(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay
By Otis Redding, Steve Cropper
Volt/Atco (Stax), 1968
I was in a band in the mid '90's where “These Arms of Mine” was in the set list. And where I like the song and enjoyed playing it, I felt more of a connection with many other songs from Otis Redding's catalog. I couldn't tell you the first time I heard “Dock Of The Bay”, it seems like it was always just there in the background. But I always loved it and as a kid I had no idea how much of it I'd actually live.
Left my home in Georgia,
Headed for the 'Frisco Bay,
I've got nothing to live for,
Looks like nothing's gonna come my way...
Mississippi Fred McDowell famously sang, “You Gotta Move”. In '98 it was my turn. I was living in Atlanta, playing in a very good band (Elroy's Big Machine). A band on the up. But things for me were on the skids. I had to go. The “where” wasn't as important as the “when”, but the “where” needed to be some place better than the “here”. At the time I had a friend living in San Francisco who had some extra space and was calling often trying to get me to move out there. Here I'll throw another one at you from the words of Kris Kristofferson's Me and Bobby McGee...”Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose...”
So I moved, and in March of '99 I whittled all my possessions down to 8 boxes and took off towards San Francisco. For a kid that grew up outside a small Georgia town, it was a big change. It ended up being a far cry better than the place I was, but it seems that no matter how far you run, you're demons are always gonna find you.
As far as the dock is concerned, I've had a lot of San Francisco folks insist that it's the long curving pier at the end of Van Ness that's the actual dock. But I've also read where he wrote it on a houseboat clear on the other side of the bay in Sausalito. I've also seen where Steve Cropper actually wrote the bulk of the lyrics. Nonetheless, I spent a great deal of time on that pier. As for me, it was simply the easiest point for me to get to where I could spend some time alone staring out at the water or back in toward the city. It was a quick walk to the Van Ness bus lines that drop you off a quick easy walk to the pier. I went there often, not knowing, at the time, any possible connection between the place and the song. Not sure what the pier was like in Mr. Otis' day or if he ever saw it, but the version I saw was rotting and smelled of decaying fish guts, urine, garbage and feces from all different types of species that had come across it. And those that walked about? The mixture of tourists, junkies, hustlers and fishermen...would never outnumber the population of seagulls, wharf rats and pigeons. In other words, a GREAT place to go to ponder your place in this world.
The good thing is that eventually I figured out the really hard stuff. At least in the short term. My life's certainly been better for the move, and the subsequent move-away.
It was more than a decade later when I added “Dock Of The Bay” into my set. I know that it's a song I'd never be able to pull off if it hadn't been for the fact that I'd lived my own version of the words. But as far as the whistling part goes...well...I can't whistle worth a damn so I don't do it. I figured out a little finger-picked melody line on the guitar to mimic it. And I leave it there.
Jack
By Otis Redding, Steve Cropper
Volt/Atco (Stax), 1968
I was in a band in the mid '90's where “These Arms of Mine” was in the set list. And where I like the song and enjoyed playing it, I felt more of a connection with many other songs from Otis Redding's catalog. I couldn't tell you the first time I heard “Dock Of The Bay”, it seems like it was always just there in the background. But I always loved it and as a kid I had no idea how much of it I'd actually live.
Left my home in Georgia,
Headed for the 'Frisco Bay,
I've got nothing to live for,
Looks like nothing's gonna come my way...
Mississippi Fred McDowell famously sang, “You Gotta Move”. In '98 it was my turn. I was living in Atlanta, playing in a very good band (Elroy's Big Machine). A band on the up. But things for me were on the skids. I had to go. The “where” wasn't as important as the “when”, but the “where” needed to be some place better than the “here”. At the time I had a friend living in San Francisco who had some extra space and was calling often trying to get me to move out there. Here I'll throw another one at you from the words of Kris Kristofferson's Me and Bobby McGee...”Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose...”
So I moved, and in March of '99 I whittled all my possessions down to 8 boxes and took off towards San Francisco. For a kid that grew up outside a small Georgia town, it was a big change. It ended up being a far cry better than the place I was, but it seems that no matter how far you run, you're demons are always gonna find you.
As far as the dock is concerned, I've had a lot of San Francisco folks insist that it's the long curving pier at the end of Van Ness that's the actual dock. But I've also read where he wrote it on a houseboat clear on the other side of the bay in Sausalito. I've also seen where Steve Cropper actually wrote the bulk of the lyrics. Nonetheless, I spent a great deal of time on that pier. As for me, it was simply the easiest point for me to get to where I could spend some time alone staring out at the water or back in toward the city. It was a quick walk to the Van Ness bus lines that drop you off a quick easy walk to the pier. I went there often, not knowing, at the time, any possible connection between the place and the song. Not sure what the pier was like in Mr. Otis' day or if he ever saw it, but the version I saw was rotting and smelled of decaying fish guts, urine, garbage and feces from all different types of species that had come across it. And those that walked about? The mixture of tourists, junkies, hustlers and fishermen...would never outnumber the population of seagulls, wharf rats and pigeons. In other words, a GREAT place to go to ponder your place in this world.
The good thing is that eventually I figured out the really hard stuff. At least in the short term. My life's certainly been better for the move, and the subsequent move-away.
It was more than a decade later when I added “Dock Of The Bay” into my set. I know that it's a song I'd never be able to pull off if it hadn't been for the fact that I'd lived my own version of the words. But as far as the whistling part goes...well...I can't whistle worth a damn so I don't do it. I figured out a little finger-picked melody line on the guitar to mimic it. And I leave it there.
Jack