Otis Redding

Book excerpt: When we think of Otis Redding, we remember his classic hits, from 'The Dock of the Bay' and 'Shake' to 'Try a Little Tenderness' and 'Respect, ' a song we often forget that he penned before Aretha Franklin made it famous. We know his music, yet we know very little about his life, which ended tragically at the age of 26, at the height of his career. According to Jonathan Gould, that knowledge gap is a shame because, while Redding might not have been as gifted as Ray Charles or as smooth as Sam Cooke, Otis - not Marvin Gaye, not James Brown, not Stevie Wonder - is 'the purest distillation of what we talk about when we talk about 'soul.' Now, in this biography, we'll finally get a fitting look at the unfinished life of the man some call 'the King of Soul.' That said, this book is not just about Redding and his music; it is also about the times from which they emerged