Dreams to Remember: Otis Redding, Stax Records, and the Transformation of Southern Soul, by Mark Ribowsky
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Dreams to Remember: Otis Redding, Stax Records, and the Transformation of Southern Soul, by Mark Ribowsky
Read Online and Download Dreams to Remember: Otis Redding, Stax Records, and the Transformation of Southern Soul, by Mark Ribowsky
A soul icon and the southern music he helped popularize come to life in this moving requiem.
When he died in one of rock's string of tragic plane crashes, Otis Redding was only twenty-six, yet already the avatar of a new kind of soul music. The beating heart of Memphis-based Stax Records, he had risen to fame belting out gospel-flecked blues in stage performances that seemed to ignite not only a room but an entire generation. If Berry Gordy's black-owned kingdom in Motown showed the way in soul music, Redding made his own way, going where not even his two role models who had preceded him out of Macon, Georgia―Little Richard and James Brown―had gone.
Now, in this transformative work, New York Times Notable Book author Mark Ribowsky contextualizes his subject's short career within the larger cultural and social movements of the era, tracing the crooner's rise from preacher's son to a preacher of three-minute soul sermons. And what a quick rise it was. At the tender age of twenty-one, Redding needed only a single unscheduled performance to earn a record deal, his voice so "utterly unique" (Atlantic) that it catapulted him on a path to stardom and turned a Memphis theater-turned-studio into a music mecca. Soon he was playing at sold-out venues across the world, from Finsbury Park in London to his ultimate conquest, the 1967 Monterrey Pop Festival in California, where he finally won over the flower-power crowd.
Still, Redding was not always the affable, big-hearted man's man the PR material painted him to be. Based on numerous new interviews and prodigious research, Dreams to Remember reintroduces an incredibly talented yet impulsive man, one who once even risked his career by shooting a man in the leg. But that temperament masked a deep vulnerability that was only exacerbated by an industry that refused him a Grammy until he was in his grave―even as he shaped the other Stax soul men around him, like Wilson Pickett, Sam and Dave, and Booker T. and The MG's.
As a result, this requiem is one of great conquest but also grand tragedy: a soul king of truth, a mortal man with an immortal voice and a pain in his heart. Now he, and the forces that shaped his incomparable sound, are reclaimed, giving us a panoramic of an American original who would come to define an entire era, yet only wanted what all men deserve―a modicum of respect and a place to watch the ships roll in and away again.
8 pages of photographs
Dreams to Remember: Otis Redding, Stax Records, and the Transformation of Southern Soul, by Mark Ribowsky - Amazon Sales Rank: #589609 in Books
- Published on: 2015-06-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.70" h x 1.40" w x 6.70" l, 1.47 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 400 pages
Dreams to Remember: Otis Redding, Stax Records, and the Transformation of Southern Soul, by Mark Ribowsky Review “Evokes the fire of Redding…. Ribowsky tells the story with nonstop energy, while always probing for the larger social and musical pictures…. [H]is insightfulness and storytelling gift trump all. Helped by revealing quotations from musicians, he recalls a time of interactive music-making that seems worlds removed from today’s computer-assembled, Auto-Tuned pop.” (James Gavin - New York Times Book Review)“A fascinating tale of the artist and his musical era.” (Dave Shiflett - Washington Post)“Subtly passionate…. What Mark Ribowsky has done here is to describe someone who was, not divine, but as godlike as a human can be.” (David Kirby - Wall Street Journal)“Ribowsky's focus on Redding adds a new slant regarding how the singer also wanted to remain independent of [Stax]…. Ribowsky―a veteran chronicler of musical and athletic heroes―also combines thorough descriptions of Redding's songs, and global audiences' growing appreciation for soul, with the social changes of the 1960s.” (Aaron Cohen - Chicago Tribune)“[A]n engaging account of Redding’s rise to stardom and the parallel story of Stax/Volt…. Insightful and informative.” (Michelle Jones - Dallas Morning News)“Ribowsky has labored hard to get at [Redding’s] emotional center. Unlike other performers who died far too young, Redding’s death did not come out of abuse, and though he suffered, it was a universal human suffering―a pain in the heart that, partnered with unerring musical instinct, personal strength, and a little tenderness, he transformed into art. Ribowsky goes into the seamy side of the record business but also the sheer beauty and magic of the sixties soul music that Redding epitomized.” (Mark Levine - Booklist)“This book looks at the bigger picture beyond the details of the soul legend's life, giving a sense of how he fit into the civil rights movement and music as a whole. Ribowsky spins some compelling what-ifs about Redding had he lived, speculating about his musical evolution and how he might have gotten along with later stars like Jimi Hendrix.” (Andy Lewis - Billboard)“Ribowsky's meticulous biography makes it clear that Arthur Conley's 1967 hit ‘Sweet Soul Music’ (co-written by Redding) got it wrong. James Brown wasn't ‘the king of them all, y'all.’ Otis was.” (Bruce Jacobs - Shelf Awareness)“A rousing storyteller, Ribowsky energetically chronicles Redding’s rise from local singer to the King of Soul…. Ribowsky’s book is a fast-paced and entertaining tale of a man, a time and a place where black and white musicians, in spite of the racial tensions swirling around them, came together simply by playing the sweet soul music that transcends any divisions.” (Henry L. Carrigan Jr. - Bookpage.com)“Ribowsky here has penned the definitive look at the life and career of Otis Redding thus far. More importantly, he offers a sort of parallel book about the political and social implications of ‘Southern Soul’ music in the ‘60s, as well as the story of Stax Records, Redding’s label where he was also the undisputed marquee artist…. In Dreams to Remember, listeners can find a new appreciation for this “King of Soul” whose reign was all too brief.” (Bob Ruggiero - Houston Press)“The best…Otis Redding biography to date…. The soul and R&B singers and rappers who have come along in the nearly half-century since [Redding’s] death owe him a huge debt of gratitude.” (George de Stefano - Popmatters)“In Dreams to Remember, Mark Ribowsky covers the Otis Redding saga beginning with Redding’s age-fifteen experience singing in the Macon, Georgia clubs with songstress Gladys Williams; moving on to work with showy guitarist Johnny Jenkins; and all-the-while observing the successes of fellow Maconites Little Richard and James Brown…. This life story is well-researched and documented.” (Peter Furlong - KUVO/Denver Public Radio)
About the Author Mark Ribowsky is the author of Ain't Too Proud to Beg: The Troubled Lives and Enduring Soul of the Temptations, The Supremes: A Saga of Motown Dreams, Success, and Betrayal and the New York Times Notable Book Don’t Look Back: Satchel Paige in the Shadows of Baseball, among other books. He lives in Florida.
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Most helpful customer reviews
23 of 29 people found the following review helpful. Move on - little new to read here By Luigi Facotti This long rumored "definitive biography" on Otis Redding, is the third counting those from Scott Freeman in 2001 By Scott Freeman Otis!: The Otis Redding Story (1st First Edition) [Hardcover] and Geoff Brown in 2003 Otis Redding: Try a Little Tenderness (MOJO Heroes) but excluding a 2014 44 pager in the American Legends series on the Amazon website that looks like little more than an expanded magazine article.The present book, despite an interesting review in the WSJ, is a mixed bag with minimal new insights from the previous biographies other than access to Robert Gordon's excellent 2013 book on Stax Records Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion, an article in Atlantic Magazine in July 2013 entitled "The Songs Otis Redding could have sung" and an additional 10 years or so of time for reflective hindsight on the continuing impact of the Big O on Southern Soul history, something the author does not appear to have taken advantage of.At times Mr. Ribowsky can appear very glib having little in the way of empathy or knowledge when his subject matter extends to the larger context of Otis' role in the legendary Stax/Volt Records story. As a result he has a tendency to put down the key players especially Steve Cropper (p. 66 "It wasn't Cropper's call, of course..."; p. 259, "makes the Cropper story hard to believe?). In fact on pp. 293-4 in his continued focus on portraying Cropper in a bad light for ensuring credit for his writing and producing activities at Stax, the author wrongly credits Cropper for producing and authoring "Time Is Tight", a song written by Booker T. for the "Uptight" soundtrack album for which the sleeve notes clearly cite Booker T. as composer, arranger, conductor and producer. Additionally he zings "Time Is Tight" as "cribbing..[a]...Motown bass line".The book is neither well-written nor adequately proof read - for instance, the legendary African-American educator, Booker T. Washington who died in November, 1915 is listed on p.257 as being present on the session for "Dock of the Bay" in December 1967. In places it is repetitive with confusing sentence constructs and too much in the way of filler (p. 192 - the Billboard R & B singles list for October 22, 1966; p. 240, a half page dedicated to the life and fate of a onetime roadie, a Mr. Twiggs Lyndon). The timelines, especially those after Otis' death and when Jones, Dunn and Cropper departed Stax in 1968-69, are muddled and inconsistent. We have Booker T. leaving for California and then playing sessions at Hi for which there is little evidence. Both Rob Bowman Soulsville, U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records and Robert Gordon do a far better job on the Stax detail.There are also several "errors" that are tangential to the Otis Redding story as presented or are not properly developed that contribute further to the sense of page padding. On page 209, the author erroneously identifies EMI as the distributor for Atlantic in Europe at the time of the first Otis tour of the UK in 1996. Some readers may rightly ask "who cares?" or even more audaciously - "what difference does it make?", something that the author fails to address. As in many other instances in this book, a factoid is presented for which there is no context leaving the reader who has not read Bowman or Gordon totally in the dark.In this particular instance, EMI was never the distributor for Atlantic in the UK. Until 1966, Atlantic was distributed via Decca on their famed London American label and then, sequentially including all Stax and Volt product on London Atlantic (1961-1964) and Atlantic (1964-1966). In 1966, the time at which the author writies about, Polydor, the pop music arm of Polydor/Deutsche Grammophon, not EMI, had picked up Atlantic distribution in the UK on the red label 584 series and concurrently gave Stax its own blue label (601 series). With the G + W acquisition in 1968 when Stax became independent, its UK distribution was handled through EMI. In 1970, distribution returned to Polydor (2025 series) with Pye picking up distribution from 1972 until the demise of Stax in 1975. So the author is not only factually wrong but in casually mentioning on p.296 that "Bell and Stewart did combine to spring a deal to repurchase Stax...", he lamentably fails to add important context that this deal was actually financed by Deutsche Grammophon in 1970 (Bowman, pp. 207-208) rather than Al Bell's ATM access. So DG had had a long-standing interest in Stax/Volt that facilitated the deal with Bell and Stewart.Other totally tangential points that can be classified as minor errors or figments of the author's imagination are: p. 215 "a BBC film made of a revue of their stop in in Norway on April 7". Say what? Why would the BBC (the British Broadcasting Corporation) be working in Oslo and why would the 2007 DVD release of the video Stax/Volt Revue Live In Norway 1967 be credited to the NRK (Norsk Rikskringkasting AS), the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation?; on page 296, on the topic of Millie Jackson's 1974 rap version of Luther Ingram's "If Loving You is Wrong" (an item of no real relevance to the Otis Redding story) - the author notes "Baylor produced a cover of the song by Millie Jackson on Koko". According to both Bob McGrath's definitive Soul Discography and the notes to the Ace/Spring CD reissues, Millie Jackson produced her version of this song together with her long time collaborator Brad Shapiro, not Johnny Baylor. And that track like all of her output until the 1990s was on Spring - not Koko. Why on earth does the author assume the need to fabricate stuff that if left out would have no tangible impact on the book other than reduce the page count?Mr. Ribowsky also has further extemporaneous pronouncements that illustrate his lack of in depth knowledge regarding the subject matter of the book. On p.293 he notes "...the vital center of soul seemed to shift .....to the smoother, more elegant "Sound Of Philadelphia". Atlantic would have no place in this new soul galaxy, nor care to." appearing to be totally oblivious of the many successful albums on Atlantic from Philadelphia from The Spinners (produced by Thom Bell) as well as Gamble-Huff/MFSB produced sides on Dusty Springfield, Wilson Pickett, the Trammps and Archie Bell and the Drells. This theme of blithe ignorance is continued on p. 307 where Mr. Ribowsky opines that "The sacred Stax catalog...has made millions .. but by the 1990s was being bandied around like a shuttlecock in more mergers and reformations". An interesting thought but one that is contradicted by the Bill Inglot/Dan Hersch remastered 9 CD set the Complete Stax-Volt Singles on Atlantic The Complete Stax/Volt Singles: 1959-1968 that went gold, the Rhino Atlantic-Atco Remasters album series, the two huge Stax-Volt Singles Boxes The Complete Stax/Volt Soul Singles: 1968-1971Complete Stax Volt Soul Singles Vol. 3 on the Fantasy reincarnation of the Stax label and the meticulous curating of the Stax catalog by Roger Armstrong of Ace in London and Bill Belmont at Fantasy in the 1990s that continues even today with the efforts of Tony Rounce and Dean Rudland at Ace, David Gorman and Chris Clough at Concord and RZA at Soul Temple. Mr. Ribowsky's lack of familiarity with even the basic canon of Mr. Redding's work is further illustrated in an embarrassing account of the public service track "Stay in School" cited on p. 249. In this, Mr. Ribowsky quotes the Big O as singing "without an education you can only be a tramp. Grow your iron shoes, no haircut, just plain ole country". Rather than the very strange "Grow your iron shoes" which may have some legitimacy in the context of Deuteronomy 33:25, what Otis' actually sings is "brogue-iron shoes" as those familiar with the "Tramp" duet with Carla Thomas would know - "You know what? You wear overalls, and brogue-iron shoes, and you need a haircut, Tramp."Overall this book is significantly derivative of the Bowman, Gordon and Freeman books that is written by a journalist whose knowledge of Southern Soul and Southern Music in general shows significant limitations as attested to by reviews of his other recent book on Lynyrd Skynyrd. Unlike Bowman and Gordon there is no passion or original interview material from Jim Stewart, Booker T. or Steve Cropper while the author's interviews with Al Bell add little new to the Otis Redding story.For those with an interest in Otis Redding, an imperative is his actual music available via stunning remasters by Joe Tarantino on the 2013 Concord/Stax compilation Lonely & Blue: The Deepest Soul Of Otis Redding and Bill Inglot/Dan Hersch on the beautifully packaged 2013 must have "The Complete Stax/Volt Singles [3 CD]" set on Shout Factory both of which attest to the magic of the production skills of Jim Stewart, Tom Dowd, and "Stax Staff" including Steve Cropper and Booker T. The more recent (2014) "King of Soul" 4 CD set on Rhino/Atlantic while remastered and better sounding than the 1993 Definitive Otis Redding set does not reach the sonic heights of the previous two compilations but is a great deal nonethless. For books, Gordon's recent history of Stax is an excellent start while Bowman's amazingly detailed and still definitive 1997 book is a must.Finally for the conspiracy inclined, Mr. Ribowsky who makes much of the lawsuit against Scott Freeman for the insinuation in his book of mob connections with Phil Walden and the possibility that Redding's plane was sabotaged (Freeman, pp. 217-218), separately documents in his book a ride by Otis Redding from the Mayfair Hotel in London in "two big black cars" (p.218) that may or may not have indicated interest by the "European Mafia" in managing him. Additionally, in the acknowledgements section (p.311) the author notes in the context of the "chilling credit card receipt for the purchase of the oil that filled Redding's doomed plane" that he saw in the archives of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland that "no fuel was apparently left in its engines". This off the cuff statement echoes that mentioned in passing by Freeman as a "who knows possibility?" (Freeman, p.217) that is not mentioned in the brief section on the equally brief NTSB report of the Wisconsin plane crash (pp. 278-9) and is sure to reinvigorate the sabotaged plane theory. This throughly mediocre book should not detract the reader from seeking out the Bowman and Gordon books - or even Freeman which is much better written - nor from appreciating the timeless music of the one and only King of Soul - Otis Redding. As William Bell sang on his "Tribute to A King" - "Otis, he was known as Big O, we gonna miss him so"
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Where's Cropper? By Hagen Baye Two points:1. When I came across the word "threnody" on the very first page, I was afraid that I, with both a master's and law degree, was going to need a dictionary to read this book about this great soul singer. Fortunately, the author refrained from using such uncommon words when simpler ones sufficed.2. While Steve Cropper is quoted throughout the book, the sources of those quotes are from third parties. Cropper is not among those interviewed for the book and there is no mention as to whether he declined to be interviewed. As I recall, Jim Stewart is said to have declined. Especially because one of his co-musicians claimed that Cropper insinuated himself to get undeserved credit and royalties, it would have been good to get Cropper's side of the story. Even without such negative accusation, given Cropper's otherwise well documented relationship as producer and collaborator with Redding, Cropper's first hand report of his experiences with Redding would have enhanced the story.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Ah, Otis! By Avid Reader Absolutely loved the book. The narrator, not so much. He sounded too much like one of those dramatic doc or mock doc narrators that are so lampooned.But, what a great story! There are a lot of names and a lot of details that are hard to keep straight at times, but that's how it is if a comprehensive story of someone's life is to be told.It made me even more aware of what a loss to the music world Otis' early death was/is!
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Dreams to Remember: Otis Redding, Stax Records, and the Transformation of Southern Soul, by Mark Ribowsky
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Dreams to Remember: Otis Redding, Stax Records, and the Transformation of Southern Soul, by Mark Ribowsky
Dreams to Remember: Otis Redding, Stax Records, and the Transformation of Southern Soul, by Mark Ribowsky
