Shake!: Otis at Monterey

I saw this on TCM and it certainly is an unforgettable experience. It really stays with you-thinking about the influence this great musician had. It only lasts 20 minutes, but I gotta say that what I did see I cannot and will not forget.

This is a beautiful document of a beautiful moment in music history.

"This is the love crowd, right? We all love each other, don't we?"

There's an angle Pennebaker uses from behind Redding during his song Respect that produces such feeling - the spotlight haloed around his head like an aura, his breath visible in the surrounding darkness, and the flares of light rain looking as incandescent as his energy level. Backed by Booker T. & the M. G.'s, Redding made the most of the moment during a star-studded festival in June, 1967 that also saw breakout performances from Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. The film is as short and sweet as Redding's set, just five songs (and unfortunately before he had penned (Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay), and of course as short as his life, tragically ended in a plane crash just six months later on a winter night in Madison, Wisconsin. I loved the footage of the crowd taken from other points of the festival during the final song, Try a Little Tenderness; despite putting this together two decades later, Pennebaker captures both the artist and spirit of the festival here.

Otis Redding performs at Montrey. In this period, he was an enormously popular performer, rivaled only by James Brown for the level of his energy. Yet while everyone was in awe of Brown, Redding had something more important: people paid attention to his performances, and changed what they wer doing. He was influential.

Looking at this documentary, you can see why. There's an innocence in his stage personna, a sense ofhe's getting up there, having fun,and somewhat surprised that people are enjoying it. He can see that pleasure in his sidemen, the smiling drummer, the guitarist racing to keep up. He was a genuine artist and he's been greatly missed

It's June 17, 1967 Monterey, California. Tommy Smothers comes on stage and introduces Otis Redding. It's twenty minutes of Otis performing. This is exactly what you expect, no more, no less. Sure, it's great for fans but it's great for any music lovers. His music is easy to love. There is one weird thing that the filmmakers did with "Try a Little Tenderness". They took the words "Young girls they do get wearied" to literally start a montage of every girl at the festival. It's a little weird and a little stalkery. Maybe I'm being too sensitive.

For a while I didn't know a lot of Otis Redding's music. What a fool I was! A song like "Try a Little Tenderness" is one of those songs that I just knew growing up, it was around here and there (and of all places it was featured in that forgotten 2000 movie Duets). But Redding's set at the Monterey Pop festival may get somewhat overlooked when compared to some of the other major highlights of that festival, which are among the most iconic of any time - Hendrix smashing the guitar on fire at the end of 'Wild Thing', The Who's performance, Ravi Shankar - but Redding is no slouch when it comes to putting on a show; on the contrary his enthusiasm and energy is infectious.

Do I think he's quite as talented as those others I mentioned? Maybe not quite, but does it matter? The man and his band (including people who would go on to be in the Blues Brothers, Donald "Duck: Dunn is unmistakable) perform in this little 18 minute extra - included along with Hendrix's full performance as documented by DA Pennebaker and his collaborators - and it includes two covers ("Respect", which he originally wrote and sings the s*** out of like his life depends on it and "Satisfaction", a decent cover that builds and ebbs and crescendos) as well as some original tunes. You know you're in for something at least compelling when the man starts off by having the audience respond and yell with him "SHAKE!" and then goes into the rest of his numbers. Even on the slower song he really reaches down deep to bring out the soul that's right there, all the way so that it's 200% at maximum capacity soulfulness.

In other words, Shake! Otis at Monterey is not to be overlooked when in the scope of the rest of the artists at that festival. Also, Pennebaker brings a montage with the 'Tenderness' number of a whole slew of faces of women (and some babies and small children) and it creates a wonderful compliment, as if he's singing to ALL the women at the festival - which, of course, at that time, might as well have been their whole world.