Otis Redding – (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay

Quite simply one of the most outstanding A sides of all time. Hearing it on 7 inch vinyl is essential, it just seems more immediate, as you almost feel your socks getting wet, with the lapping waves that just jump out of your speakers. This is a great listen if your on the coast, but do you know what, it actually doesn't matter if your not, as it will bring the sea to you.
Otis's contemplative resignation as he thinks back on his life is truly outstanding. Otis was known as an electrifying Soul live wire who drove his audience crazy and had them eating out of his hand.
Was Otis considering exploring a different style?
He obviously did record softer material on previous records, but Sittin On The Dock Of The Bay to me is intriguing and unique because normally when a man sings softly and tenderly it is normally about love.
What I find fascinating about this masterpiece is that Otis is not singing about the love of his life, or love lost, but he's addressing and looking back at his whole life and his honesty is disarming. His confessional lyrics encourage men to open up a bit and be honest, don't bury mistakes because they are a part of you, of the person you are today, and if you can think back and learn, and it a few things that you could have handled better, then you are developing your character and evolving as a human being.
This song affected people, I have read about how it stopped folks, dead In there tracks, as they just stopped what they where doing and listened to every word and absorbed the beauty of the melody and Otis's refreshingly honest words and performance.
How many songs do that? This song is truly outstanding, totally unique and I recommend that you hear it on 7 inch played at 45 RPM, as you will reach for this musical perfection, time and time again.
My copy came with a really iconic looking purple Stax Records Company Sleeve, with E.M.I Records, Hayes Middlesex in much smaller font at the very bottom. It will look ultra cool in your Soul collection.
Surely everybody has heard this? however just in case you haven't, and your looking to build up a Soul collection, then this is the very essence of Soul, and is one of the best songs ever recorded.

The 😎 Cool Vaults Grain Of Salt

BY far thee worst RDS pressing ever ... tons of hiss static and noise from the color vinyl. NOT worth buying !

Absolutely for sure this would have been issued sometime in the first half of 1969. By mid 1969 Atlantic had been taken over by Warner Bros-Seven Arts.

That rim text ended somewhere around December 1968 so this is almost certainly the very first Canadian reissue of "Dock Of The Bay".

Last year (2017) the Otis Redding song “Sittin’ On The Dock Of The Bay” celebrated it’s 50th anniversary, with the sad memory that Otis died just a few short days after this number wove its way not only into my heart, but into the hearts of those across the planet during that heady fall of 1967 … a summer and fall that shimmered my nights with the likes of Sgt. Pepper by The Beatles, The Doors by The Doors, the Jefferson Airplane’s Surrealistic Pillow and from The Rolling Stones, both Between The Buttons and Their Satanic Majesties Request.

The reason I mention those albums was because they all embraced the counterculture, the flower-power generation, with its psychedelic capital being San Francisco, the setting for this deeply haunting and very emotional outing by Otis Redding. I can only listen with wonder at what Mr. Redding might have accomplished had his plane not gone down but three days after completing the vocals for the track, meaning that what we heard drifting from our speakers that year was a ghostly voice singing from beyond the sky, where his Stax Record Label was forced to release the album containing this single, ed by B-sides and outtakes.

The song is nothing short of electrifying in the gentleness of its scope, where Redding was channeling a much more relaxed version of himself with a song that was but wasn’t blues, was but wasn’t soul, delivered in an almost conversation manner of not so much despair, but with an unassuming resolve of matter of frankness. “Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay” was an inspiration during those day, where like the Scott McKenzie song of that same year, certainly being responsible for helping those interested in a new beginning, to move themselves to the west coast and all it had to offer.

The genesis of the song traces directly back to June of 1967, where backed by Booker T & The M.G.’s, Otis Redding splintered the night at the Monterey Pop Festival, leaving the likes of Jimi Hendrix, The Mamas & The Papas and The Who awestruck with his presence and sense of assuredness, where Redding took that step, spurred on by the unabashed adulation, to cross the colour barrier and be come a major star in both the black and white communities. Redding had been swept away listening to Dylan’s Blonde On Blonde and Sgt. Pepper that summer, deeply affected by what he heard, and when Al Bell (Stax Executive) suggested to Redding, ”Otis, you’re going to have to come up with something completely different. We talked back and forth on it for a very long time before I suggested that he write something folk-like, Soul Folk,” which is exactly what “Dock Of The Bay” encapsulated, a crossover classic that embraced the vision of a new world in the making.

For all Otis Redding has done in his career, there’s nothing that compares to this song, only Redding’s voice is capable of singing this number, only Redding had the presence of mind and understanding to bring it to life, “Dock Of The Bay” was a gift to the world, at a time when we needed it most, embraced as a bit of soul brilliance, imagined as an anti-war protest number (with countless soldiers leaving for Viet Nam from ups and down the west coast), and served a musical traveling companion for those setting out on the road in order to discover the nature of their being on the other side the country.

Review by Jenell Kesler

Actually the song is a demo. Otis recorded it few days before taking his death plane. Of course he never heard the final mix and that's why he's whistling at the end of the track : the words weren't written yet (and will never be).

Unsure as to the release year. This was found in a Vinyl Record Fair in Halifax NS. little information on label which is still in good condition. Possible Juke Box copy?