I Own That CD! - Otis Redding

Otis Redding is one of my most favorite singers of all time. I can only imagine what an amazing, full career he would have had - Redding died at the very young age of 26 in a plane crash in 1967. Just two years earlier, he released the incredible Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul. It’s considered one of the greatest releases of all time and it’s today’s feature on I Own That CD!

Consisting mainly of covers, Redding makes each song his own, with his distinct, soulful voice carrying each track. The emotion that he sings with is felt in each note and word. Recorded in the span of 24 hours from July 9 to 10, 1965, at the Stax recording studio in Memphis, Redding was backed by the Stax house band Booker T. & the M.G.'s, a horn section featuring members of The Mar-Keys and The Memphis Horns, and pianist Isaac Hayes.

His take on “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” is a cool, rockin’ R&B version with Redding’s scruffy, growling vocals adding a funkiness. The cover is even more impressive knowing Redding had never heard The Rolling Stones version of the song.

The two most well-known tracks are “Respect” and “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” - both written by Redding. Before Aretha made it her own, Redding’s version of “Respect” is a great funky track but lacks the strong female perspective and advanced arrangements that Aretha’s version contains. A pleading love song, “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” is a roller coaster and builds from a quiet storm to a full on hurricane of emotion. It’s my favorite on the CD.

Finally, there’s the song “A Change is Gonna Come” written and originally performed by Sam Cooke.

First, some background: The song was inspired by various events in Cooke's life, most prominently when he and his entourage were turned away from a whites-only motel in Louisiana. Cooke felt compelled to write a song that spoke to his struggle and of those around him, and that pertained to the Civil Rights Movement and African Americans. In addition, Cooke was inspired by both Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” and the message of the dream in Martin Luther King Jr’s I Have a Dream speech.

Redding’s version, as Pitchfork puts it: The moment he sings “I was born by the river,” you can tell he knows what he’s been entrusted with, and he handles it superbly with a mix of raspy frustration and wounded gentleness that’s part trained virtuosity and part raw emotion.

Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul was and still remains a very important release not only in the music world. Released in the summer of 1965, at the height of the civil-rights movement, with Martin Luther King leading marches to Montgomery and President Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act, it’s impossible to ignore the larger messages and if you’d like, you can borrow my copy.