Beautiful article about a beautiful song. Real musicians making real music - how I miss it.

It´s probably the one song that brings back my Army days in Alaska and Vietnam. It was the soundtrack of my life.

I´ve known the song for its entire life...but never knew the story behind it. Very interesting.

I was going to print exactly what #1 did, so, dittos #1, I couldn´t say it better.

Added dittos to #1.

I used to drive past that house boat on my morning commute, windows down and that song playing in the car. It makes the story, which I’d never heard until now, all the more poignant.

Thanks for posting.

Great article for all of us who worked in radio and played this song a zillion times...

Poignant is the word. Otis was a great performer, and Booker T. and the MGs and Stax records in general really had something special; hitting on all cylinders.

I am NOT criticizing anyone involved with making this wonderful song, nor those, like me, who have enjoyed it over the years, but you cannot sit ON a dock*. The dock is actually the area of water next to a pier or wharf where a vessel is berthed. I was told this by a Naval Lieutenant in SE Asia in the early 70´s, as we sat in a bar listening to the song.
*Unless you were using a floating chair, I guess.

Lighten up on the starch in yer undies, there #8. There´s a time and place - miss it and it makes you suck all the joy out of the moment.

Really interesting article about the genisis of this classic song I´ve heard a zillion times since the first time in 1968. "Duck" Dunn who played bass on it just passed away last year. We´re all getting older and we´re losing those who were involved with the songs we grew up with. (just like our parents used to say about things they´d grown up with) anyway, thanks for posting this.

Just a point #8, while you are correct about the one definition of "Dock" being the water next to the "Pier", if you look further in to the definitions of "Dock" you will see that it also includes the Pier itself.

I enjoyed the picture of Steve Cropper - compare it with what he looked like in "The Blues Brothers" when he played guitar (and "Duck" Dunn played bass) with the Blues Brothers band in 1980. Like #2, that song takes me back to my days in the Marine Corps in early 1968.

I worked with a woman in the mid to late 1960s and she would tell me stories of how well her nephew was doing as a pilot. He had just gotten to be the pilot for Otis Redding and would tell us what a great person Otis Redding was. He would take ghetto kids and give them a year on tour with his band and then turn them loose on music careers of their own.

While driving to work one morning I heard that Otis Redding´s plane had crashed and all were lost. When I got to work, Myrtle was there crying. Her nephew was, indeed, the pilot of the plane. So sad for all involved.

Otis Redding passed away a couple of years before I was born, but I was fortunate in having parents with good musical taste, and a gift of "The Complete Otis Redding" box set from Rhino when I was in my early 20s.

If you can get your hands on it, do it.

What a treat.

The music coming out of Stax/Volt from that era was incredible - and then you look at the musicians Otis Redding played and wrote music with - such as Booker T & The MGs. Amazing.

A favorite Otis Redding live performance at the Monterey Pop Festival, backed by Booker T & The M.G.s and the Mar-Keys:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOCY_-ibDfA

I believe # 1 said it all.

Back when musicians dressed for the occassion and you could understand what they were singing- without vulgarity. It was a good time in life.