Sitting on the dock of the bay song
![sitting on the dock of the bay song sitting on the dock of the bay song](https://s3.amazonaws.com/halleonard-pagepreviews/HL_DDS_355983Vsbf7Yp0SM.png)
In fact, maybe that’s what he meant when he talked about ‘sittin’ in the morning sun’ and ‘I’ll be sittin’ till the evening come’. On top of that, he’s apparently too old to keep up with the work on the dock, if that’s how we interpret the line ‘I can’t do what ten people tell me’ and ‘I’m sittin’ here restin’ my bones’. Thus his insistence that ‘nothing’s gonna change’ and ‘everything remains the same’ is made all the more tragic, not only because he travelled 2000 miles in futility, but also because he travelled in the promise that he would find acceptance in California, a place with a very different history from Georgia, and without the pain of legal segregation, only to find he’s similarly beaten down and disrespected. He moved from Georgia to San Francisco to get a job on the docks, but given that the song was written in 1967, we may also interpret his travel as a search for dignity and self-worth, as he moved from the old segregated south to an ostensibly more liberal and open-minded city. He’s most likely a working class man, and probably African American. Separately they don’t make much sense, but together they tell a very tragic story that you wouldn’t expect (although granted, it requires some interpretation).
![sitting on the dock of the bay song sitting on the dock of the bay song](https://www.musicnotes.com/images/productimages/large/mtd/MN0040837.gif)
But in a conversational manner he tells us various details about his life as if they just slip out. He’s trying to assure us that he’s just sitting on the dock of the bay out of denial and modesty. He’s speaking it to you in the sort of a way you’d imagine a depressed person would. Of course Otis, playing the character, doesn’t tell you this explicitly. He depends on the peaceful scene at the dock of the bay to distract him from the tempestuous thoughts inside of his head, even though it’s apparently futile, and he wastes his time to delay making a decision, as he gives in to the idea that maybe he should just ‘remain the same’ like the world around him, that maybe his 2000 mile travel has led him to this spot on the dock where he calls his home. Our main character is at a crossroads in his life, and unsure of what to do next, largely because he has no confidence in his ability to change anything about his life, and feels powerless against fate and a world that remains the same. At least, he isn’t sitting on the dock in satisfaction he’s sitting on the dock because he has nothing he can do. Take the clue from Otis Redding’s rather pained vocals, take a closer listen to the lyrics, and that’s when you realize this song is not about a man, just sitting on the dock of the bay, wasting time. If that were what the song was about, it would be worth a couple good listens followed by harmless well-received obscurity. Problem is, that’s a rather boring subject matter. And if we listen to the down tempo composition and the waves at the beginning, it all gives us an atmosphere of contentment. We can obviously sympathize with a situation where we don’t decide not to do anything because we are too comfortable and relaxed. I’m pretty sure the vast majority of the people who listen to this song for the first time were convinced, as I was, that it is a smooth, charming light song contemplating a circumstance that we all have been in. So why do I adore this song that is out of my favorite genre? While it is a fabulous composition, the thing that propelled it to that level of love is the lyrics, which I contend are some of the most brilliant lyrics ever written. Now while I certainly have a strong appreciation for R&B, I personally lean more toward hard rock from that era in my taste. “(Sittin’ On) the Dock of the Bay” by Otis Redding is widely regarded to be one of the greatest R&B songs ever made, and more than that it is one of my all-time favorite songs.