In his dazzling opening chapter of Otis Redding: An Unfinished Life Jonathan Gould recounts the soul singer’s electrifying performance at the 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival.
Redding appeared late in the night after Jefferson Airplane ran over their time, and was forced to shorten his set. It also started to rain, but Redding unfazed, bolted onstage and ignited the crowd with his soul-rock-blues playlist “Shake” “Respect” “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” “Try A Little Tenderness.” The folk-psychedelic-rock crowd was mesmerized and his festival performance as iconic as those by Jimi Hendrix, the Mamas and Papas, and Janis Joplin. Redding was just 26 and at the height of his career when he was killed later that year along with the pilot and members of his band, when his jet crashed enroute to a tour date.
Gould is the author of the acclaimed “Can’t Buy Me Love” about the Beatles, has written a comprehensive biography of Redding, along with a vibrant history African American musical diaspora that shaped Redding’s artistry as an era defining soul singer.
One of five children growing up in Georgia of the 40s in a time of entrenched racism, Jim Crow laws and financial hardships. Otis’s moved around to secure a better future for their children, but faced many financial hardships along the way. Otis, Sr. was a laborer at a military base during WWII and deacon of his church, but was sidelined with tuberculosis which landed him in sanatoriums for long stretches. However challenging his circumstances, Otis continued to pursue a music career. Redding started out professionally as a gospel singer, and then began winning talent contests imitating Little Richard, who had just shot to stardom in the 50s with his sexually charged rock and roll hit tunes.
Still in his teens, Redding met Zelma Atwood in Macon, they fell in love, just as Redding was getting more career opportunities. When Zelma pregnant, Redding, was headed on the road, but he assured her parents that he had every intention of returning to Macon when Zelma their first baby, Dexter, was born. However unstable the music business was, Zelma believed in Redding’s talent and backed him all the way.
When Redding had a recording session in L.A. just two months before he turned 19, and when he received a $100 advance he returned by bus to Zelma in Macon and picked up more performances work near home. Redding was playing local clubs and college dates, when he recorded songs for Stax records, with mixed results, but got him play on the radio and landed him on the charts. After he appeared at the Apollo Theater in New York, he was emerging as one of the hottest acts around.
Back on the road with Redding, racial tension in the south was boiling over and Gould chronicles how blatant racism and oppression manifested itself in every aspect of the recording, concert and broadcast industries. As was the case with many black artists, the left the country to bypass the industry racial divides and games and Redding’s tour in England and Scandinavia made him a seasoned star.
Gould also laces in dimensional portraits of singers Sam Cooke (who Redding idolized), James Brown, Harry Belafonte and Little Richard. The book delves into the vital musicology of ‘jump blues’ and ‘blues gospel’ two distinct and expansive genres for black artists and the emergence of soul genres.
Gould does a great job contextualizing the control of such corporate giants as Columbia Records, as independent record producers like Ahmet Ertegun and his brother Nesuhi, founders of Atlantic records, Jerry Wexler and Motown founder Berry Gordy, busting up the monopoly, and opening up more artistic and commercial ground for black singers and developing expansive crossover markets for blues, R&B, gospel and soul. The analysis of the business wranglings of executives and agents of the record business, proves a bit heavier going.
The year he died, Redding was coming into his personally, professionally and musically. He was controlling his career, writing and producing his own songs and performing the way he wanted to and was financially secure. At 25, he had become a major star and in the months before his death had just recorded material for three albums. His never saw the height of his success with his hit (‘Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay’ and other new recordings he had just cut, were fated to be released posthumously.
Gould’s biography comes on the 50th anniversary year of Monterey and a fascinating look back on Redding and his era Redding’s performance at Monterey was fortunately preserved for all time on the wildly popular documentary by D.A. Pennebaker, released two years later sealing his broad appeal as one of the leading vocalists of his generation.
Otis Redding An Unfinished Life by Jonathan Gould | http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com