This is to be the first of many music posts. I had planned today to talk about one of the songs from my music appreciation class but i was inspired otherwise. One of the stores I work is a small neighborhood gas station that is part of the Piggly Wiggly located right before the bridge toward Folly Beach. Although I hated working there at first because it is a 45 minute drive from work I quickly fell in love with the small community and the people. You see the store isn't just a convenience store it is also a place of social connection for those who live in the neighborhood. Everybody knows everybody and looks out for everyone else. I see the same people everyday (some of them three times a day). You can often see a group of people standing outside the store talking about everything and nothing and just shooting the breeze. Unlike my other stores it tends to be a very relaxed atmosphere just as any beach store should be. A couple weeks ago, I was standing in this store when suddenly Otis Redding's "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" comes over the Store radio. Unconsciously I start moving my body to the music even though at the time I didn’t know the song by heart or the artist. The cashier laughs at me and I say that "I didn’t even realize i was moving. Some songs just have a rhythm that your mind cant really ignore!" Three people who were just kinda hanging out said "That is Otis Redding for you!". I said I didnt really know who he was but his music had a nice sound and I knew I had heard some of his music in movies or on the radio. One lady said, you really don’t know he is! He died in a plane crash years a go. I promised to look him up when I got home. She then said, “There is a reason why this song means so much to me!” As she said this, she suddenly seemed very emotional. She said that Otis wrote the song when she was in college. It was a time when the fight for civil rights was in full swing. There were bars and stores that banned "colored people", as they called them then, from entrance. Riots could break out at any time in the streets. There was a night when she was just hanging out with some of her buddies. One of her close friends got a little buzzed and he started singing the recently released song, Otis Redding's “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay” to the top of his lungs. The next day he was killed in a riot. This song will forever be edged into her memory because of this last memory with him and when she hears it, She “will be reminded of her friend and the pain of those years so long a go.” I could really feel her pain as told me this story and I will never look at this song the same way again. After doing some research, I found that there are a lot of people who had similar stories about this song. It was actually released a month after Otis Redding died from a sudden car crash at the age of 26. It was recorded a few days before his death and some sources say it was unfinished – that he meant to write lyrics later to the one verse that was whistled instead of sung. Regardless, it was in January 1968 and became the one song of his that became the top hit on the Billboard 100. Otis wrote this song about himself and it quite interesting that he wrote a biographical song months before his death. It is a part of the legacy he left behind. Below are the lyrics and the video. Feel free to leave any comments or stories about the song or the man, Otis Redding himself!
(SITTIN' ON) THE DOCK OF THE BAY
- written by Otis Redding and Steve Cropper
- lyrics as recorded by Otis Redding December 7, 1967, just three
days before his death in a plane crash outside Madison, Wisconsin
- #1 for 4 weeks in 1968
Sittin' in the mornin' sun
I'll be sittin' when the evenin' come
Watching the ships roll in
And then I watch 'em roll away again, yeah
I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay
Watching the tide roll away
Ooo, I'm just sittin' on the dock of the bay
Wastin' time
I left my home in Georgia
Headed for the 'Frisco bay
'Cause I've had nothing to live for
And look like nothin's gonna come my way
So I'm just gonna sit on the dock of the bay
Watching the tide roll away
Ooo, 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 same, yes
Sittin' here resting my bones
And this loneliness won't leave me alone
It's two thousand miles I 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
Oooo-wee, sittin' on the dock of the bay
Wastin' time
(whistle)
Sources:http://www.lyricsdepot.com/otis-redding%25/sitting-on-the-dock-of-the-bay.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%28Sittin%27_On%29_The_Dock_of_the_Bay
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otis_redding
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