LONELY & BLUE: THE DEEPEST SOUL OF OTIS
REDDING,
DUE OUT MARCH 5 ON STAX RECORDS,
COLLECTS SOUL LEGEND’S
POIGNANT BALLADS
Available on CD and blue vinyl, packaging evokes the
look and feel
of a late ’60s Stax/Volt album
that Redding might
have released at the height of his career
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Otis Redding’s Lonely & Blue: The Deepest
Soul of Otis Redding could pass for a title Stax/Volt might have released in
the late ’60s. The look of the album reflects Stax’s design themes of the era.
But in fact it’s a collection that never existed, until now, that homes in on
one mood and one theme —heartbreaking, yearning ballads — of which Redding had
many. The album will be released as a CD and blue vinyl LP on March 5, 2013 on
Stax Records through Concord Music Group.
Lonely & Blue: The Deepest Soul of Otis
Redding contains the hits (“I’ve Been Loving You Too Long,” “These Arms of
Mine,” “My Lover’s Prayer,” “Free Me”) alongside many lesser-known songs (“Gone
Again,” “Open the Door,” “Waste of Time,” “Everybody Makes a Mistake,” to name a
few). They’re all included in this compilation because they share the tangled
theme of sorrow.
According to compilation producer David Gorman,
“Given how nobody delivered a gut-wrenching sad song like Otis, I always felt he
should have made an album you could put on late at night and settle into with a
glass of something strong. The mood and the subject of every song is the same —
Otis, heartbroken, and begging for love. I tried to find the saddest most
potently heartbreaking songs he ever sang, with no regard for chart position or
notoriety. There are a few hits on the album, but they’re there because they
fit the mood, not because we wanted to include the hits.”
For
instance, an alternate version of “I’ve Got Dreams To Remember” features lyrics
that are darker and tell a more personal story than the better-known hit
version. Little-known tracks like “Gone Again” and “A Waste of Time” are given
the same weight as “I’ve Been Loving You too Long.” The motif of love is even
subtly addressed in the sequencing, the album closing with “Send Me Some Lovin’”
and “My Lover’s Prayer.”
The concept of Lonely & Blue: The Deepest
Soul of Otis Redding plays out in the packaging as well, which was
intentionally designed by Gorman to look as if Redding actually did put
this album out at the height of his career. The typography, color palette, and
layout are all meant to adhere to the Stax/Volt LP designs of the time. This
extends to the liner notes, which are written in the present tense and credited
to a fictitious DJ so that they read as if they were written while Redding was
alive at his peak.
“The goal,” explains Gorman, “was to create the
best album Otis never made and ‘reissue’ it in 2013 rather than do another hits
compilation. We hope this album will reframe him as something more than an
oldies radio staple and become his Night Beat (a classic 1963 Sam Cooke
LP) — the album that exists as a starting point for people wondering why so many
consider Otis Redding the greatest soul singer of all time.”
Track
Listing:1. I Love You More Than Words Can Say
2. Gone Again
3. Free Me
4. Open the Door [Skeleton Key
Version]
5. A Waste of Time
6. These Arms of Mine
7. I’ve Been
Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now)
8. Everybody Makes a Mistake
9.
Little Ol’ Me
10. I’ve Got Dreams to Remember [Rougher Dreams]
11. Send
Me Some Lovin’
12. My Lover’s Prayer
http://www.otisredding.com