Otis Redding - I've Been Loving You Too Long

Monterey International Pop Festival 1967

Indiscutivelmente Otis Redding (1941-1967) foi o maior cantor Soul de todos os tempos.
Datam do início da década de 60 as primeiras gravações de Otis Redding sendo somente em 1964 que é editado o primeiro longa duração de nome "Pain in My Heart". Aquando da sua passagem pelo Festival de Monterey era já um artista consagrado com seis álbuns editados.

Na primavera de 1967 actuou com grande sucesso na Europa acompanhado pelos Booker T. and The M.G.'s. No entanto, particularmente nos Estados Unidos, a sua popularidade era sobretudo na população negra, tendo sido em Monterey que actuou, pela primeira vez, para uma audiência maioritariamente branca. A 17 de Junho de 1967, Otis Redding, com o suporte dos Booker T. and the M.G.s, encerra o 2º dia do Festival de Monterey.

"The only thing that Otis Redding hadn’t done by 1967 was attract a large white audience in America. By all accounts, he was nervous about appearing at Monterey—an audience of 50,000 mostly white faces, the “love crowd,” as he called them, awaited. The performance shouldn’t have worked, as he went on late and because of the statutory midnight curfew, the plug had to be pulled after just a handful of numbers. In the end, it didn’t matter—none of the other performers at the Festival had ever seen a singer or a band dominate a stage or an audience the way that Otis Redding and Booker T. and The MG’s did with those five songs. It marked a breakthrough to mass acceptance by a white listenership, and it was arguably the most important moment musically in the three-day Festival." assim viu Bruce Eder a passagem de Otis Redding pelo Festival de Monterey.

Otis Redding interpretou 5 canções a saber: "Shake", "Respect", "I've Been Loving You Too Long", "Satisfaction" e "Try a Little Tenderness".




Otis Redding - I've Been Loving You Too Long