Otis
Redding
‘Live’ in London
& Paris
Stax
Records
UK Release Date: November 2008
Over
the last
eighteen months there has been a mountain of material available on the
late
Otis Redding most notably the DVD release of the Stax Story, as well as
his own
self titled DVD amongst various 2 on 1 CD albums making most of his
back
catalogue available in one form or another. During the mid 1960’s as a
young
teenager in the Manchester area a city noted for it’s huge following of
soul
and r’n’b music (most notably via its famous (although now long
defunct)
Twisted Wheel club, I grew up discovering the fine tunes that were
getting
released on the Atlantic/Stax record labels of which our subject’s
releases
stood out head and shoulders above the rest.
It seems all and
sundry from my school days and weekly youth club meetings were raving
about a
singer called Otis Redding. The year was 1965 and juke boxes from my
favourite
holiday haunts in Wales would continuously blast out songs like ‘My
Girl’
‘Satisfaction’ ‘I can’t Turn You Loose’ and two incredible versions of
Sam
Cooke’s ‘Shake’ (although I preferred the studio cut to the live
version). It
wasn’t until two years later that I fell in love with his duet with
Carla
Thomas covering Lowell Fulson’s ‘Tramp’ did I realise just what a
talent he
was.
Vaguely
remembering his appearance on Ready Steady Go in 1964 where a whole
show was
dedicated to him it wasn’t long before I was scouring the record shops
for
anything and everything I could find on Redding quickly amassing a
formidable collection
of Stax and Atlantic recordings. His death in
1968 came as a
shock to the system at such a young age and Polydor Records immediately
issued
his single 'Dock Of the Bay' shortly after. Fast forward to 2008 and
Stax Records have issued a fabulous
double ‘live’ concert CD of Otis in Paris, and also in London 1967.
As
part of the
touring Stax/Volt tour (of which the film of the Norway gig is
available) Otis
was backed by his regular house-band Booker T & the MG’s featuring
Al
Jackson, Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn, Booker T Jones and guitarist Steve Cropper
who co-wrote
a number of Otis’ hits during this period, and after the opening
introduction
Redding came on stage and launched into ‘Respect’ taking the audience
on a
musical high before bringing things down to a more relaxed tempo
singing his
1965 hit ‘My Girl’. Next up the audience go wild as he launches into
‘Shake’ a
song that originator Sam Cooke would have been proud of and you can
hear the
audience screaming the title behind Otis.
Fabulous horns
from the Mar Keys as they launch into the Beatles’ ‘Day Tripper’ and
The
Rolling Stones’ ‘Satisfaction all of which had received single releases
here in
the UK although the highlight’s for me personally remain with ‘Fa Fa Fa
Sad
Song’ and the gentle ‘Try A Little Tenderness’ stretched out here on
the London
gig to just over 7 minutes showing Redding’s excellent vocal range
before he
extends the song into a furious vocal outburst, crashing cymbals,
stabbing
horns and an audience verging on insanity as they scream for more.
Never more
will you hear the words ‘out of sight’ groovy, and sock it to me’. Raw
unadulterated soul as it should be.
The Paris gig ran somewhat longer due
to different
licence restrictions but featured a few additional classic songs
including ‘I
Can’t Turn You Loose’ ‘I’ve Been Loving You Too Long’ and ‘These Arms
Of Mine’
all delivered in the same frantic manner as the aforementioned. Having
never
attended a Redding gig myself I like so many others are now enjoying
the
pleasure of reliving the experience via today’s DVD technology and I
urge you
to check out the following DVD’s for your viewing pleasure.
Rating 10/10
DVD's;
The Legacy Of
Otis Redding DVD
Respect Yourself - The Story Of Stax
Records DVD