Otis Ray Redding Documentary

He was a genius, he was no good, he was fantastic, there is no one who sounds like my father, he clearly wanted to achieve something great, he treated every musician like a brother, oh this had more than magnetism, he himself was just a magnet, a loving, kind and affectionate person. who just loves life, the plane had crashed and they didn't think there were any survivors, our world was wiped out at that moment we just sucked the spirit energy out of us, that was a tremendous loss for the entire world, but he's gone. his incomparable mark, untold, unsung, the story of

otis

ready, I've been loving you too long, you'd be hard-pressed to find a singer who is seen with as much conviction as

otis

ready like this, this is what it's like to live, this is what he sings is what music is otis

redding

was a force like no other a magnetic artist on stage a skilled songwriter and a singer of awe-inspiring emotions my father's style is something natural it simply comes from the heart it is actually two sides to the reading one He's like that vulnerable balance singer, yeah there's a freight train, he was always putting some energy on top of the energy he already had, he never did anything more than 100 of his talent, he's seeing your straight hair and the impact of Otis resonated far beyond the stage, it would appeal to people of all races. and all kinds of different situations in their little camp, he will hug him, this is the crowd of love, right, he just lifted everyone's spirits and made them feel really important and like someone, now I know that she is waiting, anticipating that he was just a gentle humanitarian giant. a loving father, son, brother, just a little tenderness, gave a third to the family, gave a third to the industry and gave a third to being a great guy and then at the age of 26, the Otis Redding's life came to an end. a sudden and tragic ending that leaves fans, family and future generations mourning all that could have been.

There isn't a day in my life that I don't think I pray for them. It's not a day where you can only imagine what would have come from it. the future if he had lived he just couldn't finish it but it was all in his vision his vision was way ahead of his time otis

redding

jr grew up in macon georgia the fourth of six children and the eldest son his mother fanny was a housekeeper his father otis father He was a sharecropper and a preacher and from the beginning young Otis made his presence felt like he walked, talked and spoke very loudly, you could hear him a baseball field away and he could imitate everyone he heard on the radio and he could sing just like them. while otis was growing up his family settled in an all-black housing project called tyndall heights at the time his father served as a minister at the local baptist church where otis also performed singing in the choir drums in the choir and all that when he was Seven years he sang in a spiritual quartet and actively in making Georgia he sang gospel as a teenager Otis also sang popular songs and local talent shows deeply influenced by another young singer from the church. from macon turned rock and roll star sounds like little richard that's what they said and he's winning talent shows until they kicked him out they wouldn't let him back because he kept winning the prize money otis would sneak out and take his car Father probably got into big trouble when he came back, but he did it anyway.

His father, of course, wanted Otis to go in another direction, however, Otis' determination said no, I will have to do it my way or no way at all. Otis' talent caught attention. from a local guitar genius named johnny jenkins who hired him to sing with his band the pine toppers one night while performing at the douglas theater in macon otis turned his attention to one fan in particular and said hello baby and i'm very happy defensive and I'm still like that I said I'm not your baby you don't even know me it was about two weeks later I saw him again I said it's the same damn food I saw at that talent show so we started talking again and we fell in love Love, It was obvious that this was a man that any and all women would love the chance to get their fangs into, but Otis Redding already loved himself.

It was beautiful to see that there were many girls he was stable with when he met me. But I won in 1961. Otis and Zelma had married and were raising the first of his three children. At that time, Otis was determined to succeed as a singer and even traveled to Los Angeles in the hopes of recording an album there. He thought he could become famous in California because, of course, everyone became famous in California. He recorded some songs that didn't do well and returned home. He worked in different places drilling wells. He worked at the hospital. That's why he was never able to keep a job.

Otis never held down a job, you know, that just wasn't in his path, his dream was to be a star. Otis' trust was shared by a young Macon manager named Phil Walden, so in 1962, when Johnny Jenkins traveled to Stax Records in Memphis to record Walden. he arranged for otis to come as jenkins' driver in the hope that somehow otis could record a song of his own there johnny jenkins stops the driver otis reading goes out with jim stewart steve crawford with booker t jones all the batteries guys who is this guy? being the valet then, in fact, otis helps unload the equipment from the trunk of the car. otis was a quiet type of person who wasn't intrusive with his attitude and spirit, but he wanted someone to listen to him and he made that connection through al jackson jr who was the main drummer for stacks, al jackson came to see me and told me , you know, I told you about the tall guy, if you have time, he's driving me crazy, do you have time to take two minutes and listen to him say for a second I said well, okay, I started playing I think in B flat or something and he came out with these arms of mine and I promise you the hair on my arms because it was so perfect, it was artistic, it was emotional, I was just saying these arms of mine, but he was making them. um, the label was run by the brother-sister team of jim stewart and estelle axton and a family in more ways than one. stacks really was a unique organization because stacks' philosophy was one of inclusion that jim stewart bought into.

In an old recording studio in a predominantly black community a unity and a bond was created that was significant for those times because all the bigotry and hatred and all those types of energies were outside our world in that facility it just wasn't the case. stacks didn't have a strong male singer, we just walked in there at just the right time, he energized the whole studio from the moment he walked in there for that whole first flurry of Otis singles after these arms of mine didn't work out. a lot, but while on tour in 1964, otis had a fateful encounter with fellow singer-songwriter, jerry butler got out the guitars and they're talking about the songs he was going to hear, i got the song i can't finish, trey's doing well, It's funny, I have one.

I can't finish either, Jerry started singing the beginning of I've Been Loving You Too Long and I said, this great song, Jerry got to the bridge, I didn't know where to go with it, so I said, do you know what to play? tape for me I'll just finish that song and call what Jerry said hey I finished the song he said no you won't you want me to and he said well let me hear it so oh this he said oh that's a song for you my love gets more strong as you become a habit for me, released in 1965.

I've been loving you too long. It's become Otis' signature ballad and a spectacular concert performance, and he's emotionally building it to a plateau when he arrives. It comes to the end that you not only understand the meaning of the song, but you also get the emotional connection he has with the song. Otis was literally taking care of business in other ways, he and manager Phil Walden created two companies, Jodis and Redwall, to protect his song rights and develop artists to record their music, the way money is paid for writing songs. is that half the money goes to the publisher, half the money goes to the actual writer, so yours truly was smart enough to know that you can make more if you do it.

In this way, I think he was goal-driven, he knew what he wanted and I think that was amazing for a person as young as him, especially in the industry, he was trying to do everything he could to take his career to the next level, so that He was just very serious about growing up in the projects in Macon, Georgia, having little education and getting to that point, I think it's emotionally powerful, but it's also culturally powerful and economically powerful. I don't think Otis was naïve about any of that and for this man to write produce work with other artists and tour where we are on 365 days a year there just isn't enough time to do it because I've been loving you too long he rose in the singles charts otis returned to memphis and in legendary fashion session recorded an entire album otis blue in less than a day otis was going to go back on tour in 24 hours and that's how long we had to send an album, i mean, We worked hard for many fans, Otis Blue would remain Redding's best album is due in part to a song written by Otis and later immortalized by Aretha Franklin titled Respect.

That song came just in time because it told the woman and the man that we are together, we love each other and I'm going to give you respect when you come home and you bring respect with you you sound like an old pastor, you know, I mean preacher, preach, becomes a clear call for black empowerment and yes, Aretha's version is great and it is incredibly important to block the story, but it is not like that. exist without otis not only realized that I was a great performer but he also realized that I'm a great songwriter and he proved his point with that situation where a promoter wouldn't pay him, the guy took a knife and hugged his towels so you're going to sing honey you're going to sing oh that's the gun he took him out of that combo he broke his wrist the cop arrested him and he noticed I can't believe you're going to arrest me for defending myself and then he said oh if I don't arrest you , they'll break your ass before you can put it down.

He says I'm trying to get you out of here safely and, uh, he did it. Oh, I'm actually respectful in 1965. Otis Redding had emerged as a leading figure at Stax Records and a favorite among musicians. He also treated all musicians and fostered their confidence. He just treated him like a brother. He was a fun guy to be around. He respected you. He gave you conversation. It's amazing to be a part of and around Otis Reddy Otis spread good vibes in other ways at his home in Macon, buying his father a new car and then moving his family, including his parents, to a 300-acre plot of land in the outskirts of town called the big old ranch. just leafy trees and grass and animals everywhere and there's a beautiful ranch house that's red.

My dad's parents were in the driveway and then my mom's parents were in the house with us and horses, there were cows, there was Tom and Jerry, and there were peacocks. dogs um so it was full of life this whole circular area was the pool and dad loved that pool. He spent most of his time at home vacuuming that pool and would go out and vacuum the pool and then come back. Coming in and writing a song is so peaceful and so serene and I think that's what my dad was looking for, that kind of serenity, he comes home and he's a father, you know, that's my dad and when he leaves it's like out to work, you know? and he goes to take care of his family with his rising star otis he returned more frequently to the sax he recorded two albums there in 1966 while developing a songwriting partnership with guitarist steve cropper there were two of us in a hotel room he would bring ideas to the table and I would bring ideas to the table, sometimes we wouldn't even go to bed, we would stay up all night writing songs, I would say, oh boy, we better get the studio, the band will already be there and once in the studio, otis took charge of those sessions, he even arranged the trumpet parts singing the melodies well, this was a natural musician, a natural trumpet player, he sang trumpet lines as naturally as I would and we played them and they came out great as They did on all those records, we always said that Otis Reading was a genius when it came to music, he just was, he just had it, the combination clicked on a number of songs written by Reading and Cropper, including Mr.

Pitiful, Any Old Man wade and a ballad called just one more day just one more day it's like it was pretty much the whole gospel song it was just a way of just uh man just one more day one of the interesting things that I like about the song is that at the end otis Says I've Gotta Have All My Days, Just One More Day, sold respectably peaking at number 15 on the charts, but it was the other side of that Otis-penned single that really took off, hey, drop it, it's like it's on a totally different level from any other song.

What he did is like look well, I'm going to do it, you know what I'm saying, that song is giving you akick in the ass, making you get up and do what otis was doing, he'd get his band going until he got the crowd up and dancing, he was a big guy, he weighed a lot and he just jumped around the floor, you know, He wasn't just a grim old guy who had a heartache, but he had a little party in him, yeah, I mean. This is a grown man having fun and making everyone think the day was good.

I thought he was hunting. He one time he shot a deer and he came over to look at his field and the deal got up and he started chasing it and he chased it. I climbed a tree now I climbed the hillside he was carrying stuff up the tree and the rifle was laying on the ground and I said what the hell is going on, he says man I recorded that song it's a nitty-gritty in the middle of the 60s. with hits like respect and I can't let go of you otisReading was one of R B's top stars with serious ambitions to do more.

It had been a long-time plan of Phil Walden and Otis Redding to try to reach white America. You can get a lot more money if you have both, why not? he wanted both he was worried about recording the next album the next album making the next tour the next everything he wanted his name to be how it ended up being worldwide otis had already been recording rock and pop songs on his albums but in the spring of '66 he was further taking his show to the whiskey on Los Angeles' Sunset Strip. It was the first time I saw him on stage and I couldn't believe the audience followed more concerts at rock venues like the Fillmore in San Francisco and then came a trip to England where Otis was welcomed like royalty, we didn't know how ready they were. for us, the Beatles sent their personal limousine to pick him up at the airport, you know, Tom Jones and Mick Jagger, and all these guys are backstage every night just to look at all this right, I still say I was crying in the audience , he called me and said you know they really love me here, the Rolling Stones, it's the Beetles, he said I've never been treated like that at home while his tour schedule was heating up.

Otis bought his own plane to keep up. Otis' idea of ​​having his own plane was to improve his career. He could be around his family and he could do it all. Otis wanted to build a track on his ranch. important to otis and his family because he could land directly at home and, hey, just get off the plane and just walk home in the spring of '67, otis was returning to europe headlining a review of top artists and with plans to record a show live there we had sam and dave we had eddie floyd we had carla thomas we had bought 10 mg but the host of those shows was ready to odish I don't think we expected that kind of reception and from the first big show What we did was like People in Europe never reacted so much to anyone, but Otis became a part of them.

It was like a revival that developed from one country to another considering that people didn't necessarily understand the words, but they felt the words. Music felt the artistic creativity that the creators of the oldest scriptures brought to every stage at every concert. A few months later, Otis was invited to what would be the first major rock festival in the United States, performing alongside Jimi Hendrix, Janice Joplin and the who in monterey, california, monterey pop. The festival was an ideal place to be able to capture the new white audience of hippies and long hair and people who really like music from the moment we got off that bus.

I could tell you the smell in the air I knew it. It was going to be different to any other gig we've ever played here's a guy coming to a hippie party in a three piece suit everyone says shank let me have the whole crop there were seven young musicians without us ready and they were left breathless shake it was a song that really tore the place up we played so good and so hard for so long we just wore them out when we talk about the monterey pop festival it's one of those situations where you're glad you were there to do it, you're glad you're closing the place show, but i would have liked to be sitting in the audience watching that show after his spectacular performance at the 1967 monterey pop festival. otis redding was ready to take his career to On another level, when he finished, he had Esquire magazine double, we did the Time magazine proles zone, all of a sudden, movies started piling up on his desk for him to consider, I mean, everything was starting to happen and notice his life, but there was a catch, literally, in Otis, years of giving it his all as a singer had created polyps in his throat that required surgery and with an uncertain prognosis for recovery, he was just a strong guy and he was going to get through it either way, you know?

So he just did what he had to do. He was home about six weeks and he had this tag like a ring, ring like a servant. I think you need to put that damn bear back. Are you going to go with this bear? But it is never expressed. He told me that he had some fear of not being able to sing again, but I'm sure that crossed his mind. You know, during that time I remember him being in the room and strumming his guitar. You know, nothing came out but strumming. the guitar could talk for two weeks he couldn't sing for six for all that time those weeks in his mind he was writing songs we hadn't spent that kind of time together in a long time and I look back and think about it it was just it was a blessing just a blessing to return to the shelves in November of '67 otis embarked on a spree of recordings that would eventually fill several albums, including new songs he had written and others that had been on the shelf for years at the first session In the studio we looked at each other and We said: Does Zoda sing well or what is the best thing we have heard about her voice?

And you kept lowering them, lowering them, lowering them. I'll only leave 26 songs in a week. Imagine, all these other artists today take a year to make 26 songs, you know, after three weeks at Stax, Otis was ready to hit the road, he already had his own touring band, a group of talented teenagers of Memphis called the bar-kays, the barcades they were. it's this little band from memphis tennessee that had aspirations to be big they had a great band and they had a lot of fans and they were the second season so otis just fell in love with it he was really concerned about us and it was just like one big happy family that they were his babies, they were just his children, he loved having them, I mean, they learned a lot from all this, ready, I think they enjoyed every moment in early December, Otis and the boats flew to Cleveland for a series of shows. including this on their last day together, oh I may be using them as young girls, they get tired, so we had no idea that would be the last time we would perform together on stage, there was a certain feeling about you know, everything seemed to fall into place, all their performances were great, but this one had something a little bit special, i mean, it was like there was more energy, it was more, it was more everything the next day, december 10, otis. and the band flew from cleveland to madison wisconsin the plane could only carry a certain amount of people two people always had to fly commercial flights and on this particular day me and a guy named carl sims were the two guys taking the people of commercial flights at the airport he told us I shouldn't fly he said the weather is really bad and you shouldn't go I said you know you need to advise this job and notice that man I've never missed an appointment in my life and I'm not going to start now the plane never made it to madison crashed into a lake five miles from the airport bar-k trumpeter ben cauley was rescued from icy water four members of barcase avalon the plane's pilot and otis redding died when they called They said the plane of Otis crashed and I'm like someone was playing with the phone, you know, you just don't put that in your brain and then the cause started coming and you know what had happened that night, it was like just a single blank. , what can you call it, I just remembered the emotions, um, watching my mom go through pure hell, because that's what it means she was a strong woman, but that broke her, zelma, she said, I don't have the strength to Go and identify my husband.

Could you identify it for me? The idea and concept of knowing that he would have been on a plane and then knowing that all your friends were gone. I mean, it's hard to process something like that. Everyone so devastated, so torn, in fact, they were like pieces of us, just disintegrated, that was the worst pain I felt in my life. It didn't hurt as much when my father died or my mother died. All my brothers died. I remember praying for that. she would be found alive my father was a minister you had to believe in God and you have to believe that prayers were answered and in this particular case you know that prayer was not answered for me a few days after the plane crash that took Otis' life redding went to his house in macon georgia four thousand people came to the funeral phil walden was his manager he said we want to bury him in rose hill i said no he's going home he's going home and he put it in the front yard and no one is going to do it nothing about it, so it's at home in the front yard, I love having it there, our world was wiped out at that time, as were the tax records, the taxes were never really recovered, the loss of the eldest who was running for the music industry, I think he set the industry back years because he was the pioneer in amplifying the artistic creativity that comes through African Americans and one can only imagine what would have happened in the future if he had lived the way he did.

One of Otis Reading's last recordings gave a strong hint of where his future might have led him even as he crowned his legacy. We wrote sitting on the bay dock, interestingly enough on a houseboat in Sausalito in San Francisco, he was actually sitting on a kind of bay dock, I was so excited to bring that to me. song he called me from the airport to make sure I was in the studio he said I'm coming down I have a great idea otis reading I feel very, very strong sitting on the bay dock I was surprised because he was so different from what I I was used to hearing him say that he was getting ready to do the guitar overdub on the song the last time I saw him he reared his head in his death sitting in the hot seat it became Otis Redding's first pop number one hit Many times I I've asked if he had a premonition without knowing it, sometimes we know and maybe that song was also designed to prepare us for what was coming in a moment I just wanted to be the guy who came from the ghetto who went all the way.

He got to the top and he didn't get angry. He arrived making people love him. He left me three beautiful children. I love my husband so much. Why would he remarry me? I could have done it but I won't. People never ask. Yo, where would he be today if he were still alive? Probably on some stage somewhere because he was the king of soul and we'll always do that.