The one and only Otis Clay.
Otis Clay was a singer that was filled with goodwill.
No gig was too small, every note he sang created a choir of inspiration.
The world-renowned Chicago-based gospel and soul vocalist died of a heart attack in January 2016. He was 73. He is greatly missed. In a 1988 interview, he asked me, “What is it that makes a man rich?” Without hesitation, he answered, “You’ve contributed something.” Otis was always looking at forward progress.
The City of Chicago will honor this community treasure Otis with an Otis Clay street sign in a dedication ceremony [...]
Kind and little incongruities make for a big and strong community.
And so it has been with my beloved FitzGerald’s in Berwyn. Think about it.
When Bill FitzGerald, his brother Chris and their late father Chris, Sr. opened FitzGerald’s in 1980, the working-class strip of West Roosevelt Road was a no man’s land. And they had the idea to create something like a Gulf Coast roadhouse? Smart money might have bet on a disco with 1980 hits like Diana Ross’s “I’m Coming Out” and Blondie’s “Call Me,” perhaps a Berwyn version of the “Stay Out All Night Discotheque” in Stone Park.
But it worked out to something beautiful, a song everyone could dance to.
Bill [...]
Just when Chicago needed him the most, Otis Clay traveled to a higher ground.
Over the past 50 years Mr. Clay became the city’s greatest soul singer, one of the last of America’s pure soul singers and a cultural ambassador. Mr. Clay died of a heart attack Friday night. He was 73 years old.
What is soul?
Soul is eternal love, soul is brotherhood, soul is empathy.
Take notes.
Mr. Clay must be on a mission to get things straight in the city he called home since 1956.
Of course Bob Seger had a smash hit with Mr. Clay’s 1972 regional hit [...]
