Are You Ready For Star Time?

This disc serves as a companion piece to "In Person At The Whisky A Go Go." This is more material from the same show, most of which wasn't released untill 1982 as "Recorded Live," and now on CD with four extra tracks.

Much has been made of the out of tune trumpet player. It's noticeable, and he is not the only member of the six piece horn section to blow bad notes or miss cues. It's a live show, and bad notes/tunings happen. I don't get paid to write reviews, so I can afford to ask the important question: Is the less-than-perfect playing really that bad? In this case, not even a little. I'll throw my one complaint in here. There is a noticeable difference in sound quality between the newly added tracks and the tracks orifinally released in 1982. It would have been nice to have the whole disc remastered.

The performance is incendiary. Wally Heider got the music, energy, and sweat on tape. The interplay between Otis and the crowd is great: You can feel Redding feeding off the crowds energy, giving it all back, and then some.

This disc goes off like a bomb. Light the fuse: During the 30 second intro the MC asks, "Are you ready for star time?" Snare intro for the first track, Redding says, "Watch this." Bang: The band ignites on "I'm Depending On You." From then on, Redding owns the room. The band's got something to prove. Redding was far from a household name on the Pop charts, with his performance at Monterey still more than a year away.

This disc does more than serve as a companion to the original "Whisky" record. I've always thought this set was better, with the extra tracks making it that much more so. There is plenty of between songs rap, doing much to let the set breathe on its own. This set is loud, powerful, and moving. If there's a down side, it's that this set doesn't help the ache of Redding's passing (a plane crash in late 1967).

Good to me, indeed.

Live, rough and raw

I saw Otis live in New Orleans in 1966. This album comes close to that "live" experience. It was recorded with Otis's "road band". It is live, rough and raw. And you can hear his down-to-earth friendliness shine through. Not a "must-have, but it is a "must hear"!