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Live at the Whisky a Go Go: The Complete Recordings
Live album by
Otis Redding
ReleasedOctober 21, 2016
RecordedApril 8–10, 1966
Venue Whisky a Go Go, Los Angeles
Genre Soul music
Label Stax

Live at the Whisky a Go Go: The Complete Recordings is a live album by Otis Redding, recorded at the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles, California, in 1966. Encompassing shorter previous releases, this digitally remixed edition includes all of Redding's performances from his three-night engagement at the venue. The album won a Grammy Award for Best Album Notes.

Background

The recordings were made from a series of seven performances that Redding played over three successive nights (April 8–10, 1966) at the Whisky a Go Go on Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. [1] He was backed by his ten-piece touring band, the Otis Redding Revue. [2] Earlier albums, including In Person at the Whisky a Go Go (1968) and Good to Me: Live at the Whisky a Go Go, Vol. 2 (1983), had featured selections from the shows, but the 2016 release comprehensively captures all seven performances in their entirety. [2]

Production and release

Original 4-track tapes of the shows were newly mixed by audio engineer Seth Presant. [3] The finished product was released through Redding's original Stax Records label (now a subsidiary of Concord Records) on October 21, 2016. [3] The 6-disc box set was also made available as a digital download, and excerpts were pressed on limited edition vinyl LPs. [3] [4]

Critical reception

A rarity in its completeness, Live at the Whisky A Go Go: The Complete Recordings has been praised for preserving "vital live soul from an era where the sound was in its prime but was rarely recorded", [2] and the album has been called "in a word, essential". [1] The performances themselves have been described as "explosively transcendent" [1]

There is arguably a surfeit of material on the collection – "there are, count them, ten separate versions of ' Satisfaction' that even the most hardcore Redding and/or Rolling Stones fans may find to be more than enough", noted one reviewer from Jambands, [5] while another from BlackGrooves remarked, "I’m not convinced that Redding would have wanted the complete package released [because] the performances just weren’t good and consistent enough". [3] In contrast, the reviewer from Pitchfork wrote, "Listening to the sets back to back, it’s hard to hear where the band allegedly strays off path: Whatever flaws that may exist in a given track tend to melt away in the context of a full set". [2]

Awards

Writer Lynell George won the award for Best Album Notes at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards. [6] [7]

References

  1. ^ a b c Paul, John (November 29, 2016). "Otis Redding: Live at the Whisky a Go Go: The Complete Recordings". PopMatters. Archived from the original on January 30, 2018.
  2. ^ a b c d Erlewine, Stephen Thomas (November 3, 2016). "Otis Redding: Live at the Whisky a Go Go: The Complete Recordings". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on March 20, 2017.
  3. ^ a b c d Fine, Tom (December 1, 2016). "Otis Redding – Live at the Whisky A Go-Go, The Complete Recordings". BlackGrooves. Archived from the original on January 31, 2018.
  4. ^ Live at the Whisky a Go Go: The Complete Recordings at AllMusic. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
  5. ^ Sutton, Larson (October 28, 2016). "Live at the Whisky A Go Go: The Complete recordings". Jambands. Archived from the original on November 13, 2016.
  6. ^ Lewis, Randy (January 28, 2018). "Local writer Lynell George wins Grammy for 'Otis Redding Live at the Whisky A Go Go'". Los Angeles Times.
  7. ^ Chow, Andrew R. (January 28, 2018). "Grammy 2018 Winners: Full List". The New York Times.
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