The Otis Redding Dictionary Of Soul : Complete & Unbelievable
With its somewhat grandiose title, the legendary Otis Redding's fifth album maintained much of the same formula that had been used on his previous recordings for the Stax subsidiary label Volt, combining some fine Redding-penned originals with the stylized vocalist's interpretations of others' material. While Redding always lent his own special raw, gospel-edged stamp to everything from the Beatles' perky "Day Tripper" to a slowed-down, unparalleled reading of the pop standard "Tennessee Waltz," it was on his own songs--such gems as "Fa- Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)" (his 15th R&B; hit single), the plaintive "Ton of Joy," and the bluesy "Hawg for You"--that Redding was at his soulful best. That said, nothing quite compares to how he turned another pop classic, "Try a Little Tenderness" into an emotive opus that became a showstopper wherever he appeared during his tragically short-lived four years as a hit-making recording artist. As an example of the horn-driven Memphis sound,Dictionary of Soulis an excellent reference, and Redding is in peak form as a true American original, whether he's giving '50s hit man Chuck Willis's "You're Still My Baby" a workover or breezing through his own almost-joyful "She Put the Hurt on Me." For the benefit of those with limited "knowledge" of Redding's specialized vocal vocabulary, the original album included some sidesplitting definitions of terms such as "gotta-gotta" ("not able to do without it") and "ou" ("ouchless excitement"), and they are reproduced in full on this reissue of what is easily one of Redding's finest recordings.--David Nathan