Customer Reviews

Otis!: The Otis Redding Story

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Don't get me wrong, it's a good biography of Otis, but it lacks a certain depth. It is somewhat one-sided and could have done with a lot more research and more interviews. As previous reviewers have already mentioned, would have been nice to hear from more people.

What is also completely lacking is the role that Otis played in American music, american history and what he meant for the black population. There are some hints towards it, but it is never fully explored. It could have been about any artist, there is no real sense that Otis was one of the most gifted and most important soul stars.

In that sense it's a little dissappointing, but to get a good overview of his life, the album is worth giving a look.

Everything I have ever read about Otis Redding portrays him as perfect. He was a great singer, a great performer, and everybody loved him. Scott Freeman does a good job of showing a more complete Otis Redding. Sometimes Otis is surprising. He once got in complete a gun fight! The best part of the book is the research Scott Freeman did into the music scene that Otis lived in. Freeman played guitar in an R & B band in Macon, Georgia in the 1980's while writing for the Macon Telegraph and News. Many of the old musicians were still active and would sit in with the band. Freeman interviewed many of the old timers for this book, and their memories fill in the details of those times. This is a valuable book for Otis Redding fans!

I have enjoyed Otis Redding's music for a long time, but I never realized how little I actually knew about him. Everything I have ever read about Otis Redding portrays him as close to perfect. He was a great singer, a great performer, and everybody loved him. That's nice, but what was he really like? Scott Freeman does a good job of showing a more complete and therefore more human Otis Redding. There are some definite surprises. Did you know that Otis once got in a gun fight? Scott Freeman did some nice research into the musical world that Otis lived in. He started this research almost by accident. Freeman played guitar in an R & B band in Macon, Georgia in the 1980's while writing for the Macon Telegraph and News. Many of the old musicians from Otis' times were still active and would sit in with the band. They were still playing great, and Freeman got interested in them. He wound up interviewing many of the old timers for this book, and their memories fill in the details of those times. This is a valuable book for Otis Redding fans!

this book is trying to show otis redding to be as a person that has a split personality.on the one hand he is gentle and kind and wise...on the other hand he is (supposingly) selfish, rude and curses God, o yes, and violent.
This writer doesnt even have the dates right, at one point he actually says that otis voice was weak and thin....
but looking at his picture that is actually a pretty good discription of himself.
in any case, this book slanders otis redding, if i was his widow i would sue.

It was exciting to read about the Big "O".I was ... fed on his music,thanx to my mother.She was so in love with him that she received sympathy cards when he died.It was like a death in my family.......Reading about Otis's childhood was interesting..He is my favorite male vocalist of all time!!..No other male singer sings with as much emotion..Rugged and raw!!.An important fact mentioned was the racial tensions of the times,and how music and musicians were civil rights activists in their own way..I was most surprised to learn how "Satisfaction" was born..Otis sang this song like he loved it!!..And he had just learned it the day it was recorded!..A musical genius........Otis's music still gets played in regular rotation at my house......Rest In Peace "O".

I thought this was a great read, and I don't think there is much else to know about Otis Redding and I learned a lot about him and the legacy of his music. I never quite realized just what an impact and how popular he was until reading this book. He certainly left us too soon. No telling how far his career may have gone.

I was curious to have more funeral details however. But usually most biographies go right over the death and funerals of the ones being written about for some reason. Certainly not for lack of information because most celebrity funerals are well covered in the press. Maybe they think the readers wouldn't care to know. But I think we do. I was curious to know the cause of Otis's death. I know it was in a plane crash, but if you've ever seen photos, when he was taken from the water he looks perfect, even had an open casket, so it makes me curious. Drowning perhaps?

I've read and have the author's book on the Allman Bros. and liked that very much too, so figured this would likewise be a good one. It was.

I'm giving this a five because there don't seem to be too many other books about Otis out there and this is a pretty good read.

The writer gives his take on Otis' life coming from Macon Georgia, the same town where Little Richard and James Brown were born.

Like Carla Thomas says in 'Tramp!', 'You from the Georgia woods!'

Otis grew up on the streets. His father was preacher, had been a sharecropper. They lived in tough neighbourhoods until Otis got money.

According to Freeman Otis was pretty much a saint except about money, where he could be mean.

Most, or a lot of Freeman's information seems to come from the people Otis grew up with and played with, all of whom had a very high regard for him as a person as well as a musician, although a number of them flagged up his ability to be tough on the street, and hardnosed attitude to business.

However it seems like he always loved to be around his family and friends from home, although towards the end his life got very hectic.

There's a lot of speculation about where Otis' life was going around the time he was killed. There's a lot of stuff about the high regard he was held in by many other musicians including the Beatles, Dylan and most of all Janis. Well, why wouldn't they?

Highlights for me include Freeman's willingness to take a sidetrack here and there to explore the lives of players in Otis' life, especially Johnny Jenkins. Another key character would be Steve Cropper, seemingly the guy that held Stax together for many years at least in terms of personalities and the music. No surprise there.

There are a number of terrific stories in here, and I won't spoil the book, but the best one would be when James Brown invaded a gig where Joe Tex was playing with the Pinetoppers because he didn't like the way Tex took him off.

Like I said, a good read, and it leaves some unanswered questions, but when you're talking about a man who recorded one of the best albums ever made, by anybody, in any genre, I don't mind a little mystery.

I really thought I knew Otis Redding until I read this book. WOW! I learned so much... good and bad. I recommend this to any soul music fan! Great, easy read!

Otis Redding was my musical hero. Like so many millions of fans, his songs touched my very soul, and still do today. It was through this biased lens that I read this book. The events of Otis's short life have been well documented by now, but never so fully before. Readers get to know the real Otis in all his majesty and faults. Time heals all wounds, and its easy to forget the impact Otis's death had. Similarly time dulls memories of accomplishments, and lest we ever forget Otis's many contributions I hope this book will find a wide audience. The research has been done with painstaking care. The writing manages to stay objective, even through the author obviously is deeply involved in his subject. Thank you for this work. It's a book I'll read again every few years, just as surely as I return to Otis's recordings regularly to recall why I love his music.

I think that Scott Freeman did a Good Solid Job here with this Book.it captures many elements of Ottis Redding.it's a shame that a Major Film&Other things haven't been brought out to capture the Man fully.He did alot in His Short time on Earth.this Book Brings alot to life.The Man as a Artist was One of The Baddest Ever I have Heard.