Latest / DISGRACELAND / Otis Redding: A Chitlin Circuit Shootout, a Fatal Plane Crash, and Crossing Over to the Other Side

Transcript

Otis Redding: A Chitlin Circuit Shootout, a Fatal Plane Crash, and Crossing Over to the Other Side · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland as a production of Double Elvis. The stories about
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Otis Redding are insane. He was nearly shot by James
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Brown while performing at an after hours club. He played
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: sweet soul music in fratthouses full of KKK sympathizers, where
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: one wrong move could accost him his life. He took
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: the stage in his hometown despite a threat to his life,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: scared to death that he would be murdered in front
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: of thousands. But Otis Redding was, to quote the former
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: vice president of his record label, an overcomer. He overcame danger,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: violence and fear in order to focus his sights on
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: the top of the charts, and not just the R
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: and B charts, the pop charts. He did this at
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: a time I'm of great social upheaval and change, and
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: he did it with great music, some of the most
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: definitive music of the nineteen sixties, music that endures, satisfies,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: and still demands rispect. Unlike that clip, I played a
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: few at the top of the show that wasn't great music.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: That was a preset loop from my melotron called Interstitial
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Elevator MK one. I played you that loop because I
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: can't afford the rights to Daydream Believer by the Monkeys,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: And why would I play you that specific slice of
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Sleepy Jean Cheese? Could I afford it? Because that was
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: the number one song in America on December tenth, nineteen
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: sixty seven, And that was the day that Otis Redding's
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Beach eighteen airplane crashed into the frigid waters of Wisconsin's
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Lake Monona before he was able to reach his destination
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: and realize his dreams. On this episode, a James Brown shootout,
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: a fatal plane crash, Sleepy Jean Cheese and Otis Redding.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: I'm Jake Brennan, and this is Disgraceland. Johnny Yea spun
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: the cylinder of his twenty two revolver and then snapped
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: it shut with a flick of his wrists. He cocked
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: the hammer and pointed the barrel at one of the
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: women standing around backstage. He pulled the trigger and the
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: hammer went click, but no bullet. The woman and jumped.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: The small crowd backstage screamed. Johnny laughed. The revolver wasn't loaded.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: The thing didn't shoot here, Johnny said. Watch. Johnny opened
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: the cylinder again, spun it, snapped it closed, cocked the hammer,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: and this time shoved the barrel against the temple of
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: his girlfriend, who was sitting in his lap. He pulled
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: the trigger, the hammer clicked, no bullet. The people in
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: the room screamed, and once again Johnny laughed. Like many
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: young singers who suddenly find themselves famous, Johnny Ace wasn't
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: exactly sure how to deal with it all. He had
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: a number one record on the R and B chart.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: It wasn't a crossover hit, but few, if any black
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: artists playing the Chitlin Circuit in nineteen fifty four could
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: brag about white audiences and pop charts. The Chitlin Circuit
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: it was a string of black owned nightclubs that existed
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: outside the white mainstream and outside the law. The circuit
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: wasn't just music. The circuit dice games. The circuit was
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: bootleg liquor. The circuit was the big wheel in the
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: back room, spinning three cent bets odds two hundred to one.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: The ubiquitous numbers game aka the bug as and I
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: caught the numbers bug was catching the bug better or
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: worse than getting caught by a switchblade or a signer.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Either way, the white cops and politicians looked the other way,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: as long as they got their piece. As a performer,
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: we learned how to navigate it. All the vice, the crime,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: the things you had to do to survive. But navigating
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: fame that wasn't so easy. Getting drunk, heald getting laid
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: was better. But a superstitious ritual with a revolver seemed
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: to help Johnny aace. Most of all. It was nearly
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: midnight on Christmas Day. Break time was over. Johnny was
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: needed back on the bandstand. The show must go on.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: But before we returned to the stage, Johnny had time
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: for one last run through his party trick. He picked
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: up the twenty two, spun it, snapped it, cocked it.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: Then he pressed the barrel tight against his head, and
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: he pulled the trigger. The bullet exploded from the twenty
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: two's chamber and entered Johnny's head. Blood painted the walls
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: in the floor of the small room. Johnny Ace fell
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: to the floor dead. Maybe Johnny forgot that he put
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: a bullet in the chamber, or maybe he knew it
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: was there, or maybe, as one story went, the self
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: inflicted fatal shot was a scheme cooked up by his
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: record label boss, who took unlikely inspiration from Hank Williams,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: dead for about two years now, yet more alive than
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: ever on the country charts, And if that scheme is
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: to be believed, it worked because in death Johnny as
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: crossed over not just to the other side of this
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: mortal coil, to the other side of the racial divide.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: On the billboard charts. One month after shooting himself dead,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: he didn't just hold the number one spot on the
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: R and B charts, he cracked the top twenty on
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: the pop charts. The Chitlin circuit didn't stop to mourn
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: the death of one of its own. There were wheels
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: to spend, bets to place, bugs to catch, and there
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: was music to make. So the circuit kept moving from
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: Houston over to Making, Georgia, where in the early nineteen sixties,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: a young Otis Redding, barely out of his teens, and
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: his band, the Pine Toppers, were playing a lad show
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: at a juke joint called Club fifteen. Otis was the
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: band's singer, but he wasn't the star. Johnny Jenkins, the
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: guitar player. All eyes were on him. He had flash,
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: he had style, He moved when he played. Otis, on
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: the other hand, he moved about as much as he
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: played at Chitlins. Otis was awkwardly uncomfortable. He wasn't smooth.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: He sounded like a Sam Cook knock off one minute
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: and a little rich wannabe the next. And he had
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: this weird quaver in his voice. You really heard it
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: when he sang ballads, sad sack ballads, real woe is
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: me sit the way he looked, how he sounded, the
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: songs he's sang. When you added it all up, Otis
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: Redding was just pitiful, so pitiful that it became his
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: calling card. A DJ in Memphis called a mister Pitiful,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: and the nickname stuck. But Otis wasn't going to be
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: just some DJ's punchline. He was determined, He was committed.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: He was an overcomer. He knew how to take feedback
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: and use it to get better, used it to sound
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: not like Sam Cook or Little Richard, but like Otis Redding.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: And not by turning his back on mister Pittiful, but
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: by using mister Pitiful to his advantage, maybe then he
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: could get a taste of life beyond the Chitlin circuit,
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: out there in the unknown, the big stages, the white stages,
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: the places guys like Johnny Ace never got to see.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: Otis Redding had no doubt he could be huge tonight. However,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: Otis and the Pine Toppers were far from the biggest
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: thing and making let alone the entire country. Tonight, Georgia's
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: own James Brown was performing at the City Auditorium, though
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: his hometown was two hours away in Augusta. James was
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: loved by making like he was their own, but James
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: didn't love the show. Joe Tex was his opening act,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: and James had history with Joe, a history of answer
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: songs and beef records, completely driven by ego and pride,
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: and during his opening set, Joe had the balls to
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: parody James Brown's famous cape routine in James Brown's home state,
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: so James Brown lost his shift. After the show, James
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: followed Joe over to Club fifteen, where Otis and the
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: Pinetoppers were in the middle of their set. James Brown
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: didn't give a shit about Otis Redding's music. James Brown
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: was on a mission. He walked into the juke joint
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: caring not one, but two shotguns, and James Brown didn't
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: walk around with zero bullets in the chamber. Like Johnny Ace,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: James Brown's shotguns were locked and loaded. The pinetoppers didn't
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: hear the first few shots over them, but the way
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: the crowd was starting to scurry he told him something
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: wasn't right. The band stopped playing and the audience was frantic.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: They were screaming, hiding under tables, and running for the door.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: Then Otis heard it, the sound of mister dynamite shotgun
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: firing into a massive people. There was a flash and
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: a bang, and then smoke and chaos. Someone was hit
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: by a shell and fell to the hardwood floor. James
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: Brown reloaded. Fucked that Joe Tex, motherfucker. He fired again.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: Otis Redding shuddered. Another innocent bystander, whose name was not
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: Joe Tex, was hit by a spray of shells. Now,
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: there was blood all over the hardwood floor. Otis panicked.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Fuck he was seconds away from becoming collateral damage. He
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: took cover. Mister Pitiful hid behind the drum set. This
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: was some bullshit. All that time ODIs spent working dead
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: end jobs here, making pumping gas and digging wells to
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: finally make it to the state of a juke joint
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: club to have his name out there, only to have
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: it all in now like this, Now, that would be pitiful.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: James Brown soon ran out of ammo or energy, or
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: maybe he just gave up once he realized that Joe
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: Tex had made us escape. Unlike the six or seven
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: people who were shot that night. Joe Tex got lucky,
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: and so did Otis Redding. But you can't live life
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: on luck alone. Otis Redding knew this. You have to
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: make your own luck in the world, especially grinding it
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: out in the Chitlin circuit, where bad luck was just
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: a toss of the dice away. Otis wasn't gambling. Otis
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: was betting, betting on himself. He was determined to make it.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: He was committed. Otis Redding was an overcomer. The show
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: was scripted. They all were first. You come out blazing, sweaty,
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: high octane R and B. You get the crowd in
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: the palm of your hand. You can tell you got
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: them by the way they're drunkenly bouncing along to the beat,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: even if they are clapping on the one of the
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: three instead of the two and the four. They take
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: swigs of old Milwaukee and foul staff from pull top cans.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: They think you can't get any crazier, so you make
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: them think that they're right and bring things down. The
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: chicks eat that ballad shit up. Mister Pitiful, Who the
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: fuck is that guy? The only guy feeling pitiful is
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: the one who isn't you up on stage with that
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: microphone in your hand. But you don't care about that
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: guy or any guys for that matter. It's the women
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: you get to worry about. They look at you with
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: lust in their eyes, like the mic you're holding in
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: your hand isn't a mic but something else. And then,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: just as the women are fantasizing about you in your
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: big microphone, you ran things back up way even higher
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: than the beginning of the show. You leave them stunned.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: You leave them with what they wanted, but still wanting more.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: The dynamic shifts and notice writings evolving stage show in
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: the mid nineteen sixties allowed him to own that unshakable
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: nickname on his own terms, but also step outside of
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: it shit. Even at a song now called mister Pitiful,
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: he was soft and hard. His true voice was emerging.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: His confidence was building, and as Otis began to perform
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: not just on the Chitlin circuit but at college fratthouse parties.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Visions of crossing over to the pop charts danced in
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: his head, not that it would be that easy. At
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: one point, Otis's guitar player fell to the floor, as
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: if the music forced him there. It was meant to
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: look like a spontaneous move, but like the rest of
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: his performance, it was one hundred percent. The girl was not.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: She came from the audience of college kids and jumped
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: to the stage, straddling the guitar player from above. She
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: tossed her hair, she grinded her body, She spread her
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: legs wide. Her short dress hung just inches from the
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: guitar player's face from where he laid on his back.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: The guitar slipped up into the dress to what was underneath,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: and his eyes went wide. Otis's eyes went wide, too,
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: but not because he was getting a glimpse up some
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: chick skirt. Because that girl on stage, the one straddling
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: Otis's guitar player, was white. Look around a frat house
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: full of white kids, Otis and his band were the
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: only black people in the room. The college kids were rowdy,
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: They were horny at any moment. However, that youthful energy
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: could sour All it took was one wrong move, one misstep.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: All it took was for one white boy in the
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: crowd to misinterpret whatever it was that white girl was
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: doing on stage, and then suddenly Otis Redding would be
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: playing not just for drunk co eds, he'd be playing
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: for his life. Playing white colleges in the South was
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: good for expanding your reach beyond the Chiplin circuit, and
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: necessary if you were going to crossover on the charts,
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: but it brought its own set of challenges. That white
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: girl wouldn't get in trouble for doing what she did,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: The black musician would. Then Otis and the rest of
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: the band would too, guilty by association and guilty by
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: the color of their skin, even though they didn't do
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: a damn thing wrong besides play the music that everyone
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: in the room wanted to hear. Otis and his band
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: breathed a collective sigh of relief when that night's unscripted
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: incident didn't escalate. They packed up their gear as quickly
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: as they could, and they got paid, or maybe they didn't. Honestly,
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: it didn't matter. Otis just wanted to get the fuck
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: out of there before his luck really ran out. As
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: he walked to the front door to leave, Otis spotted
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: three key racks mounted on the wall. Each rack was
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: a letter. Those letters weren't meant to just hang keys.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: They inspired some sort of up pride to those who
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: lived there and to the guests who looked like Otis Redding.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: Those letters sent a message. The message said, k K K.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: Such was the bullshit reality of the segregated South in
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: the mid nineteen sixties. But that's not how it was
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: at Stax. Stax Records aka Soulsville, USA aka the Grits
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: to Boat Town's Gravy. Stax was Otis's new home. Stax
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: wasn't just a place for some of the best soul
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: music in America was being made. Stax was an idealistic
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: vision of what America could be. That vision was written, recorded,
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: and released not only on Stax forty five's, but via
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: its subsidiary label Volt Records, as well as Atlantic Records.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: The larger label Stacks had a distribution deal with Booker
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: T and the MG's Stax house band consisted of two
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: black players Booker T on Oregon and now Jackson gu
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: Near on drums, and two white players Steve Cropper on
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: guitar and Donald Duck Dunn on bass. One of the
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: first racially integrated bands in the country and arguably one
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: of the best bands period. Perhaps only the Funk Brothers
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: over in Detroit could challenge the MGS for that title.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: But unlike Motown, the sound of Stacks was sparse, was lean.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: Stax just needed a star. The origin story about the
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: union of Otis and Stacks has been distorted into legend
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: over the years. No, there was not a studio full
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: of witnesses who saw God or saw the future of
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: rock and roll at Otis's debut Stack session. If anything,
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: Otis was underseen the first time he sang into a
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: microphone at nine to twenty six East Maclamore Avenue. What
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: is true is that Otis made the track from Macon
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: to Memphis to show for his friend and fellow pinetopper
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: guitarist Johnny Jenkins to his own session Booktee in the
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: MGS thought Otis was just a valet. Jim Stewart, Stax's
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: co owner and producer running the session, was convinced to
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: let Otis have a go at recording when he found
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: out that he did more than drive. But the MGS
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: weren't in the mood, backing up some country bumpkin and
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: overalls Otis, who booker T had better shit to do.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: Booker T bounced. Those who did remain at the session
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: for These Arms of Mine have conflicting memories of what
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: went down. Jim Stewart heard that trademark quaver in Otis's
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: voice and thought he was just some twenty one year
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: old kid in way over his head. Stuart later admitted
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: that the brilliance of Otis reading went completely over his
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: head that day. Steve Cropper, on the other hand, who
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: wound up playing piano on the session in booker T's absence,
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: said the cats sang about two lines, and the hairs
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: on the back of his neck shot up. He could
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: tell he was in the presence of something special. Lord
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: Have mercy. When These Arms of Mine was released in
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: the fall of nineteen sixty two, it made it to
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: number twenty on the billboard. Arm beach Art it was
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: just the dark. Everyone at Stax and everyone in Otis's life,
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: including his proud wife Zelma, watched Otis's talent and star
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: power blossom right before their eyes. His songs got stronger,
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: and the chart positions got higher. Music consumed him. He listened,
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: he wrote, He dictated horn lines to the session players.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: He thought and spoke with music, and the hits kept coming.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: That's how strong my love is. And I've been loving
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: you too long. Worked the mister pitiful angle, I Can't
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: turn You loose in respect showed the other side of Otis,
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: the high octane side before Aretha Franklin turned respect into
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: a feminist anthem. For the ages, Otis took his original
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: composition to number four on the R and B chart.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: It was the same spot he hit with his own
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: masterful cover of the Rolling Stones as I Can't Get
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: No Satisfaction, So masterful that some listeners thought that Otis's
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: version was the original, not the other way around. Stacks
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: made Otis, and Otis made Stacks, but Otis's version jing
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: success didn't exactly make him feel safe touring the Chitlan
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: in college circuits. Touring in the American South didn't matter
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: if you were a Johnny cum Lately her Stacks's prize
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: recording artist. He traveled with protection, maybe a thirty eight
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: stuffed into your waistband hidden under your jacket. Otis carried.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: Otis's manager carried everyone carried. But just because you had
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: a pistol crammed inside your clothes didn't mean you were
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: safe from harm. In nineteen sixty four, back in making
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: for his own homecoming show, Otis's blood ran cold as
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: he prepared to take the stage. There had been a
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: bomb threat, and that got Otis's mind turning. What if
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: someone was out there? Not James Brown, and not some
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: racist frat boy, but a serious guy with a serious gun.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: At six', One otis made an easy. Target he put
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: his foot on the first step leading up to the,
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: stage where his band waited for him to. Join he
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: took a deep. Breath this was supposed to be a
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: night Celebrating otis's climb the, top but he feared he'd
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: stumbled before he even reached that. Goal it was moments
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: like this that Made Otis redding wonder if he'd ever be.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: Ready we'll be right back after, this word word, Word
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: Bill graham was tearing ass Down Gary boulevard with a
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: bag of ice in his. Hands he was winded by
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: the time he got back to The Filmore auditorium the
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: Film moore Was San francisco's premier venue for live. Music
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: the Film moore was where the airplane the dead and
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: Big brother turned everyone. On but tonight The fillmore's ice
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: machine wouldn't turn on no matter, what And Bill, Graham fillmore's,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: proprietor wasn't about to let. Down as guest of. Honor
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: Otis redding wanted. Ice Otis redding was getting. Ice it
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: Was december, twentieth nineteen sixty. Six otis was just back
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: from a tour Of europe where all you got was
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: a funny look if you asked for some ice in your.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: Glass and, now after killing, it AND i mean killing
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: it on stage at the film, wore All otis wanted
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: was to quench his thirst with a glass of seven
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: up with. Ice it was night one of a three night.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: Run Bill, graham like everyone else in the, audience was
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: still in. Awe otis was the real. Thing he was the.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: Guy jerry knew, It janis knew. It they all Told
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: bill he got a Book otis. Reading it was one
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: thing to know That otis was the, guy or to
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: hear him on. Record there was another thing entirely to see,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: him to experience him happening in front of, you because
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: that's What otis's three nights stand at the Film more Was.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: Happening dressed in a green, suit black, shirt yellow, tie
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: with a keychain dangling from his, Belt otis didn't look
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: like A Bay area, hippie but he socked it to.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: Them he socked it to them, hard and they felt.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: It every, note every, struck every expression of pain and
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: longing and sexual, desire every f far far women black
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: and white couldn't take their eyes off. Them he did
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: something to. Them they felt a shiver run down their
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: backs and up their, legs and their knees went. Weak they.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: Blushed why the hell do you think they called them
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: The Big oh. Anyway writing in the local, Paper Ralph
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: gleeson Said otis was quote unquote pure. Sex the way he,
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: walked the way he, danced the way he, sang all
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: of it pure. Sex that was hard to, deny almost
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: as hard as it was to believe that the guy
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: they used to call Mister pittiful had made his way
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: out west to where it was all, happening where mines were,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: expanding and he was laying this trip on. Everyone But
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: otis didn't feel out of. Place he was in the right,
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: place just like he'd been in the right place when
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: he first arrived At stacks In. Memphis In San, Francisco
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: otis writing was surrounded by people who would do anything
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: if it helped get him where he wanted to. Go
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: otis held the glass of seven up with ice in
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: his big. Hand he Gave graham a look of humble.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: Disbelief you went all the way down the street for
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: ice for, me he, Asked, Yeah bill, said so what
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: let me tell you, something, Man otis, said WHEN i
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: play this town from now, ON i play for. You
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: it wasn't Just america the fell Under otis's. Spell the
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: spring nineteen sixty Seven Stacks Voulte, review the Toured europe
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: was the ticket to. Get it was a smorgas board
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: for fans Of american soul. Music okat Emg Sa tang
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: those green, Onions Arthur conley with that sweet soul. Music
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: Eddie floyd knocking on, Wood Carla thompson Ge whiz and
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: pull on, Man sam And dave are. Coming Otis. Redding of,
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: course he came, last closing out each night with a
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: performance that managed to be one hundred times more frenetic
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: than the records never. Were the tour was major headline
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: material in every publication melody maker called it the rave,
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: showed and them all The beatles sent limos to pick
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: Up otis and The stax Carew at the. Airport the
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: fans went buck. Wild they clamored for. Autographs they Treated
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: otis like, royalty and they treated him like an equal.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: Too europe wasn't segregated the Way america. Was europe Gave
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: otis a, perspective gave him. Confidence it helped him realize
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: that the world was bigger than he had ever. Imagined
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: and if the world was, bigger Then otis could be bigger.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: Too and If otis reading it the potential to be,
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: bigger he could do. Anything he could even cross. Over
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: but you don't cross over in a. Bus you cross
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: over in a. Plane you cut across the. Horizon you,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: Ascend you split the clouds in, half you open up the,
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: sky and then you come back down, again like a
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: big bird sending down its. Wings when the plane carrying
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: The Stax Volte Reviewed tour landed back in The, States
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: otis riding stepped Onto american. Soil at that superstar feeling.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: Intact didn't matter that THE us had and caught up To.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: Europe yet they'd get. There San francisco and the Film
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: wore were just the. Start otis was. Empowered he was
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: no longer the guy cowering behind a drum set While
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: James brown shot up A chitman circuit. Club otis was
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: on the level with guys Like James. Brown they were peers.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: Equals So otis did what guys Like James brown. Did
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: he bought a, plane a Beach Craft model, eighteen a
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: twin engine model that was big enough to carry his entire.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: Band in, fact THE bch eighteen was the exact same
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: kind of plane That James brown himself used to. Own
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: it was good enough for the hardest working man in show.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: Business it was good enough For. Otis as it turns, out,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: however THE bj eighteen wasn't good enough For James, brown
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: And james didn't think it was good enough For otis.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: Either Look james Told otis he shouldn't be fucking with
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: NO bj. Eighteen the plane wasn't as big as it.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: Looked it wasn't strong enough to carry all those musicians
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: and their. Equipment james Told otis that plane was not
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: a sure, bet it was a. Gamble otis didn't heed the.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: Warning he did his due, diligence he made his. Decision
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: he even had a great new press photo taken in
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: front of, it holding an acoustic guitar in his. Hand
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: he was, determined. Committed wasn't nothing that was too hard to.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: Handle if a problem, arose he'd overcome. IT jb could.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: Chill the price was, right so the size was. Right
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: THE bj eighteen Was otis's. Plane the plane was still
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: new To otis On, Sunday december, tenth nineteen sixty, seven
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: when he and The barquays The Stack session players who
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: had only recently taken over from bookerteen THE, mgs As
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: otis's backing, band boarded it In, cleveland bound for a
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: gig In, Madison. Wisconsin cleveland was cold and. Rainy, madison
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: on the other, hand was foggy and even, colder with
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: temperatures hovering around the freezing mark for nearly four hundred.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: Miles the clouds were, Thick visibility was, low but all things,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: considered the flight was. Normal as the plane Neared, madison,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: however the clouds got, thicker and by the time the
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: plane was Above Lake, monona due south of the, airport
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: visibility had dwindled to. Nothing the pilot prepared for. Landing
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: he tried to find the flashing lights of the, runway
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: but couldn't see them through the dense cloud. Cover he
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: pulled the lever to release the landing. Gear the wheels
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: came down with a loud. Dud the plane jerked. Forward
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: the cabin shook. Violently otis felt his stomach burch as
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: the nose of the plane quickly spun and the plane
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: was now pointing directly toward the. Ground otis thought about how,
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: earlier before, boarding they'd been told by a mechanic that
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: the plane's battery was. Low ODIs asked the pilot if
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: the battery concerned, him if the beach could make the
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: four hundred mile. Run the pilot was confident they'd be
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: okay and let's. Go otis, said this, though was not.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: Okay it felt like the front end of the plane
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: was being sucked down towards the lake by a giant.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: Magnet as it fell faster and, faster the plane began
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: to roll to the, left and it rolled some, more
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: and then it began to. Spin otis couldn't. Breathe everything
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: was moving way too, fast but within, seconds The beach
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: eighteen shot out from the thick cloud, cover spinning and diving,
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: downward and slammed into the surface Of Lake. Monona the
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: water was, freezing the plane burst into, pieces And Otis
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: redding was sinking to the. Bottom that didn't mean he
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: was no longer. Ascending less than six months before his
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: plane crashed Into Lake, Monona Otis redding performed a concert
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: that would proved to be a pivotal moment in his.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: Career it only took five songs on A monterey stage
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: to get him in with the in, crowd the love.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: Crowd the performance Found otis once again not gambling but,
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: betting betting on, himself and this, bet like so many
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: of his, others not only, worked it worked despite the
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: fact that it was done completely asked backwards from the
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: way he usually did these. Things performing Was otis's. Job
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: otis got paid to, sing but On june, seventeenth nineteen sixty,
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: Seven Otis writing performed for a crowd of over eight
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: thousand people for. Free The Monterey Pop festival In, Monterey
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: california wasn't unlike The chitlin circuit in that both places
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: introduced some of the most important rock IN r AND
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: b musicians of the twentieth century to a new. Audience
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: both were also hotbeds of illegal, activity but instead of dice,
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: games bootleg booze and dramatic shootouts had, MARIJUANA lsd and
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: violent acts committed against. Guitars the biggest, difference of, course
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: was the. Audience the crowd At Monterey pop was mostly,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: white and they're all looking for the next big. Thing
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: it was like the Film more to The Highest. Power
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: it was just the Boost otis reading needed to cross
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: over FROM r AND b to pop and dominate not
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: just one segment of the, charts but the whole damn.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: Thing otis knew the sacrifice he was. Making he knew
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: that we're going a paycheck to play for one of
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: the biggest audiences of his career to, date would paid.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: Dividends he told his Wife zelma That monterey was going
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: to lift him, higher that a breakthrough was, imminent that
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: a change was going to. Come he could feel. It
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: part of the change was already. There it was a new,
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: material like sitting on the dock of The. Bay the
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: introspective Song otis co wrote With Steve, cropper a song
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: that was more pop than, soul a song that took
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: heavy inspiration FROM A day in The, life the final
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: track on The beatles' brand new Identity Bending Opus Sergeant
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: Pepper's Lonely hearts club. Band it didn't sound like anything
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: he'd done. Before it sounded so different that some Like
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: zelma straight up didn't like, it But Steve cropper thought
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: it was the best Thing otis had ever. Cut steve
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: And otis could feel. It The dock of The bay
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: was going to Take otis to places he'd never, been
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: and it. Did Otis redding crossed over. Twice he crossed
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: over When sitting on The dock of The bay was
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: released as a single In january nineteen sixty. Eight the
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: song went straight to number one on both the Arm
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: beacher and The Billboard hot one, hundred where it remained
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: the nation's top pop song for four straight. Weeks but
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: that was about a month after the first Time otis crossed,
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: over when his beach eighteen twin engine crashed into the
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: icy waters Of Lake, monona killing him and seven. Others
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: at that, Moment Otis running crossed over from this world
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: to the, next just twenty six years, old deprived of
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: witnessing his greatest, achievement one of the greatest achievements made
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: by a singer in the nineteen sixties or in any
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: decade for that, matter such a. Disgrace I'm Jake brennan
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: and this Is. Disgraceland disgraceland was created By Yours truly
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: and is produced in partnership With Double. Elvis credits for
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: this episode can be found on the show notes page
• 32:47
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• 32:50
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• 32:53
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• 32:56
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• 33:00
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• 33:04
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• 33:08
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• 33:12
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• 33:17
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• 33:20
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• 33:29
  Speaker 1: Roller he the Bed man