Otis Redding: The King of Soul

All of my blogs lately seem to have been about bands that originate in England. So what is the rest of the world doing? What happened to the good old American rock and roll artists such as Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis? Did they just disappear? Did they give up on music? England cannot be the only one that is spewing out good artists left and right!

Well, one rock and roller that dared to rival the great English bands such as the Beatles and the Stones and the Who, is Otis Redding. Otis Redding seemed to break down common molds of rock and roll during his time. He is able to pull off singing in a variety of different styles. In one song, he is able to sound as wild and crazy as the “old” rock and roll style that made Jerry Lee Lewis so popular, yet he can shift in a heartbeat to a song much milder and softer in tone.

Despite his changes in style, he always seems to maintain a steady swing-like beat and his soulful voice. This is probably what enabled him to keep fans no matter what song he released. In this way, he is kind of like the Beatles who were able to try any genre they pleased and it was accepted. Like the Beatles, it was the vocals that unified the songs the most. The Beatles were able to sound like “The Beatles” because they had standard harmonies. Likewise, Otis Redding had a very distinct voice that unified his songs. His deep, vibrato vocals enabled his songs, if it was heavy rock, to country, to a more soulful melody, to flourish.

While he was not able to create music for as long as other bands and musicians of the time because of his unfortunate early death in a plane crash at age 27, in the time that he had, Redding made a significant impact to the music industry as a whole. He took rock and roll by the handlebars and steered it in a completely new direction. He basically formed early R&B with his passionate country-like songs. Redding was also had a lot of depth to each of his songs as well. The reason why Redding stays so memorable to me is that he was so different than anything that preceded him. He made music that contained so much originality that even his covers seemed to be different songs.

For instance, in his cover of “Satisfaction” of the Stones, Redding creates almost a completely different piece of music full of a lot more energy and craziness. Otis Redding definitely takes the Stones’ hit and transforms it into a completely different sound and vibe. Listening to them side by side, I hardly realize they are the same song besides the chorus. While the Stones’ version had, in my opinion, timid vocals and a much more punk-like sounding countermelody in the guitar, Redding goes a new route. He adds his own flavor to the song and incorporates a quicker tempo, jazzy and country-like rhythms, dominant vocals, and (we can’t forget) his commanding stage presence. Check out Otis Redding in action, transforming the Stones song below:

After hearing this one song by Otis Redding, I thought I had a pretty good idea about the type of music he wrote. It was all upbeat wailing and kind of wild. But then my ears caught hold of a completely different side to this brilliant artist. A lot of his songs are written very bluesy and display a soft R&B sound. In his song, “These Arms Are Mine”, Otis Redding writes a brief, yet powerful, poem that he croons out. His phrases are long yet it doesn’t make the sound seem to drag on laboriously. Redding’s songs seem to ooze out passion from their very core in order to put across a soulful message. Check it out for yourself and compare with the first video I posted:

Overall, I think Otis Redding is refreshing in comparison to all of the Beatles, Stones, and Who that I’ve been blogging about lately. He provides a new look into the art of rock.