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Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay Lyrics

Artist: Otis Redding
Album: Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay

(SITTIN' ON) THE DOCK OF THE BAY
- written by Otis Redding and Steve Cropper
- lyrics as recorded by Otis Redding December 7, 1967, just three
days before his death in a plane crash outside Madison, Wisconsin
- #1 for 4 weeks in 1968

Sittin' in the mornin' sun
I'll be sittin' when the evenin' come
Watching the ships roll in
And then I watch 'em roll away again, yeah

I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay
Watching the tide roll away
Ooo, I'm just sittin' on the dock of the bay
Wastin' time

I left my home in Georgia
Headed for the 'Frisco bay
'Cause I've had nothing to live for
And look like nothin's gonna come my way

So I'm just gonna sit on the dock of the bay
Watching the tide roll away
Ooo, I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay
Wastin' time

Look like nothing's gonna change
Everything still remains the same
I can't do what ten people tell me to do
So I guess I'll remain the same, yes

Sittin' here resting my bones
And this loneliness won't leave me alone
It's two thousand miles I roamed
Just to make this dock my home

Now, I'm just gonna sit at the dock of the bay
Watching the tide roll away
Oooo-wee, sittin' on the dock of the bay
Wastin' time

(whistle)

Comments/Interpretations
by PHHS Songwriting Class on 5/15/2008 9:19am We think he's talking about trying to make his life better but it seems like there's no way. Could be about homelessness and unemployment.
by shannon on 5/16/2008 6:58pm he was a legend actully still is
by bob on 5/22/2008 3:29am cheap copy, fake!
by Joshua on 5/22/2008 4:25pm THis song rules its the best
by Danni Rob on 5/23/2008 5:19am Wow you all got it all wrong. He was relocating out to another area because of his love life. Nothing was in his favor at this time.So this was how he was spending his days
by ben on 5/26/2008 10:46pm you nailed that one my friend
by KONRAD on 5/30/2008 3:42pm Great singer, wonderful song R.I.P.
by Bobby D on 6/2/2008 2:21am It is a great song to listen to - the voice and rhythm and whistle. When I listen to words, I can't find much to be inspired about. Singer has the blues and will "remain the same".
by kassie on 6/4/2008 4:04pm what a classic
by Andrew on 6/8/2008 3:56pm I love playing this song on guitar. Great Song
by jessika b on 6/9/2008 11:47am This song is the best i love it and it was played at my uncle's funral.
by Albert on 6/13/2008 4:19am I like it. Wonderful song.
by Kinga/pol on 6/15/2008 6:03am It`s really good song but I don`t understand all because I don`t mean some words..
by Bye bye for me on 6/22/2008 5:06pm Four popups and a slow loading page.
by Mucis&Lyrics=Sound.. on 6/26/2008 12:30am He felt like he was being pulled in many different directions and at the same time was unappreciated by thoses in the music industry. He loved his home in Georgia and is buried there.. "Sad but such a beautiful song."
by cheryl on 7/10/2008 12:45am i think this guy wanted a break, i've sang this song, so many times when i just wanted to get the hell away from everyone, and just sit on the dock of the bay, and let the tides carry it it all away, he may have been a little but home sick , been there to.
by eddie b. on 7/10/2008 4:07pm to travel two thousands miles because of a problem that is serious. don't jump but i fill you.
by bandon watts on 7/14/2008 3:34pm i love it when i become a superstar someday i will sing that song
by steve on 7/15/2008 2:52pm the song has soul. the singer has too. it's great to play on the guitar. if only i could sing like him.......
by Jessica K on 7/21/2008 12:52pm I love this song, and it it fun to play on the guitar, it's also a pretty easy drum beat. My band wanted to cover this because i'm always playing it, but i told them no because my voice would never do it justice. What a wonderful song, sung by a very down to earth guy.
by pissed on 7/24/2008 7:28pm you shouldn't choose what I listen to. I'm not returning to this sight.
by EL DOTS on 7/31/2008 7:30am WHAT TYPE OF PUNK WOULD SAY THIS IS A CHEAP COPPY. FOOLISH BRE THIS IS A CLASIC I LOVE PLAYING IT AND KNOW OTIS IS THE KING
by Jorge on 9/10/2008 12:25pm Ustedes todos me la pelan! Basically just listen and enjoy the song for what it's worth. Thank you Otis Redding for singing such a beautiful song with more soul than a pair of orthopedic shoes.
by charlie on 9/13/2008 11:55am He's trying to escape the pressures of life and the demands placed on him. He's a lonely man with no real home, waiting for something to change but he doesn't know how to go about it. It's easier to just sit on the dock and do nothing. Well that's my interpretaion. One of my all time fave tracks to chill out to. PERFECT!!!
by Ian on 9/21/2008 12:06pm The song, written in the 60's, is about a man who's been Jim Crowed to death, left Georgia and can't get a job because he's black so he ends up sitting on a dock. Remember this was written during the Vietnam War, shortly before the assassination of Martin Luther King and after events like the assassinations of Medgar Evers and Malcolm X, after the bloody march from Selma to Montgomery, and the march in Chicago. This was at the height of the fight for civil rights.
by jack on 9/23/2008 8:30am my dad sang this song i have it on some tapes of his it makes me cry cause i dont see him any more hes gone to another state and i got no way of contacting him
by sasdfds on 9/23/2008 9:03pm the guy traveled from georgia to san francisco for a gig and had a houseboat in sausalito (an incredibly beautiful peninsula across s.f.). for anyone who hasn't been to frisco, i suggest you go because you will understand what he means. it is incredibly relaxing sitting on a dock of the bay
by WOW on 9/24/2008 2:16pm god i love this song, not sure about the meaning of it but the song is one of my favourites anyway....beautiful song Otis. R.I.P
by nonbeliever on 10/30/2008 11:21am poor otis dead and gone, left me here to sing his song, pretty little girl with a red dress on, poor otis dead and gone!!!!! R.I.P. LEDGEND
by Master Mind on 11/3/2008 9:36am Best song ever
by Pete on 11/7/2008 8:58am He's just singing the blues, man.
by Jerry on 11/7/2008 9:20pm The guy that otis redding collaborated with for the lyrics of the song said that it was simply when he played at The Fillmore he used to love watching the ships come in, and he obviously left his home in georgia to perfom in san francisco.
by rick on 11/13/2008 2:47pm water, the ocean, rivers, they are typically used as an archetype for life - so the setting here is just a device used to reinforce the theme that life and time go by and you can't stop it. Also, though details continuously change, the fundamental dynamics of life never do.
by Bee on 11/25/2008 5:22pm I hope people write comment knowing what they are saying. Enjoy the song and appreciate it. You have your own feeling... do not expect everyone is the same with you.
by nops1 on 11/25/2008 11:31pm This song is a true memorial to the times. Otis sang it with more soul than any other mortal could. Not only could you hear it. You felt it. It simply expressed the sickness of the era. A long sad time. What way to turn? Which way to go? Or just sit in a pretty place........
by gilbert. on 12/3/2008 3:00pm This song reminds me of San Q
by Caroline on 12/7/2008 7:43am Love this song! I heard Robin Bengtsson singing it in the Swedish Idol (the swedish version of american ido) and he was assume!
by Pepe on 12/18/2008 9:57am Simplemente, me gusta, una triste, melancólica y bella cancion, gracias Otis.
by Music <33er on 12/25/2008 10:47am he's sitting and watching others go on, doing their own buisness which makes him think of his home and what he's gonna do with his life but thinking about it isn't going to do a thinag a beautiful song
by xXDRUNKKIDXx =]] on 12/25/2008 10:07pm Thizz song iz sikk niglets!! Fukk HaT3R$!!!
by castle on 1/4/2009 2:15pm when yall put songs under guitar yall should have guitar chords so we can learn how to play the song/.............
by britney layne:) on 1/8/2009 12:11am this song is like yahh:)
by saxman on 1/13/2009 8:37pm Did you know there is another verse that never got recorded? Otis started whistling and the sound engineer started fading out because he thought the song was over. TRUE DAT!
by bob on 1/14/2009 8:33am This shit is gay as fuckkkkk my number is 404 567 8976
by popeezy on 1/15/2009 4:25am love it!... Listen to the version by FIJI even better
by LauRiE! on 1/29/2009 8:43am i loVe that SoNg!
by Baby Bear on 2/6/2009 10:15am What a beautiful song. I woke up with it playing in my head. Reminds me of childhood. How can something so rich and beautiful be about perceived lack? Much more powerful knowing he passed, days after he wrote the words. What a beautiful soul.
by j on 2/8/2009 9:10pm great song, if u agree w/ me add meh on stuff[myspc] lol person.alvear@gmail.com.,
by Gun on 2/11/2009 11:26pm He was a twenty year over night success.........a professional musician on the road, burned out and looking at his options. Sitting in San francisco with one of his best friends, a big white southern guitar playing boy, just getting high and writing about their shared experiences. He was offered many choices of where to take his career, his choice, just being himself a black man in the turmoil of the late sixties. Staying true to the path that got him to this point in life. The times they were a changin'
by Bob on 2/14/2009 1:20pm I remember listening to Otis' music when I wasn't walking in the jungles of Vietnam in 67'. I remember the day when my Lieutenant came up to me and said Otis died. Time goes on.
by Rocker Girl on 2/17/2009 5:32pm I love playing this song on my drums...Has a perfect beat, who does not like this song is a DUMDASS!!! This guy has real soal and know how to sing the blues.... 'Frisco rulz R.I.P.THE LEDGEND OTIS REDDING
by Park Slopey on 2/20/2009 3:56pm Sometimes there's nothing left but to sit on the dock of the bay. Have you ever noticed all of the suicide hotlines before you get on a bridge?
by ollie...blad! on 3/12/2009 1:21pm It's well anoyyin' i can't find this song anywhere i looked all over youtube but there all cover versions......Great song though!
by Simon on 3/17/2009 4:13pm This is best song in the world. I listen to it all the time.
by lynz on 3/18/2009 11:17am love this song :D
by celi on 3/26/2009 1:50pm It's a really lovely song. it's intersting that he sung this one just before he passed.
by mick on 3/28/2009 8:15pm Truely great song. Years ago I relocated to the opposite end of the world. At that time this song was the only thing to heal my soul when feeling lonely and nostalgic. Bit hard to explain, but that is what songs are for...
by Mike on 3/30/2009 11:22am This song will be played at my funeral two weeks from today.. I don't know what he was feeling when he wrote it, but I know how I feel when I listen to it. Thats the wonderful thing about music. What it means to you is the only true meaning.
by Charleen on 3/31/2009 11:38pm Ok so I love Oldies music and Im 22 years old. I grew up with it. This song reminded my mom of a dear friend of the family. He was always known as Uncle to me. See my Uncle was a sailer. He served in the US Navy. He was always out to see and gone for long periods of time. He at one time had a wife who left him and a son she took along with her. He pretty much only had him self to live for after that was taken from him. It has always been bought to my mind and my familys mind that the song was about a sailer that had nouthing waiting at port for and so the only thing he had was a hope that when he hit that dock someone or something would be there waiting for him, but theres not. Sorry if this sounds like crap but I lost my dad in 2004 and the other person that was supposed to be there for me was my uncle and he passed away from cancer in 2006 and ever since then when I hear that song my uncle is sitten at the dock of the bay waiting with my old man.
by jake on 4/4/2009 12:09pm i boy i know a good song its called dirty little secret[clubpenguin]
by jake on 4/4/2009 12:11pm hi i am 7 i know a good song its called dirty little secret[clubpenguin]
by JACKIE on 4/6/2009 3:40pm thisiswrong wrong lyrics anywaywhoever wrote thisis blid as helll and deaf
by Djenzou Kouassi Firmin on 4/7/2009 9:15am cette chanson est très belle. Je l'ai aimé grâce à ma Directrice qui l'écoute autant de fois dans la journée. Merci Houdrouge Mariam
by BornYat on 4/20/2009 12:22am Some earlier writers seemed angry, critical, and maybe even afraid of that man on the dock with his feelings of lonesomeness and lack of a plan As an earlier commenter said, "It's the Blues, man". And, so it is. The story teller is going through it and, please don't assume to tell him/her how to or how fast to. The Blues are in the present. And, their hurting rythms tell you your heart is still beating. Get to tomorrow and who knows what the tide might wash in? No doubt about Otis' artistry.
by Dat gurl on 4/26/2009 2:36am this song is so good and there should be no remakes cause none can match up too the original
by john on 4/29/2009 11:37am the best
by maddie on 5/26/2009 3:08am I reckon it's about him just being himself, being helpless to those around him and the bad things they do. When he sees nothing's gonna change, he sits back and watches. Like life was winding down, or at least he wasn't messing with everyone elses' quarrals, which seemingly made it seem things were winding down. Almost like a song about realisation.
by steve-o on 5/27/2009 7:17pm The song kept me together back in the 70s
by Erin on 5/27/2009 11:04pm Oldie but goodie! Those are the best!!!
by jaane. on 6/6/2009 2:10pm i'm singing this. and i think it's an amazing song. it's so soulful + you can pretty much be creative with it, changing it in different ways.
by Manpot on 7/16/2009 10:32am Steve Cropper co wrote the song and will be staying with us here in the Caribbean in a couple of weeks..hoping he plays "Dock of the Bay" here like he did last time..one footnote..Otis and Steve argued about " whatching the ships roll in"..the original lyrics were " watching the ships SAIL in" ..with Steve arguing that if a ship "rolled" it would sink. But when Otis recorded it with Steve on guitar he kept saying " rolled" to mess with Steve..and that's how it stuck..BTW Steve, who also produced it, added the surf and seagulls after Otis died..Atlantic Recods told him to take them out but he refused..
by sam on 7/17/2009 1:03am FACT - the whistling at the end of the song is because he died halfway though making it.. it isnt actually him whistling.
by Naysayer on 7/21/2009 4:12pm He sounds like he's pretty confident in his decision. Yup, I'm just going to sit here while you clowns try and get me to do whatever...well it's not going to happen...that means you Steve.
by Marc on 8/5/2009 11:03am Great song, i love Eddie Vedders version
by Chris on 8/11/2009 1:49am My understanding is that it is about a friend of his who was sentenced to life and was at Alcatraz. It makes sense!
by AshNichelle on 8/14/2009 10:09pm perfect.
by Jess on 8/29/2009 10:35am everyone has a different view on what this song means but tbh i think that he had so much success and was busy working all the time " doing what them people tell me too" that he finally had enough and just wrote about it. I guess where never know what this song is about now...
by benjo on 9/25/2009 10:46am amazing song, shame he died 3 days later his only hit
by by Monty 9/29/09 9:59pm on 9/30/2009 12:03am When I'm really feeling loney, down, and out,I think of this song, because to me it means other people besdes me hve had these some down and out feelings!
by Z on 10/12/2009 1:13pm It is a very good song tho
by Dan McDonald on 10/30/2009 5:04pm I think the songs about feeling empty even though it's not a sad song. It's actually quite peaceful. And Benjo don't be stupid. He had more hits than that. U make him sound like a one hit wonder. U should listen to some of his albums lol.
by jessica on 11/3/2009 10:43am Actually, he whistled through a verse because he was thinking about putting in another verse in, but at the time he couldn't think of anything. And he died 3 days after it could be finished. Its a great song, what a classic!
by Ross on 11/17/2009 4:05pm What a song! My 3 year old asks me to sing it every night for him before he goes to sleep! The guy died 12 years before i was born and 38 before my son. Goes to show that this song will continue to be enjoyed by generations to come, and part of the enjoyment is the fasination behind the words.

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