(sitting on) the dock of the bay

Otis Ray Redding, Jr. 
(September 9, 1941 – December 10, 1967) 

The biggest hit of this soul legend's career was recorded three days before his death in a plane crash.  '(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay' was written by Redding with Steve "The Colonel" Cropper, guitarist for Stax Records house band, Booker T. & the M.G.'s.  Cropper remembers:  "Otis was one of those kind of guys who had 100 ideas. Anytime he came in to record he always had 10 or 15 different intros or titles, or whatever. He had been at San Francisco playing The Fillmore, and he was staying at a boathouse, which is where he got the idea of the ship coming in. That's about all he had: 'I watch the ships come in and I watch them roll away again.' I took that and finished the lyrics. If you listen to the songs I wrote with Otis, most of the lyrics are about him. He didn't usually write about himself, but I did. 'Mr. Pitiful', 'Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)'; they were about Otis' life. 'Dock Of The Bay' was exactly that: 'I left my home in Georgia, headed for the Frisco Bay' was all about him going out to San Francisco to perform."

Redding had begun writing the song on a houseboat at Waldo Point in Sausalito, California just after his legendary performance at the Monterey Pop Festival.  When he went into Stax Studios in Memphis, Tennessee to record the song, he still had not completed the third verse; so he whistled through it as a place holder, intending to dub the verse when he finally finished it.  Redding went to Nashville to appear on the 'Upbeat' television program and play three shows at Leo's Casino nightclub and had a show scheduled the next day in Madison, Wisconsin.  Despite the heavy rain and fog, Redding and his backing band the Bar-Kays flew anyway in Redding's Beechcraft H18.  The pilot radioed for permission to land at their destination; but for some unknown reason the plane crashed in nearby Lake Monona. Ben Cauley was the only survivor.  Redding, his manager, and guitarist Jimmy King, organist Ronnie Caldwell , saxophonist Phalon Jones, and drummer Carl Cunningham all died.  Trumpeter Ben Cauley was the only survivor of the crash and bassist James Alexander was on another plane because there wasn't enough room.  Cauley and Alexander found new members and kept the band going.  

In the wake of Redding's death, radio stations began playing his songs in earnest.  Stax Records chief Jim Stewart did not want to release '(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay' as a single because it was so different from the rest of Redding's material; but after he heard the version that Cropper produced in the weeks following the crash, Stewart agreed to put it out as a single in January of 1968.  It immediately garnished heavy radio airplay and shot to the top of the charts, making it the first Otis Redding single to break the pop top twenty and the first ever posthumous number one.  The song also became Redding's first number one on the R&B chart.  It went to number three in the UK.  '(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay' sold four million copies worldwide and won two Grammy Awards: Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song for songwriters Redding and Cropper. 






https://www.otisredding.com/











Sittin' in the mornin' sun
I'll be sittin' when the evenin' come
Watching the ships roll in
And then I watch 'em roll away again, yeah

I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay
Watching the tide roll away
Ooo, I'm just sittin' on the dock of the bay
Wastin' time

I left my home in Georgia
Headed for the 'Frisco bay
'Cause I've had nothing to live for
And look like nothin's gonna come my way

So I'm just gonna sit on the dock of the bay
Watching the tide roll away
Ooo, I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay
Wastin' time

Look like nothing's gonna change
Everything still remains the same
I can't do what ten people tell me to do
So I guess I'll remain the same, yes

Sittin' here resting my bones
And this loneliness won't leave me alone
It's two thousand miles I roamed
Just to make this dock my home

Now, I'm just gonna sit at the dock of the bay
Watching the tide roll away
Oooo-wee, sittin' on the dock of the bay
Wastin' time

(whistle)