Roam Just To Make This Dock My Home
“Life is full of strange absurdities, which, strangely enough, do not even need to appear plausible, since they are true.”― Luigi Pirandello
It was 55 years ago today that we lost one of the greatest singers of all time, Mr. Otis Redding. As the story so often goes: he was on tour with his backing band, The Bar-Kays…and even though the weather was rough..and they were warned not to fly at that time, they took to the air anyway en route to Madison, Wisconsin. They almost made it, but crashed into Lake Monona, mere miles from their destination. Only one passenger survived, Bar-Kay saxophonist Phalon Jones.
It was just three days before that Redding sat down and recorded a song he had written on a piano with Steve Cropper that was completely different than anything he had done before. Instead of the soul-driven attack that Redding had perfected, this was quieter…poppier. The record label didn’t think it fit his sound…Dennis “Duck” Dunn, Cropper’s partner in the MGs as well as on so many of the great Stax records, thought that the song was dangerous…the possible end of the Stax sound..of the label.
The song was (Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay—which Dunn played such a sweet bass on—a song about sitting on Waldo Point Harbor in Sausalito looking towards the Golden Gate…sitting and thinking about the push and pull of life that had brought Redding to such a quiet, beautiful place. An end of a journey, a place to rest and waste some time.
When the song was released a month after Redding’s death, it went to Number One on the pop charts…the only time Redding climbed so high.
For years, the piano that Redding wrote that iconic melody on sat outside of Jim Dickinson’s Zebra Ranch studio in Independence, Mississippi. It was an altar to one of the greatest songs ever written, an altar that was in constant disintegration, crumbling into the earth, with a reminder that there is an end to all things, even things of beauty.
How cool would it have been to see Otis Redding live? Those Live At The Whisky-A-Go-Go recordings, that my friend Bill Bentley lovingly helped restore to their completeness a few years ago, are a testament to the power and ferocity of Redding’s performances. And then there are those videos that can be seen with just a click of a mouse…like his performance at Monterey in 1967 or in 1966 on Ready Steady Go (with Eric Burdon and others): he defined what it meant to be electrifying, belting out number after number with such an incredible voice.
Sitting and thinking about Otis Redding on this fateful day, writing these words as the sun is going down on harsh skies. It is a good night to stay put, and listen to Otis.
From the Library of Congress: “In 2005, the album ‘We’re Only in It for the Money’ by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention” was added to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry. Recently, we asked Dweezil Zappa–an accomplished musician in his own right–to look back at the album from a perspective that only he can give us–a son’s. Below is what Mr. Zappa sent us.”
Watch: Ustad Noor Bakhsh “Jingul” (click on Headline to go to article)
This is an incredible video performance: “After seeing a clip of Ustad Noor Bakhsh playing his unusual benju instrument some years ago, Pakistani ethnomusicologist Daniyal Ahmed went in search of the musician, driving down the sparsely populated coast of Balochistan. Against all the odds, a serendipitous journey resulted in the pair meeting and Ahmed subsequently spent several days with Bakhsh in his remote village near Pasni, Balochistan. Jingul is a collection of recordings of songs recorded live by the Shadi Kaur creek, close to Bakhsh's village”
Snow Dogs: Into the Wild sees Gordon Buchanan follow in Jack London's sled tracks
If I had time……
How Dolly Parton's The Orville Season 3 Cameo Happened
The Orville has become quite the hit in the Katznelson home. Seth MacFarlane’s tribute to Star Trek (the original) & The Next Generation might be goofy and trite at times, but it is a compelling show with truly batshit crazy moments…like when a sect of an alien race in a distant galaxy turns out to worship at the altar of Dolly Parton leading to a guest appearance from the legend that is completely unexpected and pretty magnificent. She even plays a song while strumming a guitar…while teaching one of the show’s characters a episode-changing lesson….
GUMMO MARX: THE FORGOTTEN MARX BROTHER
It is always Marx Bros. time in the Katznelson household, their movies being go-to viewing regularly for me, for the kids…the humor never getting old. While watching Cocoanuts recently, remembering that the first 30 minutes are not the best Marx minutes (hell, Chico and Harpo don’t enter a scene until around the 35 minute mark), I started searching the web for Marx trivia I didn’t know and came upon this great piece on the fifth Marx…Gummo.
The Definition of Gardening
By: James Tate
Jim just loves to garden, yes he does.
He likes nothing better than to put on
his little overalls and his straw hat.
He says, 'Let’s go get those tools, Jim.’
But then doubt begins to set in.
He says, ‘What is a garden, anyway?’
And thoughts about a 'modernistic’ garden
begin to trouble him, eat away at his resolve.
He stands in the driveway a long time.
‘Horticulture is a groping in the dark
into the obscure and unfamiliar,
kneeling before a disinterested secret,
slapping it, punching it like a Chinese puzzle,
birdbrained, babbling gibberish, dig and
destroy, pull out and apply salt,
hoe and spray, before it spreads, burn roots,
where not desired, with gloved hands, poisonous,
the self-sacrifice of it, the self-love,
into the interior, thunderclap, excruciating,
through the nose, the earsplitting necrology
of it, the withering, shriveling,
the handy hose holder and Persian insect powder
and smut fungi, the enemies of the iris,
wireworms are worse than their parents,
there is no way out, flowers as big as heads,
pock-marked, disfigured, blinking insolently
at me, the me who so loves to garden
because it prevents the heaving of the ground
and the untimely death of porch furniture,
and dark, murky days in a large city
and the dream home under a permanent storm
is also a factor to keep in mind.
