Sitting on the Dock Around the World

Mark Evanier posted this over on his website, and it's terrific -- but I have a little bit to add to it, so I thought I'd post it here, as well.

Apparently, some guy recorded a street singer at performing the Otis Redding  classic, "Dock of the Bay” and then whenever the videographer traveled around the world, had other street musicians listen to the recording over headphones and perform along, and then edited it all together.

When the video began to play, I thought, gee, that location looks very familiar, like the Santa Monica outdoor mall on the Third Street Promenade, but I figured a lot of outdoor malls look the same.  But then the initial singer, Roger Ridley, is identified as being in Santa Monica, USA, so I have to figure that's where it is.

But also, one of the early musicians, playing drums, is identified as Peter Bunetta in Los Angeles.  I know that my longtime pal Patrick Goldstein, who began his career as a music journalist is friends with a fellow from Chicago, Al Bunetta, who moved to Los Angeles.  He was the manager of the wonderful Steve Goodman, who I've written about here often.  So, I asked Patrick if there was a relation, and if he knew Peter.  He wrote back that, indeed, Peter Bunetta is Al's younger brother, and was very involved with a lot of the early recordings in Chicago by Steve Goodman and John Prine.  And the record producer Hank Neuberger (another of Patrick's friends) worked with him a lot.  I don't suspect that Peter Bunetta is a street musician -- he plays drums here, after all, and I haven't seen many, if any drums street musicians..., and he really isn't feature much in the video, compared to the others  -- but my guess is that he might be involved with the organization Playing for Change that put together the video, and his appearance is only a cameo.  Or not.  But that seems most likely to me.

Whatever the background is, the video is a joy.