40 years later, Otis Redding remembered with 'Dreams' exhibit

By DOUG GROSS - Associated Press Writer

MACON, Ga. --Nearly 40 years after a plane crash ended his life at age 26, Otis Redding may be more popular than ever, with songs like "Try a Little Tenderness" and "Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay" now firmly embedded as pop music classics.

To Redding's widow, the reason the songs still resonate with a new generation of listeners is simple - they're just that good.

"Otis's career traveled on its own," said Zelma Redding, who still lives on the 300-acre ranch the couple bought in rural middle Georgia in the 1960s. "I've never overexposed it or pimped it in any way - all the credit goes to his music."

That music, and the man who created it, are being celebrated in "I've Got Dreams to Remember," an exhibit that opened Friday at the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in Macon - Redding's hometown.

The exhibit, which was to kick off with a tribute concert Friday night featuring blues great Taj Mahal, The Bar-Kays, Diana Degarmo and Dexter Redding and Otis Redding III, the singer's sons, will run through Sept. 8 of next year.

"Otis Redding's music just transcended boundaries," said museum director Lisa Love. "There's a raw emotion and intimacy there that connects and resonates with people."

Ranked No. 21 on Rolling Stone magazine's "100 Greatest Artists of All Time," Redding established himself in the early 1960s as a first-rate songwriter, penning and recording "Respect," which Aretha Franklin made a No. 1 hit, and recording his own version of "Satisfaction," the smash by the Rolling Stones, with minor alterations to the lyrics.

He recorded and performed a string of hits. But "Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay," released after he died in a Dec. 10, 1967 plane crash en route to a concert, became his first million-seller.

The exhibit, assembled largely from memorabilia saved by Zelma Redding and borrowed from other collectors, includes rare 45 r.p.m. records of Redding's, concert posters, video displays and documents ranging from recording contracts to a receipt for hay and other feed for animals at his Big O Ranch.

Included are two pressings of one of Redding's early singles, "Shout Bamalama." The first, Love said, received little airplay from black DJs because it was released by a company called Confederate Records and bore a red, white and blue Confederate battle flag on its label.

There's also a rare concert poster from the Madison, Wisc. show Redding was scheduled to play on the night of his death. Eerily, the name of one of the opening acts scheduled to perform was The Grim Reapers.

Vincent Brown of Macon was one of the first people to visit the exhibit on Friday. He said he's been a Redding fan for 25 years.

"It still seems fresh," he said. "You can look and see all these musicians who are still copying some of his style even today."

Zelma Redding said she hopes the exhibit will help fans learn more about her late husband than his legacy as a performer.

"He loved everybody; he truly cared about people," said Redding, who has established The Big "O" Youth Educational Dream Foundation, which uses music and art to encourage at-risk students to stay in school, in her husband's memory. "He was a great businessman and a great father."

The Central Georgian, 2007, Disclaimer..