lover A Friend/Home In Your
Heart/I've Been Loving You Too Long/A Change Is Gonna Come/Shake/Rock Me
Baby/Respect
CD
Two: You Don't Miss Your Water/Satisfaction/Ole Man Trouble/Down In The
Valley/I Can't Turn You Loose/Just One More Day/Papa's Got A Brand New Bag/Good
To Me/Cigarettes and Coffee/Chain Gang/My Lover's Prayer/It's Growing/Fa Fa Fa
Fa Fa Fa (Sad Song)/I'm Sick Y'all/Sweet Lorene/Try A Little Tenderness/Day
Tripper/Ton Of Joy/Hawg For You/Tramp
CD
Three: Knock On Wood/Lovey Dovey/New Year's Resolution/Ooh Carla Ooh Otis/Stay
In School/You Left The Water Running/The Happy Song (Dum Dum Dum)/Hard To
Handle/Amen/I've Got Dreams To Remember/Champagne and Wine/Direct Me/Merry
Christmas Baby/White Christmas/Love Man/Free Me/Look At That Girl/The Match
Game/Tell The Truth/Dock Of The Bay
"I've got dreams to
remember..."
Twenty
years on from both Monterey and Otis' death, at last his legacy began to be
taken seriously. It's a funny old business early death in the music world: the
big acts of the day can soon fade away as new acts come along to stay in the
public eye and it takes a special timeless talent to come back into fashion
despite the best wishes of the record companies who'd rather get on plugging
something or somebody new. But great talent can never really day - there'll
always be a murmur, a whisper, a cult movement that refuses to let brilliance
be forgotten and Otis remained more than special enough for his music to live
on for a new generation of soul and rock fans. Suddenly that album title 'The
Immortal Otis Redding' looked like it was coming true. Atlantic, who'd always
had close links to Stax, had by now gone their separate ways after an
extraordinary clause in the contract between them that the record labels would
go their separate ways on Atlantic boss Jerry Wexler's retirement, the bigger
label effectively picking and choosing the catalogue they wanted to 'keep'.
They decided the time was right to remind the world about Otis' talent and sanctioned the first proper investigation as
to what of Otis' existed in the vaults. They came up with a few surprises too
including the first release of Otis' 'Stay In School' rant, an unreleased
Christmas single and the demo 'You Left The Water Running' while guesting on a
Wilson Pickett session, both later re-released on the 'Remember Me' CD and
'Otis!' box set in the 1990s where they're easier to track down. With
'Ultimate' still selling well even a decade later, Atlantic decided to reach
out to the committed collector rather than the casual newcomer and came up with
a pricey box set, the first real release of Otis' work on compact disc.
This
turned out to be something of a flawed business plan, though. By 1987 Redding's
fanbase could be divided into two: the old-timers who owned all the original
albums on vinyl still and were deeply suspicious of the digital age, without
the equipment to play it on and the newcomers who were curious about Otis after
hearing him mentioned and after buying the best-of, but couldn't afford or
weren't interested enough to buy a box set that was, it has to be said, rather
ridiculously over-priced. Rather austerely packaged, with no real surprises
outside the new discoveries and the earliest two exclusive B-sides, there
simply wasn't enough of a hook for the newcomer to want to buy it. The set's
biggest saving grace wasn't even mentioned anywhere - the fact that it was the
first Redding set ever to include a complete set of A and B sides, all in the
'proper' chronological order for the first time ever. Even so, though, this set
has been rather wiped from history because so few people bought it - few
discographies even mention it, which seems odd for a set that included the
first releases of four recordings, one of them rather essential to the Otis
canon.
"Dock Of The Bay: The Definitive
Collection"
(Atlantic,
'1987')
Respect/Mr
Pitiful/Love Man/(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction/Security/I Can't Turn You
Loose/Shake/Hard To Handle/Tramp/Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)/My Lover's
Prayer/These Arms Of Mine/That's How Strong My Love Is/Cigarettes and Coffee/My
Girl/A Change Is Gonna Come/I've Been Loving You Too Long/Try A Little
Tenderness/Pain In My Heart/(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay
"It touches your heart, puts you
in a groove, and when you sing this song it makes your whole body move"
The 20th
anniversary of Otis' death coincided with the rise of the CD, making Redding an
obvious candidate for a compact disc-length compilation. The second album in
Otis' career to be named after his biggest hit, 'Dock Of The Bay' is rather a
good one, extending the usual dozen or so songs into a pretty darn good twenty
track retrospective that will set the standard for the next few years until the
two and four disc sets start arriving. Newcomers get to enjoy all the hits in
one place, collectors get to enjoy semi-rarities like 'Hard To Handle' 'My
Lover's Prayer' and 'I Can't Turn You
Loose' alongside the cream of Otis' five-album solo run (plus 'Tramp',
annoyingly) and the cover sports perhaps the definitive Otis picture in gold,
re-used by many sets since. I'm especially pleased to see highly rated album
tracks that never got the attention they deserved in Otis' own career
overshadowed by the 'hits' such as 'That's How Strong My Love Is' and
'Security'. Working against this set is the lack of space compared to the
better, longer best-ofs out there, the lack of sleevenotes and the rather
jumbled chronology, although it's hard to fault a set that starts with
'Respect' and ends with 'Dock Of The Bay'. There are better sets around, then,
but for years this was all we had and it was more than good enough, Otis'
legacy kept safe for a little longer. The set sold so well that the run of
Redding compilations comes to a pause again here for another five years or so.
Remember Me (1992)....................
"Remember Me"
(Stax,
'1992')
Trick
Or Treat/Loving By The Pound/There Goes My Baby/Remember Me/Send Me
Lovin'/She's Alright/Cupid/The Boston Monkey/Don't Be Afraid Of Love/Little Ol'
Me/Pounds and Hundreds/You Got Lovin'/Gone Again/I'm Comin' Home/(Sittin' On)
The Dock Of The Bay Takes One and Two/Respect (Outtake)/Open The Door
(Outtake)/I've Got Dreams To Remember/Come To Me (ALternate)/Try A Little
Tenderness (Outtake)/Stay In School
"Remember me, don't you forget me
child, we are only here for a little while"
A
quarter century after Otis' death and finally his legacy seemed complete.
Following on from the four posthumous studio sets released between 1968 and
1970 here is a fifth and final compilation made up of all the outtakes and
unreleased songs Otis had never gone round to finishing or releasing. Suddenly,
after two decades of being teased with a few unheard live recordings, this was
Otis overload with 22 completely unreleased recordings - five unreleased covers,
no less than nine unreleased originals (far more than on any of Redding's
original albums!), six alternate takes, a rather scrappy live recording of
'Respect' and the 'Stay In School' message Otis rather clumsily gave to
high-school dropout wannabes on tour as part of a wider campaign for higher
education. Many of these songs had been talked about before but rarely heard
even on bootleg - songs like 'I've Got Dreams To Remember', a ballad that's
become a sort of retrospective classic that's always appearing on albums and is
the only time Otis sang words written by his wife Zelda, or a very different
version of 'Try A Little Tenderness' or the two earlier takes of 'Dock Of The
Bay' taped three weeks before the final hit version. Even another quarter
century on, I'm still in shock that this album actually came out after being a
record-collecting myth for so long.
Of
course not everything is first-rate. Given that Otis made seven finished albums
and the equivalent of another six of unreleased recordings within the space of
just three years I'd never expect them to be, but some of the worst excesses
are on this album too. There's a run of tracks at the beginning that are pure
Sam Cooke and Little Richard pastiches, made before Otis has quite found his
voice, while the actual covers of these singer's tracks like 'Send Me Lovin'
and 'Cupid' are a little outside Otis' comfort zone. For the most part, though,
this is a terrific set that's at least half-full of songs that should never
have been shelved. In addition to the much talked about numbers, the under-rated
title track 'Remember Me' is the playful side of Otis that's horrifically
poignant given the lines about life being too short and making the most of it,
'The Boston Monkey' is a clever Steve Cropper groove with Otis grunting laid on
top, 'Don't Be Afraid Of Love' adds a little jazz shuffle to the soul and
'Hundreds and Pounds' is about the closest Redding and Cropper came to making a
full-on rock number. There are all sorts of reasons why Otis should never have
been forgotten and finally 'Remember Me' gave us all a strong reminder about
why Otis was one of the best in his field without resorting to the same old
tired song choices. But then with a voice like that, how could any us really
forget? Unexpectedly brilliant and perhaps the best of all four posthumous
outtakes sets (though 'Love Man' comes close too).
"The Very Best Of Otis Redding
Volume One"
(Rhino,
November 1992)
These
Arms Of Mine/Pain In My Heart/That's How Strong My Love Is/Mr Pitiful/I've Been
Lovin' You Too Long/Respect/I Can't Turn You Loose/(I Can't Get No)
Satisfaction/My Lover's Prayer/Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)/Try A Little
Tenderness/Shake/The Happy Song (Dum-Dum-Dee-Dee-Dee-Dum-Dum)/Tramp/(Sittin'
On) The Dock Of The Bay/I've Got Dreams To Remember
"With you my life has been so
wonderful I can't stop now..."
Our old
AAA friends Rhino, who helped turn The Monkees from the runt of the 1960s
litter into a band of depth and brilliance with their CD re-issues, took over
Otis' canon for the most part in the 1990s (though smaller labels continued to
license Otis' songs from his estate occasionally). In keeping with their
tradition, they started small, issuing a Redding compilation that's rather
small in scale and scope and not all that different to the 'Dock Of The Bay'
set from five years earlier ('Dum Dum Dum (The Happy Song)' and the just-issued
'I've Got Dreamt To Remember' are no substitutes for 'That's How Strong My Love
Is' 'Security' and 'Cigarettes and Coffee' either). However it's welcome that
the 25th anniversary of Otis' passing was noticed by somebody and the set makes
a decent stab at putting all of Otis' greatest moments in one place for curious
fans intrigued by the fuss around 'Remember Me'. Volume two was released three
years later, while Rhino told the story in far more detail the following year
with a box set building on the legacy merely hinted at here.
"Otis! The Definitive Otis
Redding" (Box Set)
(Rhino,
November 1993)
CD
One: She's All Right (The Shooters) /Gettin' Hip (The Pinetoppers)/Shout
Bamalama (The PInetoppers)/Hey Hey Baby/These Arms Of Mine/That's What My Heart
Needs/Mary's Little Lamb/Pain In My Heart/Security/Come To Me/Don't Leave Me
This Way/Little Ol' Me/Don't Be Afraid Of Love/Your One and Only Man/Chained
and Bound/That's How Strong My Love Is/Mr Pitiful/For Your Precious Love/I've
Been Loving You Too Long/I'm Depending On You/Ole Man Trouble/A Change Is Gonna
Come/Down In The Valley/Shake
CD
Two: Respect/You Don't Miss Your Water/(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction/I Can't
Turn You Loose/Cupid/Just One More Day/Good To Me/Cigarettes and Coffee/Chain
Gang/My Lover's Prayer/It's Growing/I'm Comin' Home/Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad
Song)/I'm Sick Y'al/Sweet Lorene/Try A Little Tenderness/Day
Tripper/Tramp/Knock On Wood/Lovey Dovey/New Year's Resolution/You Left The
Water Running/Trick Or Treat/Merry Christmas Baby/White Christmas/Coca-Cola
Commercial (A Man And A Woman)
CD
Three: Announcement (Stay In School!)/Glory Of Love/I Love You More Than Words
Can Say/Let Me Come On Home/Open The Door/Hucklebuck/The Happy Song
(Dum-Dum-Dee-Dee-Dee-Dum-Dum)/Hard To Handle/Amen/Gone Again/I've Got Dreams To
Remember/I'm A Changed Man/Direct Me/Love Man/Free Me/Look At The Girl/Pounds
and Hundreds/Tell The Truth/Johnny's Heartbreak/The Match Game/A Little
Time/Slippin' and Slidin'/(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay
CD
Four (Live): Introduction/Shake/Pain In My Heart/These Arms Of Mine/Can't Turn
You Loose/I've Been Loving You Too Long/My Girl/Your One and Only Man/Good To
Me/Day Tripper/Just One More Day/Mr Pitiful/(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction/I'm
Depending On You/Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)/Chained and Bound/Ole' Man
Trouble/Any Ole Way/Papa's Got A Brand New Bag/Security/A Hard Day's
Night/Respect/Try A Little Tenderness
"I'm a changed man, I'm a brand new guy, yeah yeah yeah!"
This is,
I think it's fair to say, 'the big one'. Though Otis himself only released
round about four CD's worth of material in his lifetime anyway, Rhino have done
a good job of weeding out the slightly lesser tracks in favour of the best posthumous
releases for a set that tries to give substance and balance back to a story
that till now has only really been told via the highlights since Otis' death.
Though casual newcomers will be drawn in by the chance to own all the songs
they'd been hearing so much about, especially on the hit-packed second disc,
this set is really aimed at for collectors who get somewhere around twenty
songs making their debut on the three studio CDs. The three pre-fame Otis
recordings with Redding's original bands The Shooters and the Pinetoppers are
impressive, already sounding much like the Redding to come but in a very
different setting with a jazzy backing and female backing singers. Hard to find
early B-side 'Mary's Little Lamb' is a stunner too, senselessly missed out of all
the zillions of compilations since its release back in 1963.
The
latest batch of outtakes from the final 1967 sessions are a slightly more
uneven bunch and spreading that last burst of creativity across a whole CD and
a bit slightly unbalances the box, but still contains its fair share of
surprises. The delightful Isaac Hayes cover 'Trick Or Treat' is my new
candidate for best AAA Halloween song (alongside The Kinks' 'Wicked Annabella'
and The Hollies' 'Witchy Woman'), 'You Left The Water Running' hints that Otis
could do country-soul as well as all his other experiments, 'Merry Christmas
Baby' is full of festive cheer and new original 'The Match Game' is as great as
any of the flurry of posthumous singles released in the wake of the singer's
death. Set against this brilliance it seems almost churlish to record that
'White Christmas', adapted into Otis' usual pleading style, leaves you colder
than a snowman with frostbite, that Otis' last cover song by his beloved Little
Richard on 'Slippin' and Slidin' is an intense disappointment or that a taped
on-stage message from Otis telling his crowd of largely teenage kids to 'stay
in school' because leaving is 'not groovy' is preachy and in Otis' case not
true at all: Otis never looked back after quitting school at fifteen to earn
money for his family and while he may have regretted it on a personal level
it's hardly fair to tell his audience that staying in school is the only way to
get a career when he himself did pretty well without passing any exams.
Those are
only small fry problems, though, because as well as the three studio discs we
get perhaps the most substantial and necessary document of the Otis Redding
live years on disc four, cobbled together seamlessly from four separate gigs.
Taking out the lesser moments and including only definitive performance of each
of the 'famous' songs plus a few one-off rarities from The Whisky-A-Go-Go in
April 1966, London/Paris in March/April 1967,
Monterey from June 1967 and the rare couple of tracks recorded as early
as November 1963 at the Apollo ('These Arms Of Mine' being the one unreleased
live recording here) allows you to see just how far Otis took his style and how
much it changed. Though purists will no doubt argue that you still need to buy
each of these concerts separately to get the real sense of the drama and
passion of an Otis Redding gig, collecting the best of these shows together for
one definitive CD makes sense in the context of the box set and is the perfect
end, a reminder that much of Otis' magic came on-stage rather than off.
Starting with a gruff-voiced 'Shake' with a terrific drum solo, the disc moves
on to a terrific and smoky 'Just One
More Day', a punchy horn driven 'I'm Counting On You', a sneaky cover of The
Beatles' 'A Hard Day's Night' in the same line as 'Day Tripper' and
'Satisfaction' that works better than either and a final pair of classic
breathless pieces from the Monterey show, classics all. Of course, it would
have been better yet had the Monterey show been included in full (it's such an
integral part of the Redding story after all) and the set leans a little too
heavily for me towards the 1966 set, when Otis was still only part of the way
towards forming his trademark live style, but this is still the single best
live Otis Redding CD out there and makes for a memorable conclusion to a
memorable set.
Chosen
with care, with the tracks largely included in order and exquisitely packaged,
'Otis!' is perhaps the best single purchase Redding sets and deserves to be at
least on the shortlist of the very best AAA box sets out there. Containing
almost everything of Otis' you'd ever need including lesser known greats like
'That's How Strong My Love Is' and 'Your One and Only Man' (although as always
it's not perfect: the playful side of Otis' art such as 'Louie Louie' 'I'm A
Hawg For Yer' and 'Soulsville 6-3-4-9-7-8-9'
all deserve to be here), 'Otis!' gets away with its 'Definitive' tag for
once, because there's very little ground this set doesn't cover, from the first
stirrings of soul purity in 1963 to the wiser, more wistful recordings made at
the very end. Otis' career and life were short and you can't help but feel that
this box set is cut off too soon - that what we have here should be the middle
'peak' rather than the whole of a life in music. But Otis' short life was
highly fruitful, with more classics amongst his releases than many people
realize after decades of the same old lazy compilations. 'Otis!' puts that
right at last with care, with love and with all the right source materials in place.
The only negative point to make really is how quickly this set disappeared,
before it was given its proper dues and it now sadly fetches ridiculous prices
on the second-hand market. A re-issue soon, preferably at a cheaper price than
the original, would be highly valuable and help restore Otis to where he
belongs - as the King of soul with a voice, talent, charisma and songs like no
other. Stunning.
"The Very Best Of Otis Redding
Volume Two"
(Rhino,
April 1995)
That's
What My Heart Needs/Come To Me/Security/Chained and Bound/I'm Depending On
You/My Girl/A Change Is Gonna Come/Day Tripper/I Love You More Than Words Can
Say/The Glory Of Love/Knock On Wood/Lovey Dovey/Hard To Handle/Amen/Look At
That Girl/Papa's Got A Brand New Bag
"I don't want to lose this good
thing that I've got, 'cause if I do I will surely lose a lot"
An
intriguing collection of lesser known recordings for those who didn't get
enough with Rhino's volume one, this is another well planned and chosen
collection that mainly rounds up the lesser-singles from Otis' own lifetime and
the posthumous releases taken from the vaults. Some of these are as wonderful
as anything on volume one: the urgency of 'That's What This Heart Needs', the
drama of 'Chained and Bound', the slow-burning groove of 'The Glory Of Love'
and the influential funk of 'Hard To Handle'. Though the set falls apart a
little at the end when Stax got a little bit desperate and greedy for material
from the vaults, with a few too many covers of songs made famous by others,
this is a highly impressive set for a 'volume two' and recommended for those
who've already bought the original five solo albums (you can probably miss
'King and Queen'...) who don't yet want to splash out on the pricey box sets
and who can't even flipping find most of the posthumous compilations...
"Love Songs"
(Elektra,
January 1998)
These
Arms Of Mine/That's What My Heart Needs/Pain In My Heart/That's How Strong My
Love Is/For Your Precious Love/Nothing Can Change This Love/I've Been Loving
You Too Long/My Girl/Just Once More/My Lover's Prayer/Try A Little
Tenderness/Lovey Dovey/I Love You More Than Words Can Say/A Lover's
Question/Love Man/(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher
"I'll be the breeze after the
storm is gone, to dry your eyes and love you all warm!"
A
slightly different tack now for the latest Redding compilation, outsourced to
the label Elektra for the first time. This is the first of two 'themed' Redding
compilations, this one based around the theme of 'love' and released in time for
Valentine's Day, although it rather begs the question 'weren't most of Otis'
songs about love?' The new 'rules' mean there's no 'Dock Of The Bay' 'Mr
Pitiful' 'Sad Song' 'Respect' or 'Shake' for once although most everything else
is here from the heartbreak of 'Pain In My Heart' though to the posthumous
covers of 'Love Man' and 'Higher and Higher'. Full marks for including these
songs in the right order (this is I think only the second Redding set to do
this out of about flipping twenty-five so well done Elektra!) and for including
some rarer but equally remarkable songs along the way: 'That's How Strong My
Love Is' 'Just Once More' and 'Your Precious Love' among them. This set could
still have been better though: there's no 'Your One and Only Man' which I'd
have said was a shoe-horn for the intense romantic drama the record label are
clearly going for here, not to mention 'A Woman A Lover A Friend' 'Keep Your
Arms Around Me' 'Wonderful World' 'Treat Her Right' and 'You're Still My Baby', although I'm relieved
to see the anthology keeping clear of 'King and Queen' with the exception of
'Lovey Dovey' (which is, at least, an improvement on 'Tramp'!) 'Love Man' too
is pushing it a bit for entry too - 'Lust Man' would be a more fitting title!
Not the most obvious Redding compilation to purchase and not exactly made for
easy romantic listening, but if you have a dramatic soulful love life then you might just have found your
perfect soundtrack.
"Dreams To Remember: The Otis
Redding Anthology"
(Rhino,
August 1998)
CD
One: Shout Bamalama (The Pinetoppers)/These Arms Of Mine/What My Heart
Needs/Pain In My Heart/Come To Me/Security/Chained and Bound/Mr Pitiful/That's
How Strong My Love Is/I've Been Lovin' You Too Long/Respect/Ole Man Trouble/A
Change Is Gonna Come/(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction/Down In The Valley/Shake/My
Girl/You Don't Miss Your Water/Cupid/I Can't Turn You Loose/Just One More
Day/My Lover's Prayer/Cigarettes and Coffee/It's Growing/Fa-Fa-Faq-Fa-Fa-Fa
(Sad Song)/Try A Little Tenderness
CD
Two: You Left The Water Running/Trick Or Treat/Tramp/Lovey Dovey/Let Me Come On
Home/I Love You More Than Words Can Say/Merry Christmas Baby/The Glory Of
Love/Tell The Truth/I've Got Dreams To Remember/The Happy Song
(Dum-Dum-Dee-Dee-Dee-Dum-Dum)/Hard To Handle/Amen/Direct Me/Love Man/Look At
That Girl/I'm A Changed Man/The Match Game/(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The
Bay/Shake (Live)/Respect (Live)/I've Been Loving You Too Long (Live)/(I Can't
Get No) Satisfaction (Live)/Try A Little Tenderness (Live)
"I
just could not wait for another day, I love you more than words can say"
The
first of several two-disc Otis Redding sets, Rhino released this as a sort of
cheaper alternative to the pricey box set, sadly without most of the live songs
or the detailed packaging but still an impressive amount of the set's exclusive
rarities. Starting with Otis' first recorded lead vocal and ending at Monterey,
like the box set, there's a different emphasis amongst the album tracks which
reduces the main Otis albums to a single disc (not bad, but the 'Volume One'
set was better) and a more intriguing second disc that for the most part
features the crop of the posthumous releases and the best of the 'new'
material. This can be quite a weird mixture - it's the Otis equivalent of
releasing 'Sgt Peppers' backed with a disc of outtakes from 'The Beatles
Anthology' - but so many of the originally unreleased recordings are so good
that many new fans simply didn't realise the second disc was ever meant to be
inferior. The box set is clearly the better one to buy if you can but, hey, I'm
not made of money either (feel free to buy another seven copies of this book!)
so this is a kinder and cheaper way of still getting your hands on the fairly
essential Redding rarities. Minus several marks for the packaging thouygh -
instead of re-using the same distinctive sleeve as Rhino's best-of and box set
this one goes for a drawing that makes Otis look like Lionel Richie with a
boxer's nose!
"The Very Best Of Otis
Redding"
(**,
January 2002)
CD
One: Respect/Try A Little Tenderness/Love Man/Shake/Mr Pitiful/I Can't Turn You
Loose/Pain In My Heart/You Left The Water Running/My Lover's
Prayer/Tramp/Chained and Bound/That's How Strong My Love Is/My Girl/Cigarettes
and Coffee/It's Growing/The Match Game/Nobody Knows You When You're Down and
Out/I'm A Changed Man/Your One and Only Man/(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay
CD
Two: I've Been Lovin' You Too Long/These Arms Of Mine/Hard To Handle/That's
What My Heart Needs/Security/(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction/Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa
(Sad Song)/The Happy Song (Dum-Dum-Dee-Dee-Dee-Dum-Dum)/Come To Me/A Change Is
Gonna Come/Lovey Dovey/You Don't Miss Your Water/I've Got Dreams To
Remember/Dopwn In The Valley/Just One More Day/You Made A Man Out Of Me/Tell
The Truth/For Your Precious Love/Free Me/I Love You More Than Words Can Say
"I'm long legged and I'm outta
site!"
Another
anniversary (amazingly it had now been thirty-five years by now since Monterey
and Otis' death), so it's time for another compilation with the usual suspects
trotted out to remind the world about Otis' legacy. This set is, however, one
up from most courtesy of two fully packed CD length-discs in that this time all
the goodies are there and the more unusual track selections - especially the
ones released after Otis' death - seem to have been chosen with far more care.
After the box set, this is another of those one-off purchase sets that will
give you close enough to everything of Otis' everyone should own in their
collection and at a pretty good price too. There's a nice selection of songs
from 1992's outtakes set 'Remember Me'
too, with this the first compilation outside the box set able to include
them. And not many Carla Thomas duets,
which is a good thing by the way. Of course it's still not perfect - there has
yet to be an Otis Redding set that is - courtesy of another jumbled up track
listing that's even worse than normal, thanks to the inexplicable decision to
put the four most up-tempo tunes in Otis' canon together - followed by what
almost amounts to a CD and three-quarters taken up with ballads. 'I Love You
More Than Words Can Say' seems an odd way to end the set too. The packaging too
is a little bare bones, with the front cover featuring Otis peering through a
big 'O' and not much in the way of sleevenotes, although it's still
"The
Definitive Soul Collection"
(Rhino, July 2006)
CD One: These Arms Of Mine/That's What
My Heart Needs/Pain In My Heart/Come To Me/Security/Chained and Bound/Mr
Pitiful/That's How Strong My Love Is/I've Been Loving You Too Long/I'm
Depending On You/Respect/Can't Turn You Loose/A Change Is Gonna Come/(I Can't
Get No) Satisfaction/My Lover's Prayer
CD Two: Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)/Try
A Little Tenderness/I Love You More Than Words Can Say/Tramp/Shake/Knock On
Wood/Glory Of Love/(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay/The Happy Song
(Dum-Dum-Dee-Dee-Dee-Dum-Dum)/Lovey Dovey/Amen/Hard To Handle/Look At The
Girl/Papa's Got A Brand New Bag/I've Got Dreams To Remember
"Love
those peaches, gotta have that tree"
The
packaging may be a bit cheap and shoddy and the songs you know might dry up
early on in the second disc, but for the cheap price this is a terrific way to
get lots of cut price Otis in one go. The first disc is pretty comprehensive as
a best-of in its own right and for once amongst these sets includes the songs
in the proper chronological order so you can really hear Otis' talents grow
track by track. The second is more of a collection of posthumous singles, not
many of which would have been chosen by Otis himself had he lived you suspect,
but even then there's enough of worth here to add a bit of depth to your
understanding of Otis and his art. There's even a handful of the better album
tracks too such as 'That's How Strong My Love Is' and 'Chained and Bound' which
are the equal of any of the better known songs. Be warned, though, that there
are a couple of omissions that make this set fall just short of that
'definitive' title - no 'Love Man' or 'My Girl' - while three songs from the
'King and Queen' duets album with Carla Thomas (the most represented Redding
album here after 'Otis Blue') seems decidedly over-generous when there were so
many other gems to choose from. Still, if it's price that's always been putting
you off Otis' essential works then this is a worthy and credible place to
begin.
"Stax
Profiles"
(Stax, June 2006)
Security/Happy Song (Dum Dum Dee Dee
Dee Dum Dum)/My Lover's Prayer/Shake/Mr Pitiful/Good To Me/A Woman A Lover A
Friend/Direct Me/(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction/A Change Is Gonna Come/Champagne
and Wine/I'm Sick Y'all/I've Got Dreams To Remember
"I'm
singing' out to you and I hope it reaches you"
Stax went back through all their old
recordings for a 21st century audience, including an impressive array of the
obvious (Rufus Thomas, Eddie Floyd and even Booker T and the MGs all got their
own albums) and the less obvious (Little Milton, Johhny Taylor, Albert King).
Clearly Otis was always going to be a shoe-in for the re-issue series which
included around an old vinyl album's worth of songs by each artists and prided
itself on offering more than just the hits. Of all the CDs in the series Otis'
is the highlight and not just because he's the only one getting his own AAA
book: no, this set is Otis' closest music partner Steve Cropper picking his own
thirteen favourite Otis tunes for the first time 9and writing some brief
sleevenotes). Needless to say, he's got great taste: along with the more
obvious tracks are a few of the more overlooked posthumous songs like 'I've Got
Dreams To Remember' and 'Happy Song' that more than deserve their turn in the
spotlight. 'A Woman A Lover A Friend' and 'A Change Is Gonna Come' are also both
tracks from the earlier years that don't get enough attention, while the only
slight let down is the surprise choice of the humming and hawing 'I'm Sick
Y'all!' which never sat right on 'The Dictionary Of Soul' either never mind
here. 'Shake!', by the way, is the oddity here: it comes from the various
artists live set 'Stax Volume Three' - Live In Europe' released in 1992 and is
hard to find elsewhere. It's a fairly standard performance of the song, though,
and rather woolly as a recording. The rest of the songs, though, sound much the
same as they do elsewhere - despite some extra collector-appealing notes on the
back cover drawing your attention to 'alternate mixes'. Not your average
best-of then but a real honest-to-goodness profile from a friend and musician
who really knows his stuff.
"The
Best: See and Hear Otis Redding"
(Shout Factory, January 2009)
DVD: Shake/My Girl/Green Onions (Booker
T and the MGs)/When Something Is Wrong With My Baby (Sam and Dave)/(I Can't Get
No) Satisfaction/Try A Little Tenderness/(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The
Bay/Shake/Respect/I've Been Loving You Too Long/(I Can't Get No)
Satisfaction/Try A Little Tenderness
CD: (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The
Bay/Try A Little Tenderness/Respect/I've Been Loving You Too Long/(I Can't Get
No) Satisfaction/Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)/Tramp/Mr Pitiful/Pain In My
Heart/That's How Strong My Love Is/The Happy Song
(Dum-Dum-Dee-Dee-Dee-Dum-Dum)/I've Got Dreams To Remember
"Just
anticipating things she never possessed"
This
time round, Otis' art was collected for DVD as well as CD for an uneasy hybrid
that - apart from the obvious talent on display - is actually one of the worst
of the period compilations of audio and visuals. The CD, you see, is pristine,
a collection of carefully hewn studio recordings that Otis sweated buckets on
getting just right and though most of the standards of the Otis best-of sets
are here, there's a lot of curios too. Few fans would rate the cute but
frivolous 'The Happy Song' or 'Tramp' as more fitting of inclusion than 'These
Arms Of Mine' for instance. As for the DVD, it's also good but shows off a
quite different side to Otis: recorded at the Stax Volt Revue in 1967 it's a
raw, wild show recorded very primitively and though it's one of the better
fuller Redding gigs captured on film it's not a natural pairing: the records
are powerful for their vulnerability and perfection, but the DVD is more
noticeable for the aggression and sweat pouring off Otis' head. The track
listing too doesn't include that many of the obvious songs and interrupts it
with oddities too (such as Booker T and
the MGs' opening 'Green Onion's inexplicably put partway through and a
mocked-up 'Dock Of The Bay' that Otis of course never lived long enough to film
a promo for). The result is far from bad and if you don't own any Otis will
fill in some CD and DVD holes in your collection nicely, but fans interested in
buying the DVD will most likely own the CD contents several times over and the
newcomers who get excited by the CD will most likely be put off by the low-fi
grunting of the DVD. A little odd.
"100
Hits Legends"
(DMG, July 2010)
CD One: These Arms Of Mine/Pain In My
Heart/Mr Pitiful/That's How Strong My Love Is/Security/I Can't Turn You
Loose/My Girl/I've Been Loving You Too Long/That's What My Heart Needs/Come To
Me/I Need Your Lovin'/Louie Louie/Chained and Bound/Lucille/Walking The Dog/Ole
Man Trouble/Just One More Day/Something Is Worrying Me/Stand By Me/You Send Me
CD Two: A Change Gonna Come/A Woman A
Lover A Friend/Home In Your Heart/Respect/Satisfaction/I Want To Thank You/Down
In The Valley/It's Too Late/Fa Fa Fa Fa Fa Fa Fa (Sad Song)/Wonderful
World/Keep Your Arms Around Me/Nothing Can Change This Love/You Don't Miss Your
Water/Your One And Only Man/Rock Me Baby/6345789 Soulsville USA/She Put The
Hurt On Me/Lovey Dovey/For Your Precious Love/My Lover's Prayer
CD Three: Hard To Handle/Shake/Knock On
Wood/Tramp/Chain Gang/I'm Sick Y'all/It Takes Two/Scratch My Back/Everybody
Makes A Mistake/New Year's Resolution/Are You Lonely For Me Baby?/Good To
Me/Sweet Lorene/Ooh Carla Ooh Otis/Any OIe Way/Hawg For You/Love Have
Mercy/Tell It Like It Is/Tennessee Waltz/Amen
CD Four: Try A Little
Tenderness/Cigarettes and Coffee/Bring It On Home To Me/The Glory Of Love/I've
Got Dreams To Remember/I Love You More Than Words Can Say/When Something Is
Wrong With My Baby/The Happy Song (Dum Dum Dum)/You Left The Water
Running/Treat Her Right/Trick Or Treat/Day Tripper/Don't Mess With Cupid/It's
Growing/Let Me Come Home/Ton Of Joy/Let Me Be Good To You/Nobody Knows
You/You're Still My Baby/The Dock Of The Bay
CD Five: Love Man/Your Love Has Lifted
Me Higher and Higher/Got To Get Myself Together/A Lover's Question/I'm A
Changed Man/The Huckle-buck/Groovin' Time/The Match Game/I'm Coming Home To See
You/Tell The Truth/Open The Door/Direct Me/Look At That Girl/That's A Good
Idea/Your Feeling Is Mine/Champagne and Wine/Nobody's Fault But Mine/I'll Let
Nothing Separate Us/A Fool For You/Free Me
"If
you would take things under consideration and walk down this hour (or five)
with me then I would love it, yeah..."
The
'100 Hits Legends' series gets a bit sniffed at by purist collectors,
containing as it does a rather randomised set of recordings all linked to a
particular label, but they offer a cheap way for curious fans to get more than
just the hit singles by a favoured artists without breaking the bank and thanks
to the consistency and the fact that Otis only ever recorded songs for one
label his is one of the best entries in the series. Considering that Otis only
ever released ** songs in his lifetime, this low budget 100 track set is
awfully good value for money and represents the best value means of getting
hold of around 90% of the studio material in this book, currently selling for a
little under a tenner. You even get an impressive run of the best of the
posthumous albums on the last disc which is as good as any other Otis set for
separating the wheat from the chaff. Of course what you don't get is a sense of
history - the packaging is as minimal as it gets - or the scope and size of
Redding's canon, with the CDs roughly in the right order but with oddities from
other years suddenly turning up in the middle of other eras. Still, if you
don't mind cheap and cheerful and have time on your hands you can always
re-programme this set using the 'intended' running order featured in this book.
I still have my problems with the title of this series though: even Elvis never
had 100 hit singles so claiming that someone who only ever had one #1 hit and
indeed no other top ten hits in his homeland has '100 hits' in this set is
exaggerating just a tad.
"Soul Legend: The Best Of Otis
Redding"
(Music
Club Deluxe, June 2011)
CD
One: (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay/Hard To Handle/Happy Song
(Dum-Dum-Dee-Dee-Dee-Dum-Dum)/Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)/Tramp/Knock On
Wood/Day Tripper/Try A Little Tenderness/My Lover's Prayer/Let Me Come On
Home/Pain In My Heart/These Arms Of Mine/That's How Strong My Love Is/I've Been
Loving You Too Long/Just One More Day/Security/Chained and Bound/Ole Man
Trouble/Cigarettes and Coffee/She Put The Hurt On Me
CD
Two: Shake (Live)/My Girl/I Can't Turn You Loose/Mr Pitiful/Respect/(I Can't
Get No) Satisfaction/The Glory Of Love/I Love You More Than Words Can Say/I've
Got Dreams To Remember/Open The Door/I'm Coming Home To See About You/Nobody's
Fault But Mine/Champagne and Wine/A Lover's Question/Love Man/Free Me/Direct
Me/Amen
"She was a day tripper, sunday
driver yeah, it took me so long to find out - but I found out!"
If you
can't afford the box set - and at current prices who can? - this two-disc set
is probably your best bet in getting the flavour of Otis' career and catalogue
without having to track down each and every album. To be honest most of the
songs from the five solo albums are here anyway, in a jam packed 38 track
collection that sensibly leaves out the Carla Thomas duets album 'King and
Queen' but does find space for more of the posthumous singles than I was
expecting. Do be wary of a couple of things though - the 'I've Been Loving You
Too Long' is the single version so it runs a shade shorter than the 'Otis Blue'
version and the album also substitutes an (admittedly rather good) live version
of 'Shake!' for the real thing. The ordering system seems to go a bit awol too,
starting at the end and suddenly jumping to the start about midway through the
first disc (though to be fair debut single 'Pain In My Heart' was never a
natural album opener). Of course there's still lots of good stuff missing and
as a collector it's my natural bent, nay my duty to tell you to buy it all
anyway, but for 'Sunday Drivers' this is an excellent and affordable
introduction. Overall, though, pretty good and for the price nicely packaged
with a rare cover shot of Otis out in a forest (was he a day tripper?)
"Lonely and Blue: The Definitive
Soul Of Otis Redding"
(**,
November 2012)
I
Love You More Than Words Can Say/Gone Again/Free Me/Open The Door/A Waste Of
Time/These Arms Of Mine/I've Been Loving You Too Long/Everybody Makes A Mistake/Little
Ol' Me/I've Got Dreams To Remember/Send Me Some Loving/My Lover's Prayer
"My love is growing stronger as
you become a habit to me"
By 2012
the run of Otis sets out there recycling the same songs over and over from the
same three year period was getting silly. However 'Lonely and Blue' works
better than most by taking away the happy-go-lucky and dancing sides of Otis'
nature and giving us twelve songs that come from the aching and longing side of
Otis' art. It is, after all, the style he felt most comfortable with and the
one that became his trademark and heard en masse without the Little Richard
covers or the joyful songs about family life to interrupt it you can see why:
Otis was rarely better than here. You could of course argue that this set could
be longer: the similarly slow-burning 'Cigarettes and Coffee' feels like it
ought to be here, while compilation regular 'Pain In My Heart' really ought to
be here given that this is where Otis first discovered this 'voice'. No matter
though - this compilation offers something a little bit different you can't
find as pure anywhere else and is a testament to the powers of a singer who
died a full forty-five years before this album's release and yet lives and
breathes again on every word. The packaging too is rather special - it's laid
out like all the original Stax albums of the 160s and looks like 'Otis Blue'
should have done, with a blue tint over a shot of Otis looking into the
distance. The sleevenotes, too, are written in the present tense and in the
1960s vernacular as if the singer was still around - which could have been
awful but instead comes across as rather sweet.
"The Complete Stax/Volt Singles
Collection"
(Stax, July 2013)
CD
One: These Arms Of Mine/Hey Hey Baby/That's What My Heart Needs/Mary's Little
Lamb/Pain In My Heart/Something Is Worrying Me/Come To Me/Don't Leave Me This
Way/Security/I Want To Thank You/Chained and Bound/Your One and Only Man/That's
How Strong My Love Is/Mr Pitiful/I've Been Loving You Too Long/I'm Depending On
You/Respect/Ole Man Trouble/I Can't Turn You Loose/Just One More
Day/Satisfaction/Any Ole Way/My Lover's Prayer/Don't Mess With Cupid
CD
Two: Fa Fa Fa Fa Fa Fa (Sad Song)/Good To Me/Try A Little Tenderness/I'm Sick
Y'all/I Love You More Than Words Can Say/Let Me Come On Home/Tramp/Tell It Like
It Is/Shake/You Don't Miss Your Water/The Glory Of Love/I'm Coming Homne/Knock
On Wood/Let Me Be Good To You/Dock Of The Bay/Sweet Lorene/Lovey Dovey/New
Year's Resolution/The Happy Song (Dum Dum Dum)/Open The Door/Amen/Hard To
Handle/I've Got Dreams To Remember/Nobody's Fault But Mine
CD
Three: White Christmas/Merry Christmas Baby/Papa's Got A Brand New Bag/Direct
Me/A Lover's Question/You Made A Man Out Of Me/When Something Is Wrong With My
Baby/Ooh Carla Ooh Otis/Love Man/Can't Turn You Loose/Free Me/Your Love Has
Lifted Me Higher and Higher/Look At The Girl/That's A Good
Idea/Demonstration/Johnny's Heartbreak/Give Away None Of My Love/Snatch A
Little Piece/I've Been Loving You Too Long (Live)/Try A Little Tenderness
(Live)/My Girl/Good To Me
"Good loving is my occupation, I
want to suit you in demonstration"
Back in
2003 Stax release the mother of all soul box sets: every single single released
on the label between 1958 and 1969 (when label licensing rights and crossovers
with Atlantic made it seem like a good place to stop). Surprisingly the set
only ran to nine CDs and only contained the A sides, not the rarer and often
more interesting B sides, but even so it was one heck of a collection
containing the best of not only Otis' work but also the 'linked' bands of
interest to the Redding collector: Booker T and the MGs, The Bar-Keys and Carla
Thomas as well as rivals and support act Sam and Dave. Otis doesn't even arrive
till disc two! The success of the set encouraged Stax to have a second, cheaper
go about a decade later when they collected just Otis' songs into a handy
three-disc set, this time re-instating the B-sides and including all the
posthumous singles as well as the ones released in Otis' lifetime. The result
is a peculiar hybrid, offering all the obvious Redding classics but also some
oddities as well including half a dozen non album B-sides (only previously
available on the 1993 box set) and pretty much all the songs from 'Immortal'
'Love Man' and 'Tell The Truth' outtakes sets you'll ever need. The result is a
set that still skips a few songs that strange as it may seem never were singles
('Cigarettes and Coffee' 'A Change Is Gonna Come' 'Down In The Valley' 'You
Don't Miss Your Water' 'Day Tripper' ) and could have done so much more with
the packaging than just provide static shots of the actual single labels, with
barely a picture of Otis to be found the whole set through. However it's as
good a set as any in presenting the Redding canon in the right order with a
nice balance of classics and surprises. Recommended.
"The King Of Soul" (Box Set)
(**,
February 2014)
CD
One: These Arms Of Mine/Hey Hey Baby/That's What My Heart Needs/Mary's Little
Lamb/Pain In My Heart/Something Is Worrying Me/Come To Me/Don't Leave Me This
Way/Security/Chained and Bound/Your One and Only Man/That's How Strong My Love
Is/Mr Pitiful/A Woman A Lover A Friend/Nothing Can Change This Love/It's Too
Late/For Your Precious Love/Home In Your Heart/I've Been Loving You Too
Long/I'm Depending On You/Respect/Ole Man Trouble/A Change Is Gonna Come
CD
Two: Shake/(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction/Down In The Valley/My Girl/Rock Me
Baby/You Don't Miss Your Water/I Can't Turn You Loose/Just One More Day/Any
Ole' Way/It's Growing/Cigarettes and Coffee/Chain Gang/Nobody Knows (When
You're Down and Out)/Good To Me/Everybody Makes A Mistake/Just One More Day
(Live)/Mr Pitiful (Live)/(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction)/These Arms Of Mine
(Live)/Papa's Got A Brand New Bag (Live)/Don't Mess With Cupid/My Lover's
Prayer
CD
Three: Try A Little Tenderness/Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)/I'm Sick
Y'all/Tennessee Waltz/Sweet Lorene/Day Tripper/You're Still My Baby/Hawg For
You/I Love You More Than Words Can Say/Let Me Come On Home/Open The
Door/Tramp/Knock On Wood/Let Me Be Good To You/Lovey Dovey/New Year's
Resolution/Ooh Carla Ooh Otis/White Christmas/Merry Christmas Baby/The Glory Of
Love/Huckle-Buck/Tell The Truth
CD
Four: Respect (Live)/I Can't Turn You Loose (Live)/I've Been Loving You Too
Long (Live)/My Girl (Live)/Shake (Live)/Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song) (Live)/Try
A Little Tenderness (Live)/I've Got Dreams To Remember/Nobody's Fault But
Mine/Hard To Handle/A Thousand Miles Away/The Happy Song (Dum Dum Dee Dee Dee
Dee Dum Dum Dum)/A Waste Of Time/Champagne and Wine/A Fool For You/I'm A
Changed Man/Direct Me/Love Man/Look At That Girl/Free Me/The Match Game/A
Little Time/Johnny's Heartbreak/Amen/(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay
"My oh my, I love you any ole way!"
Some
twenty years on from the 'Otis!' box set Rhino had another go, with what's very
nearly a straight re-issue with just a bit of tweaking going on in the track
listing - most notably the addition of a handful of live recordings at the end
of the second disc and the start of the fourth disc. This time round there's
nothing new here you can't find anywhere else, which makes rather a mockery of
the £100+ price tag (you can probably find a second hand copy of 'Otis!'
cheaper, which makes the idea of bringing these songs out to the public again
slightly misleading). However it's another solid set of songs combining the
best of Otis' singles, album tracks, posthumous releases, live recordings and
rarities and as such probably offers the best overall range of Otis recordings
out there. I do however think that the 'Otis' set just wins, courtesy of the
extra room for solo album tracks taken up on this set by a few too many Carla
Thomas duets (Five? Seriously?!) and live recordings that, while nice, are less
essential than what Otis was making in the studio. What isn't in doubt, though,
is the title: there's more than enough here to convince me that Otis was the
King of Soul and thanks to the excellent crossover work on the second half of
this set also earns the title 'ambassador to rock and roll' too! '
A Now Complete List Of
Otis Redding Articles To Read At Alan’s Album Archives:
‘Pain In My Heart’ (1964) http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/otis-redding-pain-in-my-heart-1964.html
'The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads' (1965) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/if-youre-regular-tothis-site-you-may.html
'Otis Blue' (1965) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-4otis-redding-otis-blue-1965.html
'The Soul Album' (1966) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015_04_12_archive.html
'Complete and Unbelievable - The Otis Redding Dictionary Of Soul!' (1966) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/complete-and-unbelievable-otis-redding.html
‘King and Queen’ (1967,
with Carla Thomas) https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/otis-redding-and-carla-thomas-king-and.html
Surviving TV Footage 1965-1967 plus The Best Unreleased Recordings http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2016/11/otis-redding-surviving-tv-footage-1965.html
Surviving TV Footage 1965-1967 plus The Best Unreleased Recordings http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2016/11/otis-redding-surviving-tv-footage-1965.html
Non-Album Songs 1960-1967 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/otis-redding-non-album-songs-1960-1967.html
A Short Guide To Booker T
and The MGs https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-short-aaa-guide-to-music-of-booker.html
Live/Compilation/Rarities Albums 1963-2014 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/otis-redding-livecompilationrarities.html
The 1968 Xmas Single and
Seasonal Extras http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2016/12/christmas-special-otis-reddings-xmas.html
Otis Redding Essay: It
Takes Two – The Art Of Melancholy In Soul Music https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2018/05/otis-redding-essay-it-takes-two-art-of.html
Landmark Concerts and Key
Cover Versions https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2018/06/otis-redding-five-landmark-concerts-and.html
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