On the bright side, CropperвЂ™s misunderstanding about the location led him to add the lines, вЂњI left my home in Georgia, heading for the Frisco Bay,вЂќ which works much better than вЂњheading for Richardson Bay,вЂќ where Redding and the dock were. вЂњMe being a purist kind of guy I said, вЂOtis, did you ever think that if a ship rolls itвЂ™s going to take on water and sink,'вЂќ Cropper recalls, вЂњand he said about the lyric, вЂHell, Crop, thatвЂ™s what I want,вЂ™ and Otis always got his way.вЂќДЄctually, the Golden Gate Bridge isnвЂ™t even visible from where Redding was, but Cropper never saw that spot until years later when he was on tour with Robert Cray he got a bite to eat overlooking the water and saw ferries going back and forth and realized that вЂњwhen a ferry goes to park it pushes up a big wake and comes in sideways and looks like it is rolling in. The fact that Cropper wasnвЂ™t there is obvious in his reaction to the song вЂ“ that fall, when Redding first sang him the lines вЂњWatching the ships roll in/And then I watch вЂ™em roll away again,вЂќ Cropper says he вЂњalways envisioned a ship going under the Golden Gate Bridge.вЂќ ReddingвЂ™s Wikipedia page mistakenly claims that the song вЂњwas written with Cropper while they were staying with their friend, Earl вЂSpeedoвЂ™ Simms, on a houseboat in Sausalito.вЂќ But while Simms, ReddingвЂ™s road manager, was there, Cropper was thousands of miles away. But Redding was more than 10 miles away, at Waldo Point Harbor in Sausalito. Meanwhile, the city of San Francisco recently put the lyrics on display on a pier in Brannan Street Wharf. Marc Myers, in his book Anatomy of a Song: The Oral History of 45 Iconic Hits that Changed Rock, R&B and Pop, mistakenly noted that Redding went to the houseboat to catch his breath right after playing Monterey. ItвЂ™s here where Redding began writing the song вЂ“ and where the first of the myths and misconceptions about it began. When rock impresario Bill Graham made him an offer to get out of downtown, Redding, a country boy at heart, was happy to spend those days on GrahamвЂ™s houseboat. Still, Redding was committed to the road for the rest of that summer, including a six-night gig at Basin Street West in San Francisco in August. вЂњOne of the main things Otis told me in the car one day was, вЂIвЂ™m coming to Memphis and IвЂ™m going to get a place and you and I are going to produce and write songs.вЂ™ He really enjoyed being in the studio.вЂќ вЂњAbsolutely his style was changing,вЂќ Cropper tells Rolling Stone. Redding had produced (and co-written) Arthur ConleyвЂ™s hit вЂњSweet Soul MusicвЂќ earlier that year and Cropper says he started talking about getting off the road and spending more time producing in the studio. He had always relied on the emotion and energy in his vocals to carry his songs, but now he started paying more mind to the words themselves heвЂ™d also recorded most of his songs live in the studio, but the complex layering achieved by the Beatles and George Martin clued him in to other ways of building tracks. PepperвЂ™s Lonely Hearts Club Band over and over.

Redding had begun listening to Bob Dylan, whom heвЂ™d met at the Whisky in вЂ™66 but beginning in June, the singer вЂ“ like the rest of the world вЂ“ was playing Sgt.

It was the only time I told Otis what to do.вЂќ I suggested he write something folk-like, saying we could call it Soul Folk. вЂњHe saw a huge crowd of white kids going nuts over him, and he began to believe he could follow in the footsteps of Sam Cooke and Ray Charles.вЂќДЄl Bell, then a Stax executive, says that he told Redding he was getting pegged as a genre musician and вЂњwould have to come up with something different. It does not store any personal data.вЂњMonterey had a powerful effect on Otis,вЂќ recalls Stanley Booth, who interviewed Redding for the Saturday Evening PostВ during those final sessions. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category 'Performance'. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category 'Other.

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Sitting on the dock of the bay ukulele