Steve Cropper Remembers First Meeting with Otis Redding

Posted: Jul 11, 2008

Steve Cropper Remembers His First Meeting with Soul Legend Otis Redding
7/11/08

From coastal Georgia, near the Florida line, I'm enjoying the food, folks and environs of the area. More on all that later. I thought I'd print this excerpt from my recent interview with the great Steve Cropper about his first meeting with soul legend Otis Redding. Cropper and Redding went on to write many great songs together--"Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay"--to name one, and here Cropper explains their first meeting.

JC: Where did you first meet Otis Redding?

SC: I first met him when he came up from Macon, Georgia, with Johnnie Jenkins and the Pine Toppers. They had a little bit of a hit called "Love Twist", which made some noise. Atlantic and their manager--he might have known Phil Walden but I don't think Phil actually booked Johnnie Jenkins--maybe he did--but anyway through Atlantic and Jerry Wexler they all thought since we were so well-known for hit instrumentals that they'd bring Johnnie there and give him another hit instrumental. Otis was his singer--we didn't know that at the time. I thought Otis was his driver because he drove up in front of the studio, got to the trunk and started getting amps and mics out. I walked over and said, 'Hey, you don't need to bring in microphones. We're a recording studio--we've got all that.' He just looked at me kind of dumbfounded. We all set up, and had the band there for the session.

During the session, Al Jackson came to me and he said, 'You know that tall guy that drove the car and came in with Johnnie?' I said, 'Yeah.' Al said, 'Man, that guy's bugging me to death.' I didn't see this going on. Al said, 'Every time we take a break and y'all go into the control room to listen, this guy comes over and he's driving me nuts to hear him sing. I keep saying I don't have anything to do with all that--Steve Cropper is the guy to talk to. We're busy right now, but I'll ask Steve.' So, Al mentions it, and I said, 'Well, if we have time after the session I'll listen to him.'

So, after the session, Al came to me and said, 'You told me you'd listen to this guy. You got time?' I forgot about it, and I said 'Oh, okay.' Everybody's breaking up their equipment and leaving so we can pick up the next day. I said, 'Bring him down to the piano.' I said to Otis, 'Well, what do you do?' Otis said, 'I sing a little bit.' I said, 'Do you play piano?' He said, 'I play a little gut-tar, but I don't play piano.' Otis said, 'Give me some of those church chords.' He meant those triplets-dut-dut-dut. I started playing in the key of B Flat. Otis started singing "These Arms of Mine" (Steve sings).

I went 'Holy Moly.' The hair on my arm stood up about four inches. I looked around and said, "Get Jim Stewart down here right now (laughs)!' I said, 'Jim listen to this guy.' Jim said, 'We gotta put that down.' We get Duck on bass, Al on drums, Johnnie Jenkins played guitar and I played piano--we recorded "These Arms of Mine". The next day at 11 o'clock, instead of cutting Johnnie Jenkins, we cut the flipside of "These Arms of Mine'..."

The rest, as they say, is history. Everything changed right there. The complete Cropper interview should be up in a few days, and there's more Otis stories among other classic music tales in this classic conversation. Now, it's time to go out and eat some food and continue The Never Ending Soul Food Tour...

More later,

James Calemine
JCalemine@swampland.com