book covers

otis redding - fa fa fa fa fa - sad song (1966)


"he is singing to a man..." this was a guaranteed quote that would emerge from my ma's mouth every time a otis redding song came on the radio. and after a few seconds of song-a-long and toe tappin, "you know otis was a homo right?" she would continue so innocently. i say innocently cause it was socially acceptable to be a bigot or racist back in the day and if youre offended, then you must be clueless simultaneously. now it took me years to figure out why my mom would stand by that statement for over 40 years. i knew that he was happily married with 3 kids (which doesnt hold any man to anything) and he was so....manly, i couldnt understand where this was coming from. i know it was a sign of the times of the closet gay, but still to this day no trace of gay is evident when it came to otis. so why gay ma?? then it dawned on me during an interview i watched w/ otis....he had a lisp!! just too funny. sometimes ignorance can be quite comical. my ma knows better, but my dad is still calling people of asian decent orientals....so you see we still have a long way to go! oh man, she would kill me if she knew i wrote this. hahahahaha! love-joy