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Live at the Whisky a Go Go: The Complete Recordings
Live at the Whisky a Go Go: The Complete Recordings is a live album by Otis Redding, recorded at the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles, California, in 1966. Encompassing shorter previous releases, this digitally remixed edition includes all of Redding's performances from his three-night engagement at the venue. The album won a Grammy Award for Best Album Notes. BackgroundThe recordings were made from a series of seven performances that Redding played over three successive nights (April 8–10, 1966) at the Whisky a Go Go on Sunset Strip in Los Angeles.[1] He was backed by his ten-piece touring band, the Otis Redding Revue.[2] Earlier albums, including In Person at the Whisky a Go Go (1968) and Good to Me: Live at the Whisky a Go Go, Vol. 2 (1983), had featured selections from the shows, but the 2016 release comprehensively captures all seven performances in their entirety.[2] Production and releaseOriginal 4-track tapes of the shows were newly mixed by audio engineer Seth Presant.[3] The finished product was released through Redding's original Stax Records label (now a subsidiary of Concord Records) on October 21, 2016.[3] The 6-disc box set was also made available as a digital download, and excerpts were pressed on limited edition vinyl LPs.[3][4] Critical receptionA rarity in its completeness, Live at the Whisky A Go Go: The Complete Recordings has been praised for preserving "vital live soul from an era where the sound was in its prime but was rarely recorded",[2] and the album has been called "in a word, essential".[1] The performances themselves have been described as "explosively transcendent"[1] There is arguably a surfeit of material on the collection – "there are, count them, ten separate versions of 'Satisfaction' that even the most hardcore Redding and/or Rolling Stones fans may find to be more than enough", noted one reviewer from Jambands,[5] while another from BlackGrooves remarked, "I’m not convinced that Redding would have wanted the complete package released [because] the performances just weren’t good and consistent enough".[3] In contrast, the reviewer from Pitchfork wrote, "Listening to the sets back to back, it’s hard to hear where the band allegedly strays off path: Whatever flaws that may exist in a given track tend to melt away in the context of a full set".[2] AwardsWriter Lynell George won the award for Best Album Notes at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards.[6][7] References
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