I just finished Jonathon Gould's extraordinary bio of Otis Redding. It is essential reading
for anyone into the original Allman Brothers Band because it goes into excruciating detail
about the life of Phil Walden. I would have preferred to have read a book solely about Phil
that went from Otis and then onto the Allmans, but......highly recommended.
Thanks always looking for another great music read.............
I liked it, but I thought it was labeled incorrectly. Instead of being called "Otis Redding: An Unfinished Life" it should have been called "Otis Redding's Biography plus a bunch of somewhat tangentially related civil rights stories and music history that may or may not have anything to do with Otis' life."
I guess they couldn't fit all of that on the cover though.
The Otis stuff was great, but I'd say 50% (maybe less) of the book has little to nothing to do with Otis' life but rather a history of the artists that influenced Otis and and a civil rights history. I was not a fan of the author's writing style. Not that I didn't agree with a lot of the points he made, but it wasn't the focused biography that Otis deserved. The Otis and Macon stuff was great, but you have to dig through a lot to get to the great.
[Edited on 5/19/2018 by WarEagleRK]
I felt the same way re: digressions; but face it - not a very long life so the author needed to find ways to fill the book.
Always loved Otis. Otis at Monterrey (to think I bought the record thinking it was really Jimi's show) is my second favorite live recording
I liked the book for what it was and learned a lot that I didn't already know...but it made me think, if Jaimoe played with Otis for a while did he know anything about who Phil was before he showed up in macon with duane? I never have seen anything about that & just wonder about it.
