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Released at the beginning of 1968, Redding's posthumous hit was a lamenting-- and prescient-- cry of resignation after the Summer of Love. It's as immortal a song as r&b ever produced, renouncing all references to the transitory pleasures of love, rage, or infatuation. There's merely Redding's piteous hum, balanced by buoying guitar and slumberous horns. He sounds like a disappointed god, bored by infinity and captivated by his own constancy. The voice is soft and sleek, and traces of anger still disturb the serenity. The lyrics pass from calmness to sorrow, pleasure to damage, bemusement to barrenness. It's a repudiation of empty promises: Nothing's blowin' in the wind, no changes are gonna come, there's "nothing to live for, and looks like nothing's gonna come my way." He drives all the way to San Francisco just to remind himself that his life will never change. And then there's that final nonchalant whistle, the most haunting and elegiac sound you could ever hear from a dead man's #1 record. --Alex Linhardt |
