Otis Redding table where he wrote [[Sittin On the) Dock Of The Bay...for real

[StuBass1]

The Great Otis Redding...

[StuBass1]

This is the table sitting in the cabin of the beautiful boat of a collector in Sausalito, California I recently visited and tracked down on the "Dock of the Bay" where Otis reportedly wrote his classic song just before his tragic death [[owner wasn't home, but I snapped the picture through the door and the owner later verified to me that I snapped the right picture of the right table)...Table was at a different location at the harbor at that time in 1967...

[StuBass1]

Houseboat harbor I found where Otis wandered, pondered, and began writing his classic...

[StuBass1]

Waldo Point houseboat resident historian and musician, Joe Tate, who actually SAW Otis the day he supposedly started writing Dock Of The Bay...Says Otis was wandering around the docks..

[StuBass1]

A likely location Otis was seen wandering that day and where the table sits today...BTW...Thats the boat owned and lived on by Good Earth Catalogue owner and greatly involved in the Summer of Love where he drove the bus and booked the Grateful Dead for their first big San Francisco concert...Stewart Brand...That's the only non fixed boat in that harbor and Mr Brand takes it out for a cruise about once a month...

[StuBass1]

View of San Francisco Bay from Sausalito which served as Otis' inspiration for Dock Of The Bay...

[woodward]

Very interesting information and pictures. Thanks for sharing.

[alanh]

Fabulous photos, information and memories. Thanks StuBass!

[StuBass1]

Based on my research and conversations with several residents, I learned that Otis may or may not have actually been staying for any extended period of time at the Waldo Point Harbor location where he wrote the song... At some point he sat down at that table and began penning the song, at least the first verse or two, and finished the song in Memphis with Steve Cropper and recorded it twice...the last time within days of his tragic plane crash...Cropper, as some versions claim...was not with Otis in Sausalito...

[StuBass1]

Waldo Point houseboat location...

[StuBass1]

My beautiful and understanding girlfriend and I rode this tandem bicycle about 2 1/2 miles from downtown Sausalito to find this historic spot...

[StuBass1]

More of the virtually unchanged location Otis was wandering around when he got the inspiration...

[StuBass1]

And more from this scenic houseboat harbor...

[StuBass1]

Unique multi story...

[StuBass1]

Wow...I just heard from Mr Brand himself...He says the table pictured above which sits in his galley [[kitchen) was on the houseboat that Otis was briefly staying on and Brand says it's his understanding that it was supposedly the only table on that houseboat and Otis likely ate on it, and wrote the song on it as well...Obviously still learning more about all this...

[heikki]

Thank you Stu for this tour.
All Otis fans should be excited.

Best regards
Heikki

[StuBass1]

Recorded twice, the last time just prior to his tragic death in December of 1967...[[Sittin On) The Dock Of The Bay was released on Stax Records Volt label in 1968, becoming the first posthumous single to top the US charts. The loss of its flagship artist , Otis Redding, also is said to have forced the label into almost certain bankruptcy...
https://youtu.be/rTVjnBo96Ug

[Motown Eddie]

Recorded twice, the last time just prior to his tragic death in December of 1967...[[Sittin On) The Dock Of The Bay was released on Stax Records Volt label in 1968, becoming the first posthumous single to top the US charts. The loss of its flagship artist , Otis Redding, also is said to have forced the label into bankruptcy...
https://youtu.be/rTVjnBo96Ug

The tragic death of Otis Redding did not force the label into bankruptcy. Stax would end it's affiliation with Atlantic Records in 1968, find a new investor/distributor in Gulf & Western, and relaunch the company with huge hits by Johnnie Taylor, Isaac Hayes, The Staple Singers [[and others). The bankruptcy of Stax would happen at the end of 1975.

[StuBass1]

Hi Eddie... Thanks for your interest and input...Interesting story here so I'll elaborate just a bit to explain my remarks and expand on yours. Shortly after the tragic death of Otis Redding in the plane crash in December of 1967, Stax owner Jim Stewart was forced to renegotiate his distribution deal with Atlantic which was due to expire. Up to that time, Otis had been Stewarts biggest "cash cow" as a producer and recording artist. SOTDOTB had become Stax biggest selling record in the companies history. Stewart was a banker and not really a record company guy and didn't truly understand the fine print in the contracts he signed with Jerry Wexler at Atlantic. As the negotiations began, Stewat realized, to his horror, that he had previously given Atlantic ownership of ALL the Stax masters...in other words, Atlantic owned the entire Stax catalogue. Negotiations dragged on for months but Stewart had really no leverage since Atlantic owned the entire catalogue, but had Stewart held out, he certainly would have been in a position of bankruptcy since Stax would have become little more than a label name and a glorified recording studio [[I did amend my previous post to read "almost certain bankruptcy)...In addition...Stax second biggest money maker...Sam and Dave, it was learned by Stewart were actually under contract to Atlantic, not Stax, even though they recorded on the Stax label. To avoid the inevitable bankruptcy and the loss of everything he had built, since he didn't have the resources or contractual legalities on his side to fight Atlantic much longer, Stewart sold out to Gulf and Western who put Al Bell in charge and the label actually did have a resurgence mostly in the early 70's with some of the artists you mentioned and Stewart even rejoined the company at some point as President...By the late 70's however, Stax had run out of material and talent and became largely a reissue company...That's pretty much what went down, so thanks for your input and participation in this Otis Redding thread...

[StuBass1]

Thank you Stu for this tour.
All Otis fans should be excited.

Best regards
Heikki

Thanks Heikki...Fun doing it...My girlfriend had to visit the Consulate of her home country in San Francisco that day, so we decided to look for Otis across the Golden Gate into Sausalito and spend the night. Checked into the hotel at 5:00, rented and left with the bike by 5:30 looking for the Waldo Point Harbor...found it and started asking people there if they knew anything and eventually got directed to people who had lived there for a long time...and within two hours were back returning the bike with a wealth of knowledge we discovered after speaking with people we visited with, one nice gentleman even handing me his glass of peach rum of which I took a huge gulp and on the way back downtown stopped at the Spinnaker Club, a huge houseboat type barge behind Gabrielson Park on the bay where Joe Tates band was playing that evening and caught up with him......You certainly know what it's like to try to tell a story

[StuBass1]

Historic Otis Redding performance at the 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival, called one of the great pop music performances of all time...Shortly after this performance, Otis returned to the California coast and up to Sausalito on the San Francisco Bay to relax on a houseboat in the marina where he would write his most famous song...[[Sittin On) The Dock of The Bay shortly preceding his death...

https://youtu.be/mjaYvw36rwo?list=PL