(Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay

"(Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay," one of the more indelible songs to come out of 1968, was released in January of that year. Written by Otis Redding and Steve Cropper, it was recorded shortly before Redding died in a plane crash, and became the first posthumous number one hit in chart history. The sound and lyric are fairly simple, but speak volumes.

The song is sung from the point of view of a man who spends his days sitting on the dock of San Francisco bay, watching ships come and go. It's a melancholy song, because he says he's "wastin' time," and lonely. I think everyone has felt like this some time or another, when they are inert, whether wrapped in a blanket in their bed or on a park bench, feeding pigeons.

The lyric, by Redding, mirrors a bit of his own life:

"I left my home in Georgia,
Headed for the Frisco Bay"

Redding was from Georgia, and became a huge star in the blues and R&B world, recording for the legendary Stax Records in Memphis. But he became a crossover star, kicked off by his performance at the Monterey Pop Festival (where Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix also mesmerized audiences) "(Sittin' on) the Dock of rhe Bay" was a different sound from his usual style, and many in the blues world didn't like it.

While the song has words that fit the blues, it's done in a more folk style, as if it were a campfire song. The instrumentation if very sparse, and ends with a whistle, fading out.

What intrigues me about the song is that can be viewed as a lament:

"Looks 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"

But there's also something soothing about the way Redding sings it, as if sitting in the same place all day, watching life go by without engaging in it, is a balm to heal wounds:

"Sittin' in the morning sun
I'll be sittin' when the evening comes
Watching the ships roll in
Then I watch them roll away again, yeah"