Like a squirrel nesting in a hollow tree, Betty Burke has finally carved out a myspace nook. Let's be friends! Our myspace account is so new that we haven't even received any salacious ads disguised as wall-posts yet.
We're getting excited about the show next week at This Ain't The Rosedale Library, so excited that a certain member of the band has been loitering at the shop on a regular basis. On Sunday, while thumbing through the music book section, I found a copy of "Otis! The Otis Redding Biography" by Scott Freeman. It's a juicy read.
The most stunning Otis anecdote I can share so far is about the whistled verse in "(Sitting On) The Dock of The Bay." Otis wasn't finished writing the song yet when he recorded it, and meant for the whistled lines to serve as a placeholder. But before he could return to the studio, he died in a tragic plane crash, which makes the song all the more painful to contemplate.
Whatever the genre- pop, soul, metal, r&b, country- sad songs abound. But "Sitting On The Dock of The Bay" receives my nomination for the best sad song of all time. A broken heart can leave you hopeless, but unemployment can leave you hopeless and homeless. Otis' story of leaving Georgia to look for work in California, and winding up jobless, with nothing to do but watch the waves, is a thousand times sadder than any old hony tonk lament about being left by a woman.
On that note, I'd like to end this blog by thanking This Ain't The Rosedale Library for stocking books Like "Otis!" If you're in Toronto next week, visit the shop Wednesday night for our show with Brian Joseph Davis, and take some time to browse. We hope to see you there, and if not there, maybe we'll see you on Myspace.
xoxo
BB
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