Plundering The Vaults

Stax/Concord

One would be hard pressed to find a better live soul album than Otis Redding’s In Person at the Whisky a Go Go, a stellar document of the R&B legend’s intimate four-night stand at the famed Los Angeles nightclub on Easter weekend in1966, originally released on ATCO Records a year after his tragic death in December 1967. This double-disc collection gathers three sets not featured on either In Person or its 1982 follow-up, Good to Me: Live at the Whisky a Go Go Vol. 2. And from the sound of Live on the Sunset Strip, it seems as though some of the hottest performances from Redding and his ace touring band were left on the cutting room floor, including a powerful version of “Chained and Bound” from the second set of the third show, scorching renditions of The Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night” and the Stones’ “Satisfaction” (particularly the second show’s third set) and an exhaustive 10-minute jam through James Brown’s “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag” that totally carjacks the Godfather’s original.