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Otis Redding—Ham or HAM?

DB_CooperDB_Cooper Manhatin' 7,823 Posts
edited January 2015 in Strut Central
This track came on in the car this morning and about halfway through I realized that this is like the soul equivalent of Blueshammer. If this were acting, it would be Matthew McConnaghy in that Lincoln commercial. Dude is vocally chewing the scenery. I hate to say it, but I may be at a point where I find Otis Redding to be a ham. And not in a delicious way. TELL ME I'M WRONG, SOULSTURT.

  Comments

  • DB_CooperDB_Cooper Manhatin' 7,823 Posts
    Just realized the thread title all-caps removed the nuance from my original question. Ham? Or HAM? Which means...Hard And Moist I think? I don't know. It's something rappers are sometimes. But it's supposed to be a positive thing?
  • JimsterJimster Cruffiton.etsy.com 6,955 Posts
    HAM.

    (The good one).

    Great (if not GOAT) voice.

  • fishmongerfunkfishmongerfunk 4,154 Posts
    while i appreciate the voice, i never reach for any of his records, in fact, i think i purged them all years ago. that said, i don't think it's fair to compare him to bloozehammer.
  • LaserWolfLaserWolf Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts
    Just listened to it minutes ago.

    You are wrong.

    Yes, lots of hams imitate Otis.
    Over singing is part of the post Whitney, post reality tv, reality.
    But Otis [and others] invented/perfected gospel vocal stylings and applied them to pop music.
    This is the real deal, and he is emoting, not hamming.

    It's like calling Elmore James Blueshammer.

    I'm listening to the Bobby Charles lp on Bearsville now.
    You might like it, dude undersings, totally laid back NOLA styling.
  • BeatChemistBeatChemist 1,465 Posts
    I know what you mean sort of... but for me Otis never seems anything other than genuine with his singing. There's definitely muddling of the issue by the fact that so many have imitated his style since. So that type of singing just sounds a bit hammy.

    But yeah I think Otis is HAM. Hard As a Muthafucka.

    There's gotta be a Watch The Throne joke here somewhere...

  • soulcitizensoulcitizen 304 Posts
    If you haven't, you need to listen to Otis and the band on original mono plum Atlantic vinyl with the crackles so the horns and guitar tear out of the speakers, then make a judgement - heavy as sh*t




  • ElectrodeElectrode Los Angeles 3,127 Posts
    I "Respect" him and don't mean to "Tramp"le on his legacy, but I'm a Gaye guy, straight up.
  • ketanketan Warmly booming riffs 3,169 Posts
    LaserWolf said:

    You are wrong.

    Otis is the benchmark for emotional soul sanging for me.
  • Fred_GarvinFred_Garvin The land of wind and ghosts 337 Posts
    I'm not even sure how one hears this and thinks "ham". I mean, if it's not your cup of tea, then OK, but even then it's hard to argue that Otis didn't kill it.
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