{"id":106480,"date":"2025-09-09T08:00:56","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T12:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=106480"},"modified":"2025-09-08T08:55:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T12:55:20","slug":"happy-birthday-otis-redding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=106480","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Sometimes, the most powerful lyrics are the ones left unsaid.&#8221; &#8212; Otis Redding"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/OtisRedding2013.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/OtisRedding2013.jpg\" alt=\"OtisRedding2013\" width=\"960\" height=\"588\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-106483\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/OtisRedding2013.jpg 960w, https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/OtisRedding2013-100x61.jpg 100w, https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/OtisRedding2013-200x123.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/OtisRedding2013-400x245.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\nSeen on Beale Street:<\/p>\n<p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/8330419813_7d18fbb5c2_c.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-167196\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/8330419813_7d18fbb5c2_c.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/8330419813_7d18fbb5c2_c-200x150.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/8330419813_7d18fbb5c2_c-400x300.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/8330419813_7d18fbb5c2_c-100x75.jpg 100w, https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/8330419813_7d18fbb5c2_c-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><p>\nWatch Otis Redding&#8217;s live 1967 performance of &#8220;Try a Little Tenderness.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IQ9n2_5mbig\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\nIn this performance, what always strikes me is where it <em>starts<\/em> &#8230; and then where it GOES. And the journey he takes in between. <\/p>\n<p>That journey is orchestrated by him. He&#8217;s the maestro, of the song, yes, but also of himself. How much to let out, of himself, incrementally &#8230; until the song gets where it needs to get, becomes what it needs to become. He KNOWS where it needs to go. And he&#8217;s going to take it there, but in his own time, without pushing &#8230; the song itself will lead him. and yet he is never less than in charge. <\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s such an extraordinary example of an artist who is not <em>obedient<\/em> to anything other than his own story and the sound and his feel of what is right, from moment to moment to moment. <\/p>\n<p>In our highly orchestrated concert age, where so little is left to chance that the actual PERFORMER becomes an obedient &#8220;employee&#8221; basically in thrall to the demands of the complex choreography\/computerized lighting schemes\/moving stages, etc. &#8230; watching a performance like this is even more thrilling, and a spectacle far greater than a fireworks display over a stadium. <\/p>\n<p>What happens when you try to remove the risk of live performance, when you want a &#8220;sure thing&#8221; even before the song has started &#8230; is that you remove the possibility of watching an artist create electricity all by himself. This allows space for the audience &#8230; and it&#8217;s THAT space that gets filled. HE fills it, with his intention, his purpose, his understanding of where he needs to start out &#8211; and then where he needs to GO. <\/p>\n<p>A tragically short life. <\/p>\n<p>If you go to the Stax Museum in Memphis (which you definitely should), there&#8217;s a whole Otis Redding room. His instruments. His sheet music framed with his scribblings on it. <\/p>\n<p>And then this. The telegram Elvis sent to Otis Redding&#8217;s wife, expressing condolences when he passed. Framed on the wall.<\/p>\n<p>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/6649431615_2b53d9d17f_o.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/6649431615_2b53d9d17f_o.jpg\" alt=\"6649431615_2b53d9d17f_o\" width=\"612\" height=\"612\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-106484\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/6649431615_2b53d9d17f_o.jpg 612w, https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/6649431615_2b53d9d17f_o-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/6649431615_2b53d9d17f_o-200x200.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/6649431615_2b53d9d17f_o-400x400.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 612px) 100vw, 612px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><p>\nIt&#8217;s worth it to watch the entirety of Little Richards&#8217; relatively nuts speech inducting Otis Redding into the Hall of Fame. A rock &#8216;n roll star appears to be who Little Richard actually <em>is<\/em>. His speech is all about him somehow. Which is charming and perfect and makes total sense because he&#8217;s LITTLE RICHARD. &#8220;Shut up.&#8221; And he sings, boy. He sings his own songs, he sings Otis&#8217; songs. They both hailed from Macon, Georgia.<\/p>\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YUvHBirr1PI\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\nAs Little Richard says, Otis Redding was &#8220;a pillar of rock &#8216;n&#8217; roll.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Seen on Beale Street: Watch Otis Redding&#8217;s live 1967 performance of &#8220;Try a Little Tenderness.&#8221; In this performance, what always strikes me is where it starts &#8230; and then where it GOES. And the journey he takes in between. That &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=106480\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17,39],"tags":[2095,2438],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106480"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=106480"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":193679,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106480\/revisions\/193679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=106480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=106480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=106480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}