■Itk ROCK AND ROLL HALL DF FAME Otis Redding By Michael Hill O t i s REDDING W A S , quite literally, sittin’ on the dock o f the bay when “Shout Bamalama” found a champion in DJ John R. at W L A C , in Nash­ he began to compose the tune that would become his most enduring hit ville, a popular station w ith a powerful signal, but it never caught on after his sudden and untimely death in December o f 1967. Despite the w ith record buyers at large. song’s forlorn tale, Redding was, at the time, sitting on top o f the world. Johnny Jenkins seemed to be the musician with a better shot at star­ Redding had gone where few soul men o f his day had dared to tread, dom, scoring serious airplay and decent sales - not to mention the interest taking his Memphis revue to the M onterey Pop Festival, where the nas­ o f Atlantic Records - for a locally released instrumental number called cent W oodstock generation gathered to listen to its new heroes - bands like “Love T w ist” W alden had arranged for Jenkins to meet Joe Galkin, A t­ the Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis lantic’s Southeast promotion man, whose ears were fine-tuned to the lo­ Joplin and a young black guitarist named Jimi Hendrix. Redding came with cal Rfe?B scene. Booker T. and the M Gs and the Mar-Key Homs, all resplendent in slick Through Galkin, Jenkins landed a deal with Stax Records, the Atlan­ green suits, and took the stage after the Airplane. tic affiliate that pioneered the recording o f unadulterated Southern soul; Redding provided an electrifying set (preserved on Jimi Hendrix and in October 1962, Jenkins went to Memphis w ith his band to record a fol­ Otis Redding: Classic Performances from the Monterey Pop Festival) that low-up to “Love Twist” at the Stax studio. included his heart-wrenching “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long,” Sam A s legend has it, Redding was acting as Jenkins’s driver and valet, and Cooke’s “Shake,” “Respect” (which he wrote and Aretha Franklin later when Jenkins’s sessions started to fall apart, Redding somehow coaxed took to the top o f the charts) and his funky remake o f the Rolling Stones’ the studio’s executives to let him take a turn at the mike. “Satisfaction.” He topped the set with an intense, extended rendition o f A s Phil W alden explained to Rob Bowman for the notes that accom­ “Try a Little Tenderness,” with its famous coda, which Redding impro­ panied Atlantic’s T he Otis Redding Story, W alden and Redding had vised w ith the fervor o f a Georgia preacher. carefully prepared their assault on Stax: “The plan was to make a follow ­ Backstage, according to author Peter Guralnick in his book S w eet Soul up for Johnny Jenkins but also to give Otis a chance to sing. That was my M u sic, the Stones’ Brian Jones, watching with Hendrix, was reduced to understanding w ith Joe Galkin. I said, ‘Otis, if you get a shot, you got to tears. Afterward, critic Robert Christgau reported in Esquire, “The love do it as fast as you can ’cause you probably won’t have much time.’ O f crowd was screaming its head off.” course [the Stax studio crew] didn’t know, and thank God Joe was there Redding faced M onterey and the rapidly changing pop scene with the ’cause it probably wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t been.” The result same unflagging confidence with which he had embarked upon his ca­ o f this hasty session was Redding’s “These Arms o f Mine,” a rather state­ reer. In his home town o f M acon, Georgia, Otis found plenty o f inspira­ ly ballad he w rote himself. tion. James Brown and his Famous Flames were unknown local boys be­ “These Arms o f Mine,” which at first didn’t impress Stax owner Jim fore the world heard “Please Please Please.” Stewart, was released on V olt, a Stax subsidiary, toward the end o f 1962. Redding’s idol, Little Richard, was another M acon native who shout­ It wasn’t until the following spring, however, that it became a hit, thanks ed his ribald rhythm & blues in the dance halls. Redding was determined largely to the support, once again, o f Nashville DJ John R. A less reserved to follow in Little Richard’s footsteps — musically, not sartorially. In fact, Redding returned to Stax in June 1963 to record the more impassioned Redding got his professional start around 1958, touring the South with “ T h a t’s W h a t M y H eart N eeds.” Little Richard’s former backup band, the Upsetters. Jim Stewart favored the ballads and encouraged Redding to focus on It was back in M acon, though, that Redding first began to cause a stir, them. The approach then was to record a single w ith an uptempo track after he entered a Saturday-morning amateur show sponsored by a local for one side and a ballad for the other. A s guitarist Steve Cropper told radio station. W eek after week, Redding was voted the popular favorite, Bowman: “ [Stewart] wasn’t satisfied till he got his ballad no matter what which w on him the admiration o f Johnny Jenkins, one o f M acon’s more [Redding] was doing. He loved the fast stuff too, but he needed promising guitarists, who offered Redding the job of vocalist with Jen­ Otis to sing that soul ballad. A nd he was just holding onto a good kins’s band, the Pinetoppers. thing. W ith Otis, there were tw o influences in his whole life. One Jenkins was managed by Phil W alden, a white RfePB fanatic w ho was was Sam Cooke, the other was Little Richard. Little Richard was an hustling gigs for local black bands at white fraternity dances. W alden of­ uptempo singer, Sam Cooke was more o f a ballad singer. So it went fered to manage Redding as well. A t first, W alden’s parents questioned from one extreme to another.” the propriety o f their son’s avocation — he had to sneak off to early gigs The Sam Cooke side took precedence is far as the public was con­ with the Pinetoppers - but the entire W alden family eventually became cerned. Redding became a consummate balladeer with songs like the part o f Redding’s management team, and his lifelong friends as well. yearning “Pain in M y Heart” and the contrite “ Come to M e.” A DJ Outside o f M acon, Redding was not an overnight sensation. In dubbed Redding “M r. Pitiful” because o f his affinity for tear-jerkers, and 1960, when it looked like his local success would grow no further, the Cropper suggested he and Redding use that as the subject o f another sin­ restless and ambitious Redding left for Los Angeles. He moved in with gle, with the nickname as its title: “They call me M r. Pitiful/Baby, that’s one o f his sisters, got a job at a car wash and cut four sides, including my name/They call me M r. Pitiful/That’s how I got my fame.” “ Gamma Lamma” (a la Little Richard), for a couple o f small labels. Redding’s gospel inflections gave a raw edge to his work, particularly W hen he returned to M acon the following year, he cut another single, in his trademark codas, which were impassioned ad-libs. There was an “Shout Bamalama,” in the same style for the Confederate label. (The earthiness and candor to his every performance, whether it was a song song became a hit six years later for the R6?B singer M ickey Murray.) he composed himself or a cover o f a future soul classic like “That’s ROCK AND RDLL HALL DF FAME Otis Redding H ow Strong M y Love Is.” Onstage in the early days he had a lot to learn, Song)”; the chorus is nothing less than a duet between Otis and his be­ but as Jerry W exler told Peter Guralnick in recalling Redding’s first ap­ loved hom section. The hom rifîs, as they do in so many songs, serve the pearance at the A pollo Theater in 1963, “You could feel this plea coming role o f Otis’s background singers, a wordless choir, the instrumental echo from him .” o f a vocal performance that is relaxed, mischievous and thoroughly Redding quickly became a popular live attraction, and he main­ charming. Redding also tackled another pop song from the B ritish Inva­ tained a grueling schedule. Johnny Jenkins, however, stayed behind, sion, the Beatles’ “Day Tripper^’ which he gamely turned into an R6?B unwilling to travel, and reluctantly ceded his role to Cropper. On the raveup. That choice indicated how adventurous Otis could be and how road, Redding befriended many o f the soul singers he had looked up to aware he was o f the larger pop world around him a few years before. In a Buffalo, N ew York, hotel room, he collaborat­ In the spring of 1967, the Stax-Volt Revue - dubbed Hit the Road, ed with Jerry Butler on “ I’ve Been Loving You Too Long,” which Stax - began it’s tumultuous European tour in England.