Otis! The Definitive Otis Redding

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Otis Redding

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If Ray Charles is the genius of Soul, James Brown it's godfather, and Aretha Franklin it's queen, then undoubtably, Otis Redding is it's king and Booker T. & the MGs, Soul's crown princes. He's the only singer I've ever heard who sounds like he's in the room with you. If the world was to face disaster and maybe only some would survive, we would have to place Otis's recording of Sam Cooke's "Change Gonna Come", his definitive version of "Try a Little Tenderness" and "I've Been Loving You Too Long", a song he wrote with the legendary Jerry Butler, in a time capsule. This was soul music. It's rare when a box set can be enjoyed by someone who is not familiar with the artist. (Another one being Otis's Stax cohorts, Booker T. & the MGs' Time Is Tight) But Otis's voice, along with the MGs' majesty made some of the greatest music of all time. What set Otis apart from people, and what eludes many artists, was his ability to turn someone's song inside out and make it his own. He frequently covered songs by one of his biggest influences, Sam Cooke. Cooke's "Change Gonna Come" is a perfectly beautiful record. Why would anyone touch it?!? Otis and the MGs with The Memphis Horns make what could be the most gut wrenching and beautiful and "soulful" track ever recorded. Also fun is Otis's cover of Sam Cooke's "Cupid". Cooke's version is again, quite perfect and way ahead of its time. Redding's version is stripped down and playful as can be. And when he sings, "Cupid, please hear my cry", man he's crying. Not to be overlooked is Redding's songwriting talents. Not many black guys are considered when the subject of singer/songwriters are brought up. But he, like Al Green later, wrote many of his best records. Otis wrote many of his songs with Steve Cropper. On the Eddie Floyd/Booker T. Jones written "I Love You More Than Words Can Say", Cropper's and Redding's musical relationship reaches its full potential. Otis sings, "Living without you is so painful", and Cropper's guitar sings one of it's most soulful responses. Another treat is the Redding, Booker T. Jones, and Al Jackson written rocker, "Let Me Come On Home". But the gem of this set is disc four. Twenty three live songs, edited seamlessly, so it is as if you were at an Otis show. The "king" outdoes the "godfather" on "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag", and there's a heartbreaking version of "Just One More Day". It all ends perfectly when Otis Redding and the MGs take you away from everything on a trip to soul heaven with "Try a Little Tenderness" from Monterey Pop. Music didn't die with Buddy Holly. It began a slow demise on December 10th, 1967, when Otis Redding passed away. Today, R&B is laughable, Country seems to come off of a conveyor belt, and there's no such thing as Soul anymore, or Rock & Roll for that matter. Maybe it's because the hippies grew up and began to run things, or technology, but today, there's almost no soul left in music. Now we have people who whoop and holler, Trying to be soulful and show range. All they show me is terrible insecurity or ego. It's like watching an awful actor. It's pretentious. Hopefully, one day we can wade through all the garbage. The material here will stand the test of time.

You'll recognize the title of this review as a Rolling Stones single of some note from many years past...and if you buy this set, you can hear another of the Stones' classic songs done through the filter of Otis Redding's own personal "Dictionary Of Soul". The song I'm referring to is "Satisfaction", and it's a shimmering Big O performance that I'm sure you will enjoy. Unfortunately, you will be enjoying it (and every other studio recording presented on this set for the first three of its four discs), in stunning, two-dimensional MONO. For reasons unknown, the collective wisdom among the powers that were in 1993 at Atlantic (or Rhino, or whoever owns the name these days) was that the mono mixes were 'superior' in someone's opinion, so only mono versions of studio recordings were used. Curiously, this is true all the way through "Dock Of The Bay"...which is astonishing, because by that time, a great deal of Stax's recordings were being done in stereo to begin with. In defense of this set, it is true that some of the earlier cuts exist in mono only; also, it is very complete, even including the attempt at a Coca-Cola jingle demo Otis cut, but Coke never used; the liner notes are extensive; and, someone at the record company made a mistake and forgot to mix disc four of the set to mono. Disc four contains nothing but excerpts from Otis's live concert recordings, and somehow, they escaped in stereo. I gave the set three stars above, which is a ballpark average of the five stars I would give it for being so thorough, but the two stars I would give it for someone's technical incompetence during remastering. I wanted Otis's studio recordings in stereo. But like I said...you can't always get what you want. Caveat emptor.