Respect

"Loved not only by his dedicated fans, the man affectionately referred to as the 'Big O' was also held in high esteem by other musicians. A longtime collaborator, bassist Donald 'Duck' Dunn of the famed Booker T. and the MGs, conveyed to historian Peter Guralnick his respect for Redding as a musician and session leader. 'It was never a routine session with Otis. Otis would come in, and boy, he's just bring everybody up. ... Cause you knew something was gonna be different. You wanted to play with Otis. He brought out the best in you. If there was a best, he brought it out, that was his secret.'
"Another thing Redding brought out of his collaborators and his listeners was raw emotion. 'I almost cry sometimes when I hear Otis' stuff,' Jimi Hendrix admitted. 'Stuff like that makes you actually laugh — not laugh from, "oh, look at that, ha-ha-ha-ha!" But that real good feeling, and then you get lumps in your throat, and [stuff]. Yeah, that's when the stuff is popping.'"

Claudrena N. Harold in The Seattle Times looks back on the life and legacy of Otis Redding, who died forty years ago this month.