Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section

In 1961, Hall took out a loan to buy an abandoned brick warehouse in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to make a recording studio.[7] Muscle Shoals is one of four towns in northwest Alabama clustered along the Tennessee River; the others are Florence, Sheffield, and Tuscumbia. His rhythm section (piano, bass and drums) was Briggs, Putnam, and Carrigan.

One of Hall's first protégés was an African American bellhop at the Sheffield Hotel named Arthur Alexander, who had written some songs. Hall was a demanding taskmaster, and his recording session required 30 or 40 takes to get the rhythm tracks he wanted.[6] The song, "You Better Move On" rose to number 24 on Billboard's Hot 100 in March 1962, and two years later, cover versions were recorded by both The Hollies and The Rolling Stones.[8] Arthur Alexander was flown to Philadelphia to appear on Dick Clark's American Bandstand.[6] The success stunned the big-city studios; the music industry quickly took notice of this unknown little studio called FAME (Florence Alabama Music Enterprises).

Well-known producers began coming to Muscle Shoals to record with this house band to capture the perceived "Muscle Shoals sound". Atlanta producer Bill Lowery brought The Tams, who recorded "What Kind of Fool (Do You Think I Am)", and Nashville's Felton Jarvis brought Tommy Roe to record "Everybody". Percy Sledge's cousin, Jimmy Hughes recorded "Steal Away" with the same teenaged session players, and it rose to #17 on the Billboard Hot 100[9] It was followed by "Neighbor, Neighbor" and "Why Not Tonight"– both of which made the charts. Hall stated, "Those hits showed that FAME could be musically diverse, and they announced our open-door policy toward other labels".[7] Rick Hall's financial success from "You Better Move On" gave him the capital to secure land in Muscle Shoals City, where, in 1962, he built a first-rate studio at 603 Avalon Avenue patterned after Owen Bradley's in Nashville.[6] Some 50 years later, the building would be listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[10]

Before long, Nashville music moguls Ray Stevens, Bob Beckham and Felton Jarvis made overtures to lure away Hall's backing musicians, saying that in Nashville, they would make four times the money Rick Hall was paying them.[6] They resigned as a group to pursue independent careers in Nashville, and Hall was without his hit-making rhythm section. The replacement musicians were initially called "the Second FAME Gang" but were later nicknamed "The Swampers".[11]

The core group of Rick Hall's new rhythm section was:

• Barry Beckett— keyboards
• Roger Hawkins— drums
• David Hood— bass
• Jimmy Johnson— guitar

Affectionately called The Swampers, but later officially adopting the name The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, this group achieved extraordinary success as one of the best-known group of session musicians of their era.[11] The nickname "The Swampers" was coined by producer Denny Cordell during recording sessions for Leon Russell because of their "funky, soulful Southern 'swamp' sound".[12]

Guitarist Jimmy Johnson was the first FAME employee and did many jobs there, including playing rhythm guitar, engineering, and sweeping the floors.[13] In 1964, drummer Roger Hawkins was hired. When bass player David Hood first received the call that a job at FAME had opened up, he was working at his father's tire store.[14]

Keyboard player Barry Beckett knew nothing about Muscle Shoals in 1967, but was hired on a session there, James and Bobby Purify's "I'm Your Puppet". He said, "Every night I would just sit there and listen to the tape [still without vocals] over and over again," and said, "that was amazing".[14] With no firm job offer, Beckett moved his family from Florida to Muscle Shoals and was eventually hired. On the many hit records out of Muscle Shoals, there were many incidences where other musicians would join or substitute, including Chips Moman (guitar), Junior Lowe (guitar) Dan Penn, Tommy Cogbill, Pete Carr (guitar), Spooner Oldham (organ and piano).[7]

According to music writer Carla Jean Whitley, more than a few people were surprised to learn that the musicians backing many notable black artists were white. Whitley said, "There were many producers accused of lying [about it]...Rod Stewart was one of those who took his producer out and said, 'seriously?' "[15] In the early 1960s, it was not a routine practice to have the same musicians as a "house band" for recording different artists, the exceptions being Motown and Stax Records. Hall wanted to obtain a consistent sound rather than have unfamiliar musicians on each session.[14] The New York Times called the Muscle Shoals sound "indigenous American music, a distinctly Southern amalgamation of rhythm & blues, soul, and country music".[16]

Atlantic Records executive Jerry Wexler became acquainted with Hall and brought artists such as Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin to record at FAME with the group of southern musicians based on their previous string of hit recordings.[17]

In January 1967, Jerry Wexler brought Aretha Franklin, then in her mid-20s, to Muscle Shoals for her first session for Atlantic.[18] During this first session with the Swampers, "I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You", Franklin's husband at the time, Ted White, who had been cordial at first, became belligerent. White had secretly been sharing a bottle of vodka with the horn section during the session.[7][19] White then demanded that Ken Laxton, the trumpet player who was white, be fired for making passes at Aretha.[20] Hall and Wexler reluctantly agreed. About an hour later, White burst into the control room and demanded that the sax player be fired, saying, "He's flirting with my wife".[7] The producers then fired the sax player. By this time everyone was exhausted and the rapidly-deteriorating session was terminated.

An hour later, Rick Hall, who had begun drinking after the session ended, went to Aretha and Ted's hotel room at the Downtowner Hotel in Florence "to try to smooth things over", but a fist fight erupted between Hall and White, with Aretha joining in to try to get Hall out.[7] Hall then screamed, cursed and pounded the door, arousing Wexler, whose room was nearby.[21] Wexler was horrified. Hall went to the lobby, called Aretha's room, and told Ted he'd better get out of town.[7] They left the following day.

The only song that had been finished, "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)", went on to number one on Billboard's R&B Selling chart and number nine on the Billboard Hot 100, so Atlantic Records wanted the Swampers, but without Hall and without Muscle Shoals.[21] The solution was to fly the Swampers to New York to record at Atlantic Studios. Less than a month later, The Swampers were in New York recording "Respect", Aretha's first hit that held the number one R&B spot for eight weeks and was number one on the pop charts for two weeks.[22] Rolling Stone named it as the fifth-best song of all time.[21] Some other songs they did were Do Right Woman, Do Right Man, Think, Share Your Love With Me, and Call Me.[11]

3614 Jackson Highway September 2007

In 1969, after a financial dispute, the Swampers broke away from Rick Hall and FAME to purchase a tiny studio with burlap-covered walls at 3614 Jackson Highway.[14] They were aided in the process by Wexler, who arranged a loan from Atlantic Records to make much-needed equipment upgrades to 8-track recording machines that were compatible with Atlantic's equipment. The Swampers were to pay the loans back by providing studio time. At first, Hawkins and Johnson had more ownership, but subsequently they made Hood and Beckett equal partners at no cost.[14] The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section created more than 50 hits at this studio.[21]

The studio's sole bathroom was often used as a sound booth. The musicians would listen out on the porch to make final judgement on finished songs. David Hood said, "The building was a crackerbox building. A loud truck driving down the street or a heavy rainstorm, you'd have to stop working, because it was not built as a studio. It was a just a commercial building that had been adapted for studio use."[20]

They asked themselves, "What are we going to call this place?" David Hood suggested the name, "Muscle Shoals Sound" and they all laughed. The joke was that the new studio, technically was in Sheffield, not Muscle Shoals. Only locals would know that, because the towns melded together. Since they had had a dispute with Rick Hall, Hood said, "So I thought, let's call it ' Muscle Shoals Sound ' just to get at Rick."[20] They also trademarked the name "The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section".

Things were lean the first year. Finally they had a hit single with "Take a Letter Maria" by R.B. Greaves. The song reached number two on the Hot 100 and was certified gold.[20] In 1971, Atlantic Records moved their Muscle Shoals business to Criteria Studios in Miami and asked the Swampers to move there. When the Swampers refused, Atlantic called their loan on the new equipment. About this time, Stax Records in Memphis was facing financial difficulties and began outsourcing work to Muscle Shoals.

More and more business from established artists then came to the Swampers, replacing the lost Atlantic business. From this point, the studio began turning out hits such as Leon Russell's "Tight Rope", the Staple Singers' "I'll Take You There" and Paul Simon's "Kodachrome".[14]

The Rolling Stones, newly signed to Atlantic Records, arrived in Sheffield, Alabama, in December, 1969, two nights after a performance in West Palm Beach, Florida.[21] They had been assured that the planned recording session could be kept secret. The little studio at 3614 Jackson Highway was still in its infancy, with only one hit thus far, plus a Cher album that was not a commercial success. Rick Hall sardonically said, "The Rolling Stones thought they were cutting at FAME".[19]

The Stones were there three days, spending most of their time in the studio engineered by Swamper Jimmy Johnson.[21] The first night, they recorded "You Gotta Move"; the second night, "Brown Sugar", the third, "Wild Horses". Mick Jagger wrote three verses on a stenographer's pad on the spot for "Brown Sugar", which made number 490 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 top songs ever recorded. Swamper David Hood's son who was there said, "Their visit was kept a secret from most of the locals, and the world's biggest rock and roll band came, recorded and left (headed for infamy at Altamont, no less) without the conservative townsfolk even knowing they were there."[21] On the documentary film, Muscle Shoals, Keith Richards said of the sessions,"I don't think we'd been quite so prolific ever".[23]