Otis Redding - Live At the Whisky a Go Go: The Complete Recordings (2016)

Otis Redding says these words just before launching into “Respect” on April 8, 1966, wrapping up the first of seven sets he’d play over the course of three days at Los Angeles’ Whisky A Go Go. A few songs earlier, he first informed the crowd that they were recording the concert with plans of releasing it as an album, playing the newly-written “Good to Me” for the second time in nine songs simply because it was the single and they needed to get it right. For his ’66 stint at the Whisky A Go Go, he was backed by his road band, the Otis Redding Revue a ten-piece group similar to the bands who supported him whenever he toured the south. This is the residency that is captured in its entirety on Stax’s six-disc box Live at the Whisky A Go Go: the Complete Recordings.

Redding’s residency was a deliberate attempt on the part of the singer and his management to move him out of the Chitlin Circuit and into the mainstream. The idea wasn’t to have Otis record pop music, but rather bring his act straight to the rock audience. So they set up shop right on the Sunset Strip, home to such hip rock‘n’rollers as the Byrds, Love, the Turtles and the Doors, figuring there was no better place to introduce Redding to a white audience.

Otis managed that crossover but not at the Whisky. It happened later at the Monterey International Pop Festival in ’67 backed then by Stax/Volt house band Booker T. & the M.G.’s because he benefitted from the festival setting. In the open air, excitement spreads like fire. Indoors there is a different dynamic, particularly if it’s a crowd confronted with something they’ve never seen before, which was certainly the case of the Los Angelinos that headed to the Whisky to see Otis Redding that April weekend in 1966.

Once Otis hit the stage on April 8, the applause was polite but not enthusiastic. He had to work to win that crowd, which he does by the end of the set, by which point they’re cheering “Respect.” At that point, Redding wasn’t unknown, particularly in R&B quarters he had three Billboard R&B Top 10s, with a fourth soon to follow but such gutbucket soul shows simply weren’t played in mainstream rock venues like the Whisky A Go Go.

TRACKLIST

01. Introduction (Live Set 1 Friday, April 8, 1966)
02. I Can’t Turn You Loose (Live Set 1 Friday, April 8, 1966)
03. Pain In My Heart (Live Set 1 Friday, April 8, 1966)
04. Good To Me (Live Set 1 Friday, April 8, 1966)
05. Just One More Day (Live Set 1 Friday, April 8, 1966)
06. Mr. Pitiful (Live Set 1 Friday, April 8, 1966)
07. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (Live Set 1 Friday, April 8, 1966)
08. I’m Depending On You (Live Set 2 Friday, April 8, 1966)
09. I’ve Been Loving You Too Long (Live Set 2 Friday, April 8, 1966)
10. Good To Me (Live Take 1 Set 2 Friday, April 8, 1966)
11. Security (Live Set 2 Friday, April 8, 1966)
12. Respect (Live Set 2 Friday, April 8, 1966)
13. Just One More Day (Live Set 2 Friday, April 8, 1966)
14. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (Live Take 1 Set 2 Friday, April 8, 1966)
15. Any Ole Way (Live Set 2 Friday, April 8, 1966)
16. These Arms Of Mine (Live Set 2 Friday, April 8, 1966)
17. I Can’t Turn You Loose (Live Set 2 Friday, April 8, 1966)
18. Pain In My Heart (Live Set 2 Friday, April 8, 1966)
19. Good To Me (Live Take 2 Set 2 Friday, April 8, 1966)
20. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (Live Take 2 Set 2 Friday, April 8, 1966)
21. Introduction (Live Set 1 Saturday, April 9, 1966)
22. Mr. Pitiful (Live Set 1 Saturday, April 9, 1966)
23. Good To Me (Live Set 1 Saturday, April 9, 1966)
24. Respect (Live Set 1 Saturday, April 9, 1966)
25. Just One More Day (Live Set 1 Saturday, April 9, 1966)
26. I Can’t Turn You Loose (Live Set 1 Saturday, April 9, 1966)
27. Ole Man Trouble (Live Set 1 Saturday, April 9, 1966)
28. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (Live Set 1 Saturday, April 9, 1966)
29. Introduction (Live Set 2 Saturday, April 9, 1966)
30. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (Live Set 2 Saturday, April 9, 1966)
31. Any Ole Way (Live Set 2 Saturday, April 9, 1966)
32. I’ve Been Loving You Too Long (Live Set 2 Saturday, April 9, 1966)
33. I’m Depending On You (Live Set 2 Saturday, April 9, 1966)
34. I Can’t Turn You Loose (Live Set 2 Saturday, April 9, 1966)
35. Introduction (Live Set 3 Saturday, April 9, 1966)
36. Security (Live Set 3 Saturday, April 9, 1966)
37. Just One More Day (Live Set 3 Saturday, April 9, 1966)
38. These Arms Of Mine (Live Set 3 Saturday, April 9, 1966)
39. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (Live Set 3 Saturday, April 9, 1966)
40. I Can’t Turn You Loose (Live Set 3 Saturday, April 9, 1966)
41. Chained And Bound (Live Set 3 Saturday, April 9, 1966)
42. Respect (Live Set 3 Saturday, April 9, 1966)
43. Introduction (Live Set 1 Sunday, April 10, 1966)
44. I’m Depending On You (Live Set 1 Sunday, April 10, 1966)
45. I Can’t Turn You Loose (Live Set 1 Sunday, April 10, 1966)
46. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (Live Take 1 Set 1 Sunday, April 10, 1966)
47. Chained And Bound (Live Set 1 Sunday, April 10, 1966)
48. Just One More Day (Live Set 1 Sunday, April 10, 1966)
49. Any Ole Way (Live Set 1 Sunday, April 10, 1966)
50. I’ve Been Loving You Too Long (Live Set 1 Sunday, April 10, 1966)
51. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (Live Take 2 Set 1 Sunday, April 10, 1966)
52. Introduction (Live Set 2 Sunday, April 10, 1966)
53. Destiny (Live Set 2 Sunday, April 10, 1966)
54. Security (Live Set 2 Sunday, April 10, 1966)
55. Good To Me (Live Set 2 Sunday, April 10, 1966)
56. Respect (Live Set 2 Sunday, April 10, 1966)
57. Chained And Bound (Live Set 2 Sunday, April 10, 1966)
58. Mr. Pitiful (Live Set 2 Sunday, April 10, 1966)
59. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (Live Take 1 Set 2 Sunday, April 10, 1966)
60. Ole Man Trouble (Live Set 2 Sunday, April 10, 1966)
61. I Can’t Turn You Loose (Live Set 2 Sunday, April 10, 1966)
62. A Hard Day’s Night (Live Set 2 Sunday, April 10, 1966)
63. These Arms Of Mine (Live Set 2 Sunday, April 10, 1966)
64. Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag (Live Set 2 Sunday, April 10, 1966)
65. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (Live Take 2 Set 2 Sunday, April 10, 1966)