Otis Redding - The Dock of the Bay LP (From Otis Forever: The Albums and Singles 1968 - 1970 Box Set)

Rhino / ATCO (2023)

Over the next few Fridays I will be writing about each of the individual albums in the Otis Forever: The Albums and Singles 1968 - 1970 box set. This is the second Otis Redding box set I have, but this one focuses on his posthumous albums.

We start off with a weird one, to be honest.  The first album in this box set is Dock of the Bay.  Why is that weird?  Because it’s the last album in the Definitive Studio Albums box set. Why is the same album in two different box sets?  I couldn’t tell you.

Especially since this box set is absolutely being positioned as a companion piece to the first set. The artwork is similar and they are really meant to sit side by side.  So it’s kind of odd that there’s a duplicate album between the two sets.  I guess you can say that the one in this set is in stereo, while the prior version was in mono.  But honestly, that’s not anything particularly important to me.

That said, it is a great album. I don’t really feel the need to write too much about the music as I did so here: https://www.ibuywaytoomanyrecords.com/2019/02/otis-redding-dock-of-bay-lp-from.html?m=0. It’s not like having this record in the box would ever dissuade me from buying it, but I can’t help think they could have made the set a bit cheaper by not including it.  Oh well.

Otis Redding - The Dock of the Bay:

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu5chXCp1Ag