Otis and Jimi

A few years ago I discovered a particular LP. One side was Otis Redding. The other side was Jimi Hendrix. Both were performances from the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. Until this month, that record has always been a little-known secret. It has never, to my knowledge, been released on CD. But now, as of last week, it’s available as a full-length concert DVD from Criterion (the people who know how to do DVDs real fancy)!

I don’t want to sound like a salesman, but dammit everyone and their pets should see and hear this thing! First of all, it’s one of the only surviving color presentations of Otis Redding performing live. And he’s backed up the legendary Booker T. and the MG’s (Steve Cropper, Duck Dunn, and Al Jackson, Jr.). This is the stuff:

Will R&B ever be that good again? Sadly, I doubt it.