“Dock of the Bay” ended up being named the sixth most-played song of the 20th century by BMI. Shortly after recording the song, Redding died in a plane crash on December 10, 1967, and the song became the first posthumous number one record in chart history. Everything has, indeed, pretty much remained the same. Redding and Cropper may not have been depressed when they wrote it, but they came up with a song that we can all identify with and that has stood the test of time.
The lyric speaks to the human condition, the emotional turmoil so common to all of us, with lines like I’ve had nothing to live for/Look like nothing’s gonna come my way…Looks like nothing’s gonna change/Everything still remains the same, and Sittin’ here resting my bones/And this loneliness won’t leave me alone. “Dock of the Bay” is so universal, about trying to find the beauty in life despite the hopelessness and despair we all have dealt with. Knowing these details and not thinking something much deeper was involved might serve to shatter the song’s mystique for some of us. ‘Dock of the Bay’ was exactly that: ‘I left my home in Georgia, headed for the Frisco Bay,’ it was all about him going out to San Francisco to perform.” Sittin’ on the dock of the bay.’ I just took that…we just sat down and I just kind of learned the changes that he was kind of running over and I finished the lyrics…Otis didn’t really write about himself but I did. And that’s about all he had: ‘I watch the ships come in and I watch them roll away again. “He had rented a boathouse or stayed out at a boathouse or something and that’s when he got the idea of watching the ships coming in the bay there.
“He had been in San Francisco doing the Fillore,” Cropper recalled.
In an interview on NPR’s Fresh Air, Cropper explained how he and Redding came to write the song. He took these ideas back to Memphis, where he and collaborator/producer Steve Cropper ended up making one of the most famous soul records of all time. “Dock of the Bay” was based on a few thoughts and lines Redding came up with during some time he spent sitting and watching the ocean in California.
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