A song that was met with initial pushback from his label, Redding never knew that it would become his most iconic single. The lines to follow are where tones of sadness could be interpreted, though Cropper recalls them as "hitt the masses." Redding moves from oceanic imagery to a quick reflection of "I can't do what ten people tell me to do / So I guess I'll remain the same, listen." Interpretations range from Otis feeling stalled in his career to a slow-moving Civil Rights Movement. "So the rest of the song, where I said, you know, 'I left my home in Georgia, headed for the Frisco Bay,' it was just about him going out there to perform at the Fillmore." "He had just left San Francisco, where he played at the Fillmore," Cropper recalled. Cropper ended up fleshing out Redding's outline. "Otis was just bigger than life," he explained. According to Cropper, Redding was reluctant to write about himself, but for Cropper, it was easy. Cropper suggested that it was he, not Redding, who was most responsible for adding the biographical references. He completed the song later with co-writer Steve Cropper. In 1967, while performing in San Francisco, he stayed on a houseboat in Sausalito and began writing "Dock of the Bay." Otis Redding was born in Dawson, Georgia, and moved with his family to Macon when he was five. Fifty years ago when Otis Redding sat down near the water and wrote (Sittin On) The Dock of the Bay, he had no idea that millions of people would take to.
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