A Tale of Two Albums

Otis Blue is really the tale of two albums, one of rocking upbeat soul/pop numbers countered by blues/soul songs offsetting one another in what I would call almost the perfect album. This should come as no surprise to students of soul but may surprise some of the "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" crowd. This album simultaneously contains a cover that I feel is more powerful than the original and an original that later became famous as a cover (and for many more poignant for many).

A Change is Gonna Come

I know there are those who may be under the impression that Sam Cooke was a little too pop and too little soul. I would refer these ignorant individuals to Live at the Harlem Square Club. This album I feel even outshines James Brown, Live at the Apollo (though since I've always felt Brown was over rated this doesn't account for too much).

Cooke pinned "A Change is Gonna Come" after personal experiences with Civil rights activists and listening to a Bob Dylan song. The final stanza of Cooke's song is cautiously hopeful reflecting the guarded optimism the times really were changing for the better.

There were times when I thought I couldn't last for long, But now I think I'm able to carry on It's been a long, been a long time coming But I know a change is gonna come, oh yes it will.

Contrast this with the Otis Redding version recorded within two years of the original, in which he radically adapts the final stanza.

There was a time that I thought, Lord this couldn't last very long, somehow I thought I still able, to try to carry on. Its been a long, long, long time coming, but I know a change has gotta come.Its been so long, its been so long, I've lived too long but a change has gotta come,So tired, so tired of standing by myself and standing up alone, but a change has gotta come. You know and I know, that a change is gonna come.

This is a much darker take on Cooke's tune which does not prophesize that a change will come but that it has to. To me this more accurately reflects the outcome of the civil rights movement with its limited objectives and goals. Toward the end Reverend King came to a more overarching vision than that of the original movement. It is ironic that a man whose life was ended due to the fact that he supported an AFSCME strike has led to the likes of Condaleeza Rice and the parody that is the Reverend Al Sharpton.

That is a tragedy. The American Civil Rights movement really was a march for human dignity. It was a march that faltered and at times found its way frustrated by ignorance and hatred. But it did not waver in its commitment to what it knew to be right. Unfortunately that march was never completed. Like so many movements before and since it found that the new world it hoped to birth to be still born. So it settled for diluted reform and the trappings of success.

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Otis Blue contained Redding's biggest hit until the post humous release of "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay". While that song has ensured his place in music history it has also helped to obscure what some of us consider to be his true works of art. All three of his covers on this albums (the others being "What a Wonderful World" and "Shake") are excellent. This shows a real growth from a less than stellar "You Send Me" on his earlier "Pain in My Heart" album released early in 1964.

Soul later succumbed to over orchestration as shown by the likes the Marvin Gaye album "What's Going On". There can be no doubt this album attempted to deal with the issues that existed under the waning star of the Civil Rights Movement. Otis Redding's third album demonstrates why that approach was folly. His throaty delivery adds new depth and dimension to classic soul tunes as well as pop standards. Readers are actively encouraged to pick up this album.