Forty years ago today, soul singer Otis Redding and four members of the Bar Kays died in a plane crash in Wisconsin. Redding was only 26 years old.
Only days earlier, he had finished recording (Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay. Redding didn't live to see it become a number-one hit and 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.”
Here's the lyrics:
Sittin' in the morning sun
I'll be sittin' when the evening comes
Watching the ships roll in
Then I watch 'em roll away again, yeah
I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay
Watching the tide roll away
Ooh, I'm just sittin' on the dock of the bay wastin' timeI left my home in Georgia
Headed for the Frisco bay
'Cos I've had nothing to live for
And look like nothing's gonna come my way
So I'm just gonna sit on the dock of the bay
Watching the tide roll away
Ooh, I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay wastin' time
Look like nothing's gonna change
Everything still remains the same
I can't do what ten people tell me to do
So I guess I'll remain the sameSittin' here resting my bones
And this loneliness won't leave me alone
2,000 miles I've roamed
Just to make this dock my home
Now I'm just gonna sit at the dock of the bay
Watching the tide roll away
Ooh wee, I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay wastin' time
The Georgia-born Redding was one of the stars of the legendary Stax Volt label of Memphis, signing with them in 1963 and staying with them until his death in 1967.
A larger (read 'white') audience largely eluded him until a breakout 1967 performance at the Monterey pop festival in California. I have an album with performances from Redding and a guitar player -- some guy named Hendrix. It's absolutely phenomenal.
Redding performed five songs that night:
Shake
Respect
I've Been Loving You Too Long
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
Try A Little Tenderness
When Redding left the stage, he was a star. However, he would have less than six months left to live.
What a terrible loss. Here's Otis performing A Change is Gonna Come: