Otis Redding – (Sittin' On) The 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).