December 11, 2017

The morning after the 50-year anniversary of the death of Otis Redding.

I put up a post last night, linking to a New Yorker tribute, with my own photograph from an airplane of the Madison lake where Redding's plane crashed. This morning, I'm clicking on my Otis Redding tag, because there's one thing I know is there and I want to find it. But I'm interested in all the old Otis Redding posts, and I'm going to list them here.

1. April 30, 2005 — "Songs transformed with the sex of the singer."
What songs well-known as girl songs would take on intriguing meaning sung by a guy?... The obvious actual example of this is Aretha Franklin singing Otis Redding's "Respect."... The trouble with a man singing that song is that it's a bit ugly: I make the money, so you owe me. It's the conventional arrangement. The lyrics are a bit awkward in the female re-sing. Why was Aretha giving this guy "all my money"? But we ignored that. It was the remnant of the Otis version. She sang through that and pulled out the better, female meaning through sheer force.
2. June 4, 2006 — "Convergences."
... I put in my earphones and fired up Pandora and meant to type in "Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk" to get to some more music like that. Mixing in the movie title ["Coffee and Cigarettes"] and influenced by that coffee I was drinking, I typed in "Cigarettes and Coffee." Pandora turned up a song I'd never heard before called "Cigarettes and Coffee" -- by Otis Redding. I wasn't meaning to listen to that kind of music but I liked it well enough.... [T]he theme [of "Theme Time Radio With Bob Dylan"] this week is "Coffee," and one of the songs on the playlist was "Cigarettes and Coffee" by Otis Redding.... Bob mentions how Otis died, converging by airplane with a lake here in Madison, Wisconsin. And he plays a clip from the movie "Coffee and Cigarettes"...
3. March 4, 2007 — "It is [blank] that makes us human."

I just ran across an old page in a notebook with that heading. This scribbling is at least a few years old but not more than 10 years old. It is followed by 16 words, candidates for filling in the blank, written with some unknown level of seriousness. Here are my 16 words in the order I wrote them:
  1. shame
  2. remembering
  3. planning
  4. dread
  5. joking
  6. writing
  7. politics
  8. fashion
  9. arrogance
  10. history
  11. theory
  12. inhumanity
  13. timekeeping
  14. culture
  15. believing
  16. originality
Critique these items or the inquiry itself. Or just add to the list. Or make a record album, with those 16 song titles. And give me credit. And half your royalties.

IN THE COMMENTS: Bill responds to my request for a 16-cut album by finding an Otis Redding recording for each item:
1. shame (I'm Sick Y'all)
2. remembering (Champagne and Wine)
3. planning (New Year's Resolution)
4. dread (Don't Leave Me This Way)
5. joking (Happy Song)
6. writing (I Love You More Than Words Can Say)
7. politics (Change Is Gonna Come)
8. fashion (Satisfaction--Otis pronounces it 'satisfashion;' so really it's about his inability to buy nice clothes)
9. arrogance (Tramp)
10. history (You Don't Miss Your water)
11. theory (Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song))
12. inhumanity (Cigarettes and Coffee)
13. timekeeping (I've Got Dreams To Remember)
14. culture (Respect)
15. believing (Look At The Girl)
16. originality (Love Man)
So here's the new game: Pick some artist you like and come up with 16 appropriate cuts.
4. November 23, 2010 — I quote the Keith Richards autobiography:
"In 'Satisfaction' I was imagining horns, trying to imitate their sound to put on the track later when we recorded. I'd already heard the riff in my head the way Otis Redding did it later, thinking, this is gonna be in the horn line. But we didn't have any horns, and I was only going to lay down a dub. The fuzz tone came in handy so I could give a shape to what the horns were supposed to do. But the fuzz tone had never been heard before anywhere, and that's the sound that caught everybody's imagination. Next thing I know, we're listening to ourselves in Minnesota somewhere on the radio, 'Hit of the Week,' and we didn't even know Andrew had put the fucking thing out! At first I was mortified. As far as I was concerned that was just the dub.... And I learned that lesson — sometimes you can overwork things." —  "Life," page 177.
5. October 17, 2013 — "Great shakes," a post about the song (and dance) "Shake" with embedded video of Otis Redding in a performance that I liked much more than what was done by The Supremes, who were limited by the instruction: "Whenever you do a naughty step like the shake, add some class to it. Instead of shaking and acting tough, you should roll your buttocks under and keep smiling all the time."

6. July 7, 2014 — "Is depicting the 'Obama Presidential Library' as an outhouse racist?" I see I was asking the hard questions in '14. How did Otis Redding find his way into that?
This miniature outrage arrives from Norfolk, Nebraska. A float in a 4th of July Parade had a fake outhouse labeled "Obama Presidential Library" and, standing outside it, a mannequin of a dark-skinned man wearing overalls....

Now, let's move on to the overalls. What does it mean that the figure of the President is dressed in overalls? The association is to rural poverty (or rural work), but is it racial?

Thinking about race and overalls, I heard the line "You wear overalls!" What was that? Some recording from the 60s... Ah! I was thinking of Carla Thomas, singing with Otis Redding, in the 1967 song "Tramp." At 0:37, you hear:
You know what, Otis?
What?
You're country.
That's all right.
You're straight from the Georgia woods.
That's good.
You know what? You wear overalls, and big old brogan shoes, and you need a haircut, Tramp.
And, again, as the song is fading out, at 2:42, Thomas harps on those overalls:
You a tramp, Otis. You just a tramp.
That's all right.
You wear overalls. You need a haircut, Baby. Cut off some of that hair off your head. You think you're a lover?
There is zero chance that Thomas's problem with Redding is racial. She's rejecting him because he's country. His retort: That's good.

So I think the float used the iconography of poverty to express the point of view that Obama is utterly lacking in achievement worthy of a presidential library. Maybe you could build an argument that because so many black people have been poor, any depiction of a black person as poor is intended to associate him with black people in general, and that is enough to warrant an accusation of racism. But I think this float belongs in the innocuous category of traditional American disrespect for authority figures.

Looking at it that way, I suddenly see how it might be exactly what is appropriate for the 4th of July:
The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States....
7. June 17, 2017 — "50 years ago today: It was Day 2 of the Monterey Pop Festival."
The performers on the second day were: Canned Heat, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Country Joe and the Fish, Al Kooper, The Butterfield Blues Band, The Electric Flag, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Steve Miller Band, Moby Grape, Hugh Masekela, The Byrds, Laura Nyro, Jefferson Airplane, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, The Mar-Keys, Otis Redding.

If I had to pick my favorites at the time from that group, it would probably be the same I'd still pick today: The Byrds, Laura Nyro, and Jefferson Airplane. But I think the best remembered set of the day was Otis Redding. You can watch the whole 19 minutes here:


Otis Redding - Live at Monterey Pop Festival... by cosmo2161

What was the old post I'd remembered and clicked the tag to find? "Songs transformed with the sex of the singer."

16 comments:

Shane said...

How about most every cover aside from Little Richard, Chuck, Arthur Alexander or The Isley Brothers by the Beatles on the first two albums, and especially their live sets pre-February 1963. Epstein came to notice them, in part, bc they'd be scouring the bins looking for B-sides by American girl groups.

traditionalguy said...

Take me back to Monterey 67. Janis Joplin , The Mommas and the Poppas, and Johnny Rivers playing in one place along with Otis Redding straight out of the Georgia woods. It was all the new American performers of the 60s because the dominant British Invasion groups could not get visas then due to drug convictions. The great Bobby Dylan was down from encountering hard pavement while riding his motorcycle.

As for your test, I will take an Incomplete. It's too early in the morning.

khematite said...

Politics doesn't seem to be uniquely human. Chimpanzees and bonobos also appear to engage in political behavior.

https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/content/chimpanzee-politics

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Oh, so pleased you brought up that Motown lady. I remember that well and have referred to it a few times in conversation but hadn't taken the time to track down the original article for a reread. Thanks!

Wilbur said...

Every garage band in the mid to late-60s played "Shake", and it was often a go-to when the audience (such as they were) was not particularly responsive or energetic.

Wilbur said...

This post reminds me of the great Arthur Conley song "Do You Like Good Music?"

Fernandinande said...

"It is [blank] that makes us human."

DNA.

Nothing in your list really qualifies since none of them apply to pre-killed human babies (and some other humans). You might was well say "Speaking English makes us human."

Unknown said...

The older guys at the bar don't often play the jukebox; they remember when it took coins, not paper money. Every once in a while though, you'll see one punching in some selections, and some late-fifties or early-sixties music comes on; it is a welcome change of pace, and even some of the younger patrons find themselves bobbing their heads.

One day a few years back an older gentleman played a nice selection. Buddy Holly, Patsy Cline, a couple from Otis Redding.

Then: Jim Croce, John Denver. Jim Croce and John Denver rarely get played at the bar -- they seem to now belong to The Forgotten Seventies. Maybe I'll go deeper into The Forgotten Seventies later, it is something I've been known to talk about from time to time.

Anyway, I smiled at him, then went and played a song. Lynyrd Skynyrd. Not of the Forgotten Seventies, them: wherever there is a bar with a jukebox someone will eventually play "Free Bird". Because: America.

Anyway, the older gentleman smiled back. Not his music really, and really not mine, but when a theme is established you gotta keep with the theme.

Then the bartender went and played Steve Miller.

Goodbye to people I've trusted
I've got to go out and make my way
I might get rich you know I might bet busted
But my heart keeps calling me backwards
As I get on the 707
Ridin' high I got tears in my eyes
You know you got to go through hell
Before you get to heaven

Steve Miller didn't actually die in a plane crash, but it did wrap up the theme nicely.

And everyone can relate to the feeling that they don't want to get caught up in any of that funky shit goin' down in the city. Which is pretty much what happens right outside the bar on a regular basis: Ragged Crazies, Street Urchins, Heroin Kids, etc etc.

Perhaps later I will go into detail about Show Tune Tuesdays.

- james james

RNB said...

"...the better, female meaning..." Any gender swap in a cover performance may be justified so long as the interpretation is favorable to the female performer.

Ipso Fatso said...

"There is zero chance that Thomas's problem with Redding is racial. She's rejecting him because he's country. His retort: That's good." --Althouse

Carla Thomas is black too and the daughter of Rufus Thomas. Here is one of her hits:

Baby

Charlie said...

The Arthur Conley song is "Sweet Soul Music", co-written by Otis.

Charlie said...

Fun Fact: Otis Redding and Bernie Sanders were born 24 hours apart.

BamaBadgOR said...

Today, on the anniversary of Sam Cooke's death, my wife and I are playing his greatest hits, which include "She was only 16," which would make her two years older than Priscilla when she went on her first date with Elvis. I guess it's a Southern thing. Is this relevant today?

Crimso said...

'I put in my earphones and fired up Pandora and meant to type in "Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk" to get to some more music like that.'

Did "Bananas and Blow" come up?

Bad Lieutenant said...

Why was Aretha giving this guy "all my money"?

Maybe she was a whore and he her pimp?
Or she the hard working woman and he her shiftless mate?

eddie willers said...

"Do You Like Good Music?"

Yeah, yeah.