Text by Bruce Lee Gallanter  (Downtown Music Gallery, December 12, 2025) 

“Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay” sung by Otis Redding & released in January of 1968
Written by Otis Redding and Steve Cropper

Sittin’ in the mornin’ sun
I’ll be sittin’ when the evening come
Watching the ships roll in
And then I watch ’em roll away again, yeah

I’m sittin’ on the dock of the bay
Watching the tide roll away
I’m just sittin’ on the dock of the bay
Wastin’ time

I left my home in Georgia
Headed for the ‘Frisco bay
I’ve had nothing to live for
Look like nothin’s gonna come my way

So I’m just gonna sit on the dock of the bay
Watching the tide roll away
I’m sittin’ on the dock of the bay
Wastin’ time

Look like nothing’s gonna change
Everything still remains the same
I can’t do what ten people tell me to do
So I guess I’ll remain the same, yes

Sittin’ here resting my bones
And this loneliness won’t leave me alone
It’s two thousand miles I roamed
Just to make this dock my home

Now, I’m just gonna sit at the dock of the bay
Watching the tide roll away
Sittin’ on the dock of the bay
Wastin’ time

I read the news today, oh boy — the passing of another great musician, Steve Cropper. Mr Cropper played lead guitar for the Mar-Keys and then for the Stax house band, Booker T. & the M.G.’s. Similar to their brethren in New Orleans (another instrumental quartet & studio/live house band), The Meters.

Booker T & The MGs were a great instrumental soul/rock/funk outfit who had many hits between 1962 and 1970, as well as backing many southern Stax soul artists like Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, Rufus Thomas and Otis Redding. Like The Meters, each member of Booker T & The MGs was integral to their unique sound. Steve Cropper had a distinctive, sleek yet funky guitar sound and influenced many other young guitar pickers.

As a big fan of the MGs and Steve Cropper, I’ve collected each of his dozen solo efforts, especially digging his two duo efforts with Felix Cavaliere from the Rascals. The above song was released late in 1967 and was written by Otis Redding and Steve Cropper. In a year that was filled with many psychedelic or protest bands/singers, “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay” stood out as a lazy-sounding summer song complete with chirping seagulls. The sad thing is that Otis Redding died in a plane crash in December of 1967, and this song became a number one hit just a couple of months later in early 1968.

Steve Cropper was later an original member of the Blues Brothers and can be seen & heard in their film. I caught Mr Cropper once, live, at a reunion show with Booker T & The MGs, and was knocked out by this seminal band, which still sounds great several decades after it began in 1962. A toast to Steve Cropper and the many records that he played on.