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Title details for Otis Redding by Jonathan Gould - Available

Otis Redding

An Unfinished Life

by Jonathan Gould
Stefan Rudnicki
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
The long-awaited, definitive biography of The King of Soul, timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Redding's iconic performance at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival.
Otis Redding remains an immortal presence in the canon of American music on the strength of such classic hits as “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay,” “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long,” “Try a Little Tenderness,” and “Respect,” a song he wrote and recorded before Aretha Franklin made it her own. As the architect of the distinctly southern, gospel-inflected style of rhythm & blues associated with Stax Records in Memphis, Redding made music that has long served as the gold standard of 1960s soul. Yet an aura of myth and mystery has always surrounded his life, which was tragically cut short at the height of his career by a plane crash in December 1967.
 
In Otis Redding: An Unfinished Life, Jonathan Gould finally does justice to Redding’s incomparable musical artistry, drawing on exhaustive research, the cooperation of the Redding family, and previously unavailable sources of information to present the first comprehensive portrait of the singer’s background, his upbringing, and his professional career.
In chronicling the story of Redding’s life and music, Gould also presents a social history of the time and place from which they emerged.  His book never lets us forget that the boundaries between black and white in popular music were becoming porous during the years when racial tensions were reaching a height throughout the United States. His indelible portrait of Redding and the mass acceptance of soul music in the 1960s is both a revealing look at a brilliant artist and a provocative exploration of the tangled history of race and music in America that resonates strongly with the present day.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    May 16, 2017

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781524723897
      • File size: 513113 KB
      • Duration: 17:48:59

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Narrator Stefan Rudnicki's rich, authoritative baritone brings gravity to the listening experience of Otis Redding's life and rise to fame. The result is a rewarding audiobook filled with historical perspective and context. Gould's task is daunting: reconstructing the story of a man whose music is universally loved while having little direct documentation. Impressively, the result is a biographical audiobook that captures a vivid picture of the man. Redding's career is exhaustively reviewed, including all his studio albums and songs up through "Dock of the Bay," his last song and biggest hit, and the first posthumous #1 single. Rudnicki's performance brings a measured tone to a recounting of a time when black artists struggled to gain footing. A moving, educational listening experience. S.P.C. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 10, 2017
      Drawing on interviews with Otis Redding’s widow, Zelma, as well as interviews with Redding’s family, friends, and musical associates, Gould (Can’t Buy Me Love) brings tedious detail to the well-known story of Redding’s life and music. Gould begins with a tour of Southern history to illustrate, unsurprisingly, that Redding’s music reached across racial borders in a racially divided world. When Gould focuses on Redding’s music, the book comes alive, and he traces that music year by year from the singer’s early gospel influences, his early emulation of Little Richard, and his association with manager Phil Walden to his rise to fame at Stax, his energetic shows at the Apollo and the Fillmore West, and his career-defining show at Monterey Pop a few months before his death. Despite Redding’s growing popularity, his ambition, and the raw power he displayed onstage, he frequently displayed insecurity about his own abilities; Gould points out that the singer’s refusal to record his own version of Bob Dylan’s “Just Like a Woman” illustrates not only Redding’s insistence that lyrics didn’t matter but also his defensiveness and anxiety. Gould’s often exhausting study, never sure whether it wants to be music history, social history, or biography, treads over territory already well covered by others.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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