![song sitting on the dock of the bay song sitting on the dock of the bay](https://images.fineartamerica.com/images/artworkimages/mediumlarge/1/sitting-on-the-dock-of-the-bay-greg-rud.jpg)
You know, `I'm working my can off and it seems like nothing's going to happen, nothing ever comes my way.' It's, you know, `My whole life is about bad luck,' and that sort of thing. "I think the difference in "Dock Of The Bay"-just lyrically, it hits the masses.
![song sitting on the dock of the bay song sitting on the dock of the bay](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/k1ZFb45n8KI/maxresdefault.jpg)
So the rest of the song where I said, you know, `I left my home in Georgia, headed for the Frisco Bay,' it was just about him going out there to perform at the Filmore." And what he was really referring to were the ferries that ran back and forth to Sausalito there. "I thought he was talking about watching the big ships come in, you know, by the San Francisco Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge. I want to stay at the boat house,' you know?" "But anyway, Bill Graham-when Otis came in, he asked Otis, `Do you want to stay in a hotel?' He said, `I've got this great boat house in Sausalito.' And he said, `I'll offer you that if you want to stay at the boat house.' And Otis just said, `Man, that'd be great. And he had just left San Francisco where he played at the Filmore." It was real easy to write about Otis, and if you listen to any of the other songs that have Cropper written on them, where I was the co-writer with Otis, usually those songs are about him, you know, "Mr. Well, he came and he'd sing the first line that he had in `Sitting in the morning sun.' And he said, `You know, what are we going to do with this?' And the way I wrote with Otis, it was a pretty simple formula actually. And he needed help getting them worked out. He kind of had these traffic jams basically what it was. He had so much energy in him and so much music in him. "Otis was one of those guys that had so many ideas. Louis Steinberg and Johnny Jenkins played guitar, and we cut "These Arms Of Mine," which was Otis Redding's first hit." I wound up playing piano because Booker had already left. "And we went back in the studio with Al Jackson. He hadn't left yet but it was in the car and Jim hollers-he said, `Grab Louis and get his bass out.'" I think Louis Steinberg had already packed his bass up. And I said, `Jim, you got to come and hear this guy's voice,' you know? And so we sat down, and then Jim couldn't believe it either. It just blew us away, you know? And I just stopped and I grabbed Jim Stewart. He comes out, (Singing) `These arms of mine,' you know? We all fell on the floor, of course, and that song on one note. I play a little'-he called it-`guitar.' But he said, `If you can just give me some of those'-we call them triplets, you know, dah-dah-dah-`on the piano,' he said, `you know, and I'll sing for you.' So anyway I said, `What key?' And he didn't know. You know, what do you want to do? 'And he said, `Well, I don't really play anything. Can you take two or three minutes and listen to this guy?' And I said, `Well, yeah.' We were just kind of cleaning up after the session. And Al came to me and said, `This guy that's with Johnny, he sings with him and he'd like for you to listen to him sing. I figured, `Yeah, he's a bodyguard and then roadie and stuff, valet or whatever.' Anyway during that session, Otis Redding, as we know him now, came to our drummer Al Jackson and said, `You know, I'm a singer, and sometime I'd like to get somebody to hear me sing.' And so I was kind of the designated A&R director at Stax at that time and I used to hold auditions on Saturday. And I thought he was a roadie, you know? He's a big, strong guy. "There was this big guy driving the car, and he pulls up and then he gets out and unlocks the trunk and starts pulling out amplifiers and microphones and all this stuff. The song's co-writer, producer and guitarist, Steve Cropper, remembers how he first met Otis Redding while recording a band called Johnny Jenkins and the Pinetoppers.
![song sitting on the dock of the bay song sitting on the dock of the bay](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Bgtadlkb2dE/maxresdefault.jpg)
"Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay" became his biggest hit.
![song sitting on the dock of the bay song sitting on the dock of the bay](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/gLUgPmNHQLA/hqdefault.jpg)
But Redding's life was cut tragically short when his plane went down in December 1967. & the MGs and the Memphis Horns, a sound that inspired the Blues Brothers, The Commitments, even The Black Crowes. Singer Otis Redding defined the term 'soul man.'Īlthough his songs were sometimes self-deprecating, they were fueled by Booker T. An early promotional photo of Otis Redding, circa 1966.