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Imitating the Sins of our Heroes

Or, “How to sing like Otis Redding”

James Taylor Foreman
3 min readSep 6, 2024

Occasionally, I’ll pop on some Otis Redding in the car. Sue me.

I enjoy Redding’s voice so, I sing along. So what? This makes my girlfriend laugh. Incensed like a toddler, I ask why she’s laughing at me. She tells me that I sound like Kermit.

So I say, “But he kinda sounds like Kermit,” and she’s like, “Yeah, but he’s Otis Redding.”

Otis Redding doesn’t sing technically perfect. He squeezes his voice; he sings with his throat. He warbles, if that’s a word. He makes you worry if he’s going to mess up. Then, he always manages to clutch it, like a gymnast sticking the landing after a terrifying close-call.

A virtuoso violinist plays all the notes correctly: it’s impressive, but a little bit boring. But, a sweaty violinist playing at the limit of her ability, hair coming out of her ponytail, even if her ability is lesser: we’re enthralled.

Faults make the singing not only relatable, they make Otis Redding Otis Redding; they’re the reason that no one else can do what he does. He unselfconsciously casts beautiful shadows from the light of his genius. The result something wholly singular.

Whenever I try to imitate him, I imitate the things that are wrong about his singing style and…

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James Taylor Foreman
James Taylor Foreman

Written by James Taylor Foreman

Reality is narrative and our only job is to make it beautiful. Subscribe to move me directly to your inbox --> https://www.taylorforeman.com/

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