Cropper chose his tracks well, selecting some of the strongest and most unusual among the late singer's orphaned songs: "I Love You More Than Words Can Say" is one of Redding's most passionate performances "Let Me Come on Home" presents an ebullient Redding accompanied by some sharp playing, and "Don't Mess with Cupid" begins with a gorgeous guitar flourish and blooms into an intense, pounding, soaring showcase for singer and band alike.
Despite the mix-and-match nature of the album, however, this is an impossible record not to love. Listen to Otis Redding - (Sittin-On)-The-Dock-Of-The-Bay-1.mid, a free MIDI file on BitMidi. There's little cohesion, stylistic or otherwise, in the songs, especially when the title track is taken into consideration - nothing else here resembles it, for the obvious reason that Redding never had a chance to follow it up. Dock of the Bay is, indeed, a mixed bag of singles and B-sides going back to July of 1965, one hit duet with Carla Thomas, and two, previously unissued tracks from 19. Otis Redding's last week: The tragic story of 'Dock of the Bay' and a fateful final flight The soul icon recorded the song he might be best known for - then left Nashville on the plane that'd. Sittin in the morning sun, Ill be sittin when the evening come, Watching the ships roll in, And Ill watch em roll away again, yeah, Im sittin on the dock of the bay, Watching the tide roll away, ouh, Im just sittin on the dock of the bay, Wasting time. What could have been a cash-in effort or a grim memorial album instead became a vivid, exciting presentation of some key aspects of the talent that was lost when Redding died.
Producer/guitarist Steve Cropper had a difficult task to perform in pulling together this album, the first of several posthumous releases issued by Stax/Volt in the wake of Redding's death. It was never supposed to be like this: "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" was supposed to mark the beginning of a new phase in Otis Redding's career, not an ending. Otis Redding passed away in December 1967 (listen to William Bells 'A Tribute To A King' for a passionate and meaningful history lesson), so from the outside looking in,The Dock of The Bay could look like a posthumous cash-in collection of yet-to-be released songs with a few singles thrown in for good measure.