I’ve Been Loving You Too Long - Otis Redding | Music From My Fifties
I picked up this Otis Redding box set “Otis! The Definitive Otis Redding CD” with some Christmas gift certificates. Disc one, which includes “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” has been in rotation in the car CD (with Recess Monkeys, hey man, those guys are good!) since January. Of course the Otis songs are incredible. Raw. Large. Lean. Otis was a huge talent taken way BEFORE he hit the prime barely hinted at by “Sitting On THe Dock Of The Bay”.
The early work represented on disc one is phenomenal, but the thing that slays me, REALLY SLAYS ME, is the Stax house band of ‘Duck’ Dunn on bass, Steve Cropper on guitar, Booker T. on keyboards and the unbelievable Al Jackson, Jr. on drums. Jackson was both the signature sound for drums on Stax Records and for Hi-Lo Records, another great Memphis label churning out gritty soul (Al Green) in the 1960’s. Along with perfect trumpet/sax horn arrangements, these Otis Redding tracks are a blueprint for making soulful, spare music that pushes the song and artist forward and buoys him there.
Great stuff!