Cigarettes And Coffee, Otis Redding
What a sexy song this is. Recently, Rolling Stone readers named Otis Redding as the greatest R&B singer of all time. Granted, reader polls like those depend purely upon who’s voting and are completely arbitrary, but it’s still certainly not a bad distinction for a man who accomplished so much in his criminally short twenty-seven years. Called the “King of Soul,” Redding has a remarkably expressive and emotionally evocative voice, and “Cigarettes and Coffee,” off 1966′s The Soul Album, is one of his finest. Just listen to that rolling opening horn riff and go find someone to make out with. I’m sorry if that’s a little blunt, but this is that kind of song. They just don’t make R&B music like this anymore. I’m not saying that contemporary R&B doesn’t have anything to offer, but this cut so perfectly sums up a period in early rock history in which all of the sexual energy of jazz, vocal emotion of gospel, and raw power of rock and roll intersected to make some incredible music. As for the lyrical content, Redding expresses his joy and appreciation to his lover and sums up the entire ecstasy of their relationship with their ritual of cigarettes and coffee in the early morning. It’s this simple exchange that reminds him of everything great about their romance, and how he could not picture himself with anyone else. A beautiful, soulful cut by one of the legends, cut down far too early in his prime. It’s painful to think of what else he might have accomplished.