Tag Archives: Otis Blue

Music Monday: September 15, 2025

Posted in Music Monday by

Hi, everyone. Welcome to this week’s edition of Music Monday.

(Image found online.  Original source unknown.)

Last month I celebrated the 50th anniversary of the most important album in my world. Today I am honoring the second one, released 60 years ago. Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul was released on September 15, 1965. This album is the one that helped me love this man for more than his posthumous #1 masterpiece, (“Sittin’ On The) Dock Of The Bay”.

Otis Blue featured eleven tracks including three songs written by Redding (with one of them co-written with soul singer Jerry Butler), a Jagger-Richards tune and three songs written by Sam Cooke, one of Redding’s idols. The album is resplendent with his signature achingly impassioned vocal in every note while the house band at Stax-also known as the incomparable Booker T & The MG’s-keeps up with his energy and drive. And the band’s virtuoso guitarist, Steve Cropper, along with label co-owner Jim Stewart (1930-2022), produced the album with renowned engineer Tom Dowd (1925-2002) who worked with dozens of artists including Aretha Franklin, Cream, The Allman Brothers Band and Eric Clapton.

Earlier in 1965-March to be exact-another album by Redding was released, The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads. The collection includes covers of Sam Cooke’s “Nothing Can Change This Love” and Jerry Butler’s “For Your Precious Love” along with the Redding-Cropper collaboration, “Mr. Pitiful”, amongst its 12 tracks.

Last week marked Redding’s 84th birth anniversary. He was born on September 9, 1941 in Dawson, Georgia and was raised in Macon. He started singing in church and later in talent shows. By 15 when he left school to help support his family, he was singing with Little Richard (who inducted Redding into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 1989). By 1962 he had recorded & released his first hit with Stax, “These Arms Of Mine”. Over the next impossibly short five years, he established himself as The King Of Soul with notable performances at The Apollo Theater in 1963, The Whisky a Go-Go in 1966 & The Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 before his death in a plane crash at the end of that year on December 10. Sixty years later, Otis Blue remains the pinnacle of Redding’s career.

Above: Otis Redding circa 1965. (Image found on OtisRedding.com. Original source unknown.)

(Image found online.  Original source unknown.)

Otis Redding: “Respect” (1965, written by Otis Redding).

Otis Redding: “A Change Is Gonna Come” (1965, written by Sam Cooke).

Otis Redding: “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” (1965, written by Jerry Butler and Otis Redding).

Otis Redding: “Shake” (1965, written by Sam Cooke).

Otis Redding: “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” (1965, written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards).

Otis Redding: “You Don’t Miss Your Water” (1965, written by William Bell).

Stay safe & well.

Let’s Take A Moment Day 150

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Hi everyone.  Hope you are all well and continue to stay that way during this global health crisis we are facing.  But in addition to protecting your physical wellness, what are you doing to stay mentally healthy today?

Charlie Brown No Music No Life

(Image found online.  Original source unknown.)

I know we are in a serious situation, but I need a break from the gloom, doom and bullying by way of hoarding. Music has always been my refuge and watching those beautiful Italians singing to each other from their balconies reaffirmed my belief that music is the answer. So until the old normal returns, I am going to share a song I listen to that helps me escape the current state of things, if only for a few minutes each day.  And if this helps anyone else, even better.

We have hit another benchmark as we are now at day 150 of the pandemic.  Wow.  So let’s commemorate it with an extra special song & singer to make it easier to realize the five month mark.

Otis Redding.  Otis Redding.  Otis Redding.  My heart belongs to this beautiful talented singer with the most intense, passionate & soulful voice I ever heard.  I swoon over every single note of his music each time it is played.  When I really need an Otis fix, I watch his Monterey Pop Festival performance from 1967 where he literally stole the show from the likes of Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Jefferson Airplane and other well established musical acts.  Redding’s music has been featured in movies like “Dirty Dancing” (“These Arms Of Mine” & “Love Man”), “Love Actually” (“White Christmas”), “Platoon” (“Dock Of The Bay”) and in TV shows like “The Sopranos” (season 2 episode 9 featured “My Lover’s Prayer”) and in the original “Magnum, P.I.” (season 7 episode 16 featured “Try A Little Tenderness”).  Today’s song, which is included on the album, “Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul”, arguably his best album released in September 1965, was featured on “The Wonder Years” in season 1 episode 6 where Kevin & Winnie danced to it at a school function.  Only Redding’s music could make a show as great as that one even better.

“I’ve been loving you a little too long
I don’t want to stop now, oh
With you my life
Has been so wonderful
I can’t stop now“.

Otis

Otis Redding at the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967.  (Image found online.  Original source unknown.)

Otis Redding:  “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” (1965, written by Otis Redding and Jerry Butler).

I do not own the rights to anything.  I am just sharing what I love and how I am coping with you.

Stay well.

Back In The Game

Posted in Finds, Music, Vintage Finds by

Well, it is finally here.  No, not spring, which finally did make it to New England.  I am referring to thrifting season-it has finally begun!!!  However the sale is labeled-estate sale, garage sale or tag sale-now is the time we will see them nearly every weekend, rather than sporadically.  And I cannot wait to start digging!!!

I have gone to a couple over the last few weeks, and if you follow me on Instagram, you know I hit it out of the park at my first one by snagging this little beauty:

IMG_20180411_002515[1]  IMG_20180411_002445[1]

I also found this gorgeous piece which I was swooning over but could not afford it (and it was way over priced), but man, was I in LOVE!!!

Antique cabinet

 

 

 

 

I also saw my dream pick up truck, the one I picture myself driving around town on Saturday mornings to local garage sales with a bulldog riding shotgun when I finally have my dream house (and dream bulldog) in the country.

Pick up truck

 

 

 

 

 

Even if I do not stop at every sale, I just love driving down the street and seeing views like this:

IMG_0361     IMG_0356

There is something so exciting yet very comforting about these sales.  The suspense of what I might find underscored with the comfort of knowing I have the chance to find a treasure, a diamond in the rough, a DIY project or a combination of all three.

Switching gears to one of my other vices, did you guys hear there is another great old show getting a comeback?  It’s “Murphy Brown” and I cannot wait!!!  I will really miss Robert Pastorelli and his character “Eldin”, but the chance to see Candace Bergen and Grant Shaud (“Miles”) interact again has me on the edge of my seat.

Murphy Brown

The original “Murphy Brown” cast from its first run (original source unknown).

And are you guys enjoying the new “Roseanne” episodes as much as I am???  It is really hitting its pace again and delving into the character’s pasts to make us understand why they are where they are in the present.  Great acting, great writing, great story-lines…..I am completely loving the show.

My other current fave show, “Superstore”, continues to entertain me as well.  The mix of these characters is one I have not seen before and each new guest character (Pastor Craig and Isaac are two standouts featured in the hilarious “Amnesty” episode) instantly becomes my favorite!!!  I just really hope we have not seen the last of Linda Porter, since her character, Myrtle, was fired despite how adorable she is.  Fingers crossed we see her again!!!  And please, God, let me find a friend like Dina!!!!  Everyone needs a Dina in their life!!!

Superstore cast.jpg
   The cast of “Superstore” (Courtesy of NBC). 

Now, time for a song.  One of the new tags on Facebook is asking people to name the 10 albums that most influenced them.  This got me thinking about the ones I would name and why.  Of course, “Born To Run” & “Otis Blue” would top my list, but that still leaves eight other choices.  That brought me to remember my introduction to this man’s voice.

I was watching “The Last Waltz” for the first time, and I was mesmerized.  His voice, his lyrics, his interpretation of the song and the music-all perfection.  He is one of my favorites to this day, and whether it’s a ballad or a rocker, I love every second of his songs.  And for someone who grew up on radio and continues to listen to all of it today-local, national and satellite-these words bring back that feeling of hearing my favorite song being played.  It is a primal emotional response like no other.  Music & songs allow us to time travel,  taking us back to moments in our lives that we cherish or can’t forget for other reasons.  Either way, they make us feel…..”and then we can get down to what is really wrong”.

“Turn up your radio and let me hear the song
Switch on your electric light, then we can get down to what is really wrong.

Turn it up, turn it up, little bit higher, radio
Turn it up, that’s enough, so you know its got soul.”

Van Morrison:  “Caravan” (studio version & “The Last Waltz” version).

I only own the rights to my own pictures, nothing else I featured in this post.  The rest are things I love and want to share with you you  🙂

Until next time, happy digging!!!