I've always considered Otis Redding slightly different from many of the other musical giants who populated sixties soul music. Singing in a raw, gospel gone-to-heaven vocal style, Reddomg's music was a sharp contrast to the more polished sounds coming out of Detroit on the Motown label. Besides being managed by a white kid by the name of Phil Walden (later to achieve fame & notoriety as the creator of Capricorn Records & "Southern Rock"), Otis was truly one of the first black performers to cross-over to a rock & roll audience. His music validates one of my long held beliefs that the best soul music always has one foot in a roadhouse and the other in a church. You can hear it in the track that's palying--- "I've Been Loving You Too Long" --- which comes from his performance at The Monterey Pop Festival in 1967.
Redding toured extensively from 1964 to 1967 with his backing group, Booker T. & The MG's; a combo who had several instrumental hits during this same period ("Time Is Tight", "Green Onions", "Hip Hug Her"). The MG's provided the perfect counterpoint to Otis' expressive voice Onstage, working the crowd like a down-home preacher, Redding could take audiences anywhere his fancy dictated and the MG's, without missing a beat, would be right behind him. A modern day comparison can be made by looking at the synergy between Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street band-- that's how closely the band anticipated Otis' stage work.
In 1965, Redding headlined the Stax-Volt Revue Tour of Europe and had the biggest success of his career. With this success in Europe under his belt, Otis trained his sights on reaching for greater visibility in the American teenage music market. The time seemed right for just this sort of breakthrough.
1967 proved to be a banner year for Redding; a version of his song "Respect" was a Top 10 hit by Aretha Franklin, "Sweet Soul Music," a song he'd written for a young, aspiriing soul singer named Arthur Conley, went on to become a charted bestseller and Otis himself finally broke though to the rock & roll audience in the U.S. when he played the Monterey Pop Festival (the very first rock festival...ever!). Rediding's dynamic performance is captured for posterity in the film Monterey Pop as well as on an album released in 1970 titled Historic Performances at the Monterey International Pop Festival. Anyone out there who was curious enough to seek out this album at the time, was greeted with an explosive live performance that stands as among the best ever committed to vinyl. Redding's performance at Monterey had finally established him with rock audiences, making him one of the first crossover musical artists ever.
While travelling to a midwest gig in December 1967, Redding's small touring plane crashed into a lake in Wisconsin. Redding, along with four members of the Bar Kays (his horn section) were killed. Ironically, Otis finally made it to the top of the national music charts with his song, "Sittin On The Dock of the Bay" -- a song he had recorded only two weeks before his untiimely death. Released in January 1968, this last glimpse of Redding's genius went on to become the million seller that he had longed for during his lifetime.
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