is a temporary exhibit that opened a year ago and was recently extended to April 2009. It's a stirring exhibit on one of Macon's own,
a comprehensive display of performance footage, records, photos, posters, hand-written lyrics and other memorabilia loaned to the
Hall of Fame by Redding's widow.
I bought a CD with some of Redding's lesser known numbers, wrote down songs sung by Usher and Ronnie Milsap that I'd download from iTunes, and went on my way, appreciating Georgia's music a little more than I had the day before. -- the Georgia Music Hall of Fame
Otis Redding didn't simply "play concerts." The soul giant was a human Mount Vesuvius: He erupted. Redding was at the height of his fame in March 1967, when he played these two brief shows in London and Paris. (He would die in a plane crash in December that year.) And the audience's reaction is ecstatic — it's a fair bet that few of these Europeans had ever witnessed a spectacle quite like Redding and the all-star Stax house band, Booker T. and the MG's and the Mar-Key horns, tearing into "I Can't Turn You Loose." Legendary producer Tom Dowd supervised the recording in London, and the show is a barnburner — six torrid uptempo soul numbers leading into Redding's signature whisper-to-a-scream anthem "Try a Little Tenderness." -- Rolling Stone magazine
In the minds of casual Otis Redding fans, the story so far has gone like this: the great man travels to Europe, wows London (as can be seen in the excellent documentary Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story), then travels to Monterey and rocks the Summer of Love, making him an instant crossover hit; goes home and records
"Dock Of The Bay" to capitalize on his recent arrival, boards a plane, and heads off prematurely into rock history.
It's essentially accurate. But Redding was at the peak of his performance powers at this time, delivering the goods every single night -- has there ever been a backup band so attuned to their
vocalist as Booker T. and the MGs were with theirs ? -- so you can't have too many documents of his stage show, a theory proven out by the release of Live In London And Paris.
An update of the 1967 release Live In Europe, this collection adds an equally incendiary Paris show recorded just four days after the raucous London gig it immortalized, swapping out "I Can't Turn You Loose," "These Arms Of Mine," and
"I've Been Loving You Too Long" for the better Paris versions. And while some of these tracks have been previously released on Ace Records' 1000 Volts label comps and Stax' own out-of-print Stax Volt in Europe, Vol. 3, the sets have been remastered and placed in their proper running order. As always, Otis makes the seminal studio versions of his hits sound positively enervated, dragging "Too Long" and "Tenderness" out for maximum emotional impact, turning both into absolutely insane cyclical exclamation points of pure pain and longing. You also get a righteous medley of the Temps' "My Girl" and Sam Cooke's "Shake," not to mention complete overhauls of the Stones' "Satisfaction" and the Beatles' "Day Tripper" and a singalong version of
"Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa(Sad Song)" that demonstrates just how cathartic live soul can get.
Otis Redding: Live in London and Paris Live (March 1967)
Otis Redding grew up in Macon, Georgia so they erected a bronze statue of him by the waterfront. He is best known for his hit "Sittin on the Dock of the Bay" but he wrote "Respect" made famous by Aretha Franklin and "Satisfaction" for the Rolling Stones. On December 10, 1967, Otis Redding and his band, the Bar-Kays appeared at Leo's Casino in Cleveland, Ohio, then got on a plane heading to Minnesota. Otis, his manager, the pilot, and four members of he Bar-Kays were killed when the Beechcraft 18 crashed into Lake Monona in Madison, Wisconsin. The cause of the crash was never precisely determined.
Just across the Otis Redding Memorial Bridge, near downtown Macon, is an underrated attraction: the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.
Unlike many music museums that focus on a single genre or record label --
rock 'n' roll, blues, country, Motown -- the Georgia Music Hall of Fame
(www.georgiamusic.org) documents the scope and diversity of the state's musical talent.
It has inducted more than 100 individuals and groups since 1979, including Ray Charles, Lynyrd Skynrd, Lena Horne, Chet Atkins, R.E.M., Gertrude ''Ma'' Rainey, the Allman Brothers Band, Gladys Knight, Little Richard, Travis Tritt and the Indigo Girls. Well-done exhibits tell the stories of rhythm and blues, gospel music, bluegrass, country, Southern rock, jazz, swing and a lot more.
In each exhibit, I put on headphones and listened to samples of the music. I checked out dresses worn onstage by Trisha Yearwood (a modest flowered dress she might have found at Macy's) and a singer in the B-52s (a flapper's dress in bold yellow with rows of fringe), James Brown's flashy red-sequined suit, and a white leather suit worn by J.R. Cobb of the Atlanta Rhythm Section only once, after it turned out to be too hot under stage lights.
