40 years later, fans still love Otis Redding

It was cold in Madison, Wis. on Dec. 3, and the walkways leading to the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center were ice-covered and slippery. But the weather didn’t deter hundreds of people from showing up to pay tribute to Georgia-born soul singer and songwriter Otis Redding. They’d never met the man, but they loved his music, including the unforgettable “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,” an anthem of loneliness that still resonates with anyone who has ever felt as if there was no reason to go on with what they’ve been doing.

Some of the people who thronged into Grand Terrace hadn’t even been born when Redding’s twin-engine Beechcraft airplane crashed into Lake Monona on Dec. 10, 1967, killing him and six other men, including four members of the Bar-Kays.

Others claimed to remember exactly where they were 40 years ago on the chilly Sunday he died: They were standing outside The Factory, a local nightclub where Redding and the Bar-Kays were scheduled to perform at 6:30 p.m. Most had purchased their $3 admission tickets in advance.

A few had even stronger ties to Redding’s tragic death. Promoter Ken Adamany, who’d booked Redding and the Bar-Kays at The Factory, sat at a table with old friends and associates. Michael Barr, who as a skinny, blond 20-year-old college student had created the now iconic poster for the concert that never happened, stood unrecognized on the fringes of the crowd, sipping a glass of red wine. Nearby, surrounded by a phalanx of photographers and television cameramen and protected by a vigilant minder, stood the man many people had come to see: Trumpet player Ben Cauley, a founding member of the Bar-Kays and the only survivor of the crash.

When it was his turn to take center stage, Cauley, who hadn’t visited Madison since the crash, received a standing ovation. He told his audience how he’d awakened early that Sunday 40 years ago and headed to the Cleveland airport for the trip to Madison. That day, he said, Redding told him he’d just finishing recording “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay.” A few hours later, Cauley was flung out of the plane on impact. As he floated in the icy waters of Lake Monona, clinging to a cushion, he watched the rest of the plane’s passengers — including the man he once described as “…a groovy cat, like an older brother” — drowned.

When his short speech was finished, Cauley sang some of the songs that might have been on the bill at The Factory, including a trumpet-laced version of Redding’s “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay.”

‘The homesick song’
Written after the Monterey Pop Festival, while he was staying on a houseboat in Sausalito, Calif., and posthumously released in Jan. 1968, “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” soared to the top of the charts. It became Redding’s first No. 1 single and his first million-seller.

“The song also became important to a lot of guys serving in Vietnam,” says rock music historian Craig Werner, chair of the Afro-American Studies Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Werner, who, along with Vietnam veteran Doug Bradley, is writing a book that will weave together the personal stories about how music resonated with veterans, calls “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,” with its dark and defiant lyrics, “the homesick song.” It bridged the various demographic groups within the draftees and enlisted men who usually listened to country, soul or rock with very little crossover, he says.

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“As soon as I heard ‘(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,’ I liked it,” remembers SPC 5 Edward Nelson, who served in Vietnam with the United States Army I Corps from 1967 to 1968. “We were absolutely stuck in our situation and lyrics from ‘Dock of the Bay’ such as ‘Looks like nothing’s gonna’ change’ evoked the misery and homesickness we felt.” 

Only a few months before the release of “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,” lots of things had begun to change for Redding. On June 17, 1967, he electrified the audience at the Monterey Pop Festival, transforming the California psychedelic music fest into a rhythm and blues revue with a 20-minute set that included “Respect,” “Satisfaction” and “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long.” After that performance, Redding was finally on the way to achieving the crossover success that had eluded him since the release of his first single.

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