Baby I’m Sure Hard To Handle

The song which catapulted Otis Redding to worldwide fame is of course the beautiful and enchanting ballad, “Sittin’ On The) Dock of the Bay”, a song so well known as to be firmly embedded into the collective musical conscience. Perhaps the best-known element of the song is the wistful whistling that closes the tune, itself an irony given the circumstances of its recording. Cut in the studio just three days before Redding’s tragic early death in a plane crash in December 1967 at the tender age of 26, the whistled verse was intended as a place-holder for the unfinished song which Redding hoped to complete with added lyrics at a later date.

He never got the chance, but the song itself served to provide him with a posthumous worldwide smash hit, and opened up a rich and varied back catalogue to fans everywhere. But the second irony of the song is that “Dock of the Bay” is itself something of a departure for Redding, a song different in style and approach to much of what came before. For Otis Redding, recording on the Stax label with Booker T and the MGs as his improbably brilliant backing band, was a singer and performer of incredible energy and funk.

He could of course sing a ballad with incredible emotion and stunning delivery, as classics such as “Try A Little Tenderness”, “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long”, “That’s How Strong My Love Is”, and an inspired cover of Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” will testify. But Redding’s real renown was for turning out a crowd, for rocking the show with a horn-led R’n’B, indeed even covering rock’n’roll songs such as the Stone’s “Satisfaction (I Can’t Get No)” and making them his own. Staples such as “I Can’t Turn You Loose”, “Love Man” “Hard To Handle” and my own personal number one “Shake”, illustrate his brilliant timing and feel for a rollicking groove, and underlay his gritty and yet incomparably soulful voice.

For Redding’s was a voice of rare greatness, cracking with intensity at times, but divine in its purity at others. A foil in many ways to the Queen of Soul, Ms Aretha Franklin. And in live performance is where he really seems to shine. By all accounts his live shows were pure dynamite, and bursting with effervescence and boundless energy. Redding famously won over the crowd at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, his own legendary performance on a par with the other greatly remembered display from the festival, that of a guitar-burning Hendrix. And an album of his part of the Stax tour of Europe in July 1967, “Otis Live In Europe” is further testament to his power and appeal on stage. Of course it also displays a man on top of his game, a game to be ended, so sadly, soon afterwards.

And yet, for all of these plaudits and undeniable talents, there remains the feeling that Otis Redding is slightly overlooked as a true musical great. As permanent a reminder as “Dock of the Bay” is, and as established a part of our musical heritage, it tells only a small part of a beautiful and inspiring musical career. To me, Otis is in something of a rare league in terms of soul singers, and the saddest part is that his potential was only really hinted at. But live is where it shines most brightly, and if you needed an excuse to stop sitting there resting your bones, then get up and check out Otis in performance for a lesson in the ability of soul music to shake you down to your core.