Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay
Soul Music
BBC
4.7 • 831 Ratings
🗓️ 22 January 2020
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay was written whilst Otis Redding was reflecting on his life on Sausalito Bay, California, in the summer of 1967.
Its upbeat, laidback melody belies the loneliness of the lyrics.
In December of the same year, Otis was killed in a plane crash.
His song was subsequently released and became the first posthumous Number 1 record in the US.
His musician contemporaries including Booker T Jones and guitarist Steve Cropper, who co-wrote Dock of the Bay, tell the story of the song's genesis, and people in their 20s to their 80s reveal why they relate it to dramatic periods in their lives.
Series about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact.
Producers: Maggie Ayre and Mair Bosworth
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2020.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Traitors is back and so is that mysterious cloaked figure with the familiar fringe. |
| 0:06.7 | Yeah, it's me. |
| 0:07.9 | And when you've watched Claudia in the castle, join me, Ed Gamble, for the official visualised companion podcast. |
| 0:13.7 | And remember, I'll be listening. |
| 0:15.9 | Okay? |
| 0:16.7 | No, seriously, I love it. |
| 0:18.5 | What a faithful. |
| 0:19.7 | We'll unpack betrayals and spill scandalous secrets |
| 0:22.3 | with celeb guests, traitors' legends, |
| 0:25.0 | and murdered and banished players. |
| 0:27.1 | The traitors uncloked. |
| 0:28.4 | Watch on EyePlayer, listen for more on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:33.1 | BBC Sounds, music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:44.3 | My name is Cyra McFadden. |
| 0:50.4 | I'm a writer, and I live on Main Dock in the Houseboat community at the north end of Sausalito, California, on the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge. |
| 0:57.0 | The houseboats are every color you can think of. Some are very sedate and some are wild colors. |
| 1:05.0 | And it's a very eclectic panorama, and it is quite beautiful. |
| 1:12.6 | The water varies from day to day, but it's mainly sort of slate blue like the ocean, |
| 1:21.6 | full of ducks and gulls and occasionally harbor seals. |
| 1:30.8 | It's a quiet, peaceful environment. |
| 1:39.5 | Sitting in the morning sun, I'll be sitting when the evening come. |
| 1:47.0 | The docks are a kind of oasis in a very, very busy, noisy, clamorous urban area. San Francisco is just chock-a-block. |
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