40 years later, fans still love Otis Redding
Soul singer died Dec. 10, 1967, just before ‘Dock of the Bay’ hit No. 1
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Written after the Monterey Pop Festival, while he was staying on a houseboat in Sausalito, Calif., and posthumously released in Jan. 1968, “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” soared to the top of the charts. It became Redding’s first No. 1 single and his first million-seller.
“The song also became important to a lot of guys serving in Vietnam,” says rock music historian Craig Werner, chair of the Afro-American Studies Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Werner, who, along with Vietnam veteran Doug Bradley, is writing a book that will weave together the personal stories about how music resonated with veterans, calls “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,” with its dark and defiant lyrics, “the homesick song.” It bridged the various demographic groups within the draftees and enlisted men who usually listened to country, soul or rock with very little crossover, he says.
“As soon as I heard ‘(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,’ I liked it,” remembers SPC 5 Edward Nelson, who served in Vietnam with the United States Army I Corps from 1967 to 1968. “We were absolutely stuck in our situation and lyrics from ‘Dock of the Bay’ such as ‘Looks like nothing’s gonna’ change’ evoked the misery and homesickness we felt.”
Only a few months before the release of “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,” lots of things had begun to change for Redding. On June 17, 1967, he electrified the audience at the Monterey Pop Festival, transforming the California psychedelic music fest into a rhythm and blues revue with a 20-minute set that included “Respect,” “Satisfaction” and “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long.” After that performance, Redding was finally on the way to achieving the crossover success that had eluded him since the release of his first single.