We knew we finally had the song that would cross him over to the pop market. The dynamics, the energy, the way we attacked it-that’s hard to teach. Most of his songs had just two or three chord changes, so there wasn’t a lot of music there. Redding guided the musicians through the track by singing the melodies for them, but Cropper explained that the singer was looking for a specific feel, one that was the complete opposite of his most well known work: With Otis, it was all about feeling and expression. & The M.G.'s was behind much of the sound of the single, but he took his inspiration from the vibe of Redding's first verse.Īlso playing on the track were Booker T. Cropper, a producer for Stax Records who played guitar with Booker T. The "Dock Of The Bay" session wasn't lengthy, and in spite of the laid back style of the song the atmosphere in the studio was one of excitement. Recording Went Quickly But The Track Was Unfinished ‘Dock of the Bay’ was exactly that: ‘I left my home in Georgia, headed for the Frisco Bay,’ it was all about him going out to San Francisco to perform. Sittin’ on the dock of the bay.’ I just took that… we just sat down and I just kind of learned the changes that he was kind of running over and I finished the lyrics…Otis didn’t really write about himself but I did. And that’s about all he had: ‘I watch the ships come in and I watch them roll away again. He had rented a boathouse or stayed out at a boathouse or something that’s when he got the idea of watching the ships coming in the bay there. Longtime co-writer and producer Steve Cropper explained the catalyst for the song to NPR: He had been in San Francisco doing the Fillmore. The earliest version of the song was literally written overlooking the water in Sausalito, California. "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" began its life on tour with Redding in 1967 as he searched for something more soulful in his own work. His work that will outlast everything else he ever recorded is a contemplative tune that Redding hoped would be vastly different from everything else in his catalogue.
Pitiful" still get toes tapping and audiences dancing, but the work that Redding will most be remembered for shares little of the bombastic nature of his early singles. His oversexed, funked up work like "Try A Little Tenderness," "Respect," "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," "I Can't Turn You Loose" and "Mr.
Otis Redding's early work set the template for R&B music of the '60s and '70s.
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