10/19/2023 0 Comments Shoals music studioThe legendary recording studio at 3614 Jackson Highway in Muscle Shoals. FAME Studios-an acronym for Florence Alabama Music Enterprises-allowed the young musicians to find work doing what they loved. The four men had become known for their impeccable rhythm and ability to play with anyone when they were the house band at another venue. When the Rolling Stones were in the studio in 1969, the Swampers, as they were known, had guided the British blues-rockers to three timeless songs in as many days of recording: “Brown Sugar,” “Wild Horses,” and “You Gotta Move.”Īnd when Stewart arrived in 1975, all four Swampers-David Hood, drummer Roger Hawkins, pianist Barry Beckett and guitar player Jimmy Johnson-were ready to sound like Rod. The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section aimed to sound like Aretha when backing her up. Their singular talent was being able to shape-shift to fit virtually any artist. Appearances aside, the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section were crack instrumentalists who, beginning in the mid-1960s, were coveted as collaborators by some of the biggest names in the recording industry. Stewart asked for a word with his producer, Tom Dowd of Atlantic Records. “We looked like-you know, short hair, you know just ‘Duh?’ you know, guys that worked at the supermarket or something,” bassist David Hood later told NPR’s Weekend Edition. Stewart was seeking the rhythm section that Mavis Staples had called out to on “I’ll Take You There.” But instead of the shaped-by-their-struggles black musicians he expected to find, when he showed up Stewart met a bunch of white Alabama fellas-the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. She recorded her album “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Loved You)” in Alabama. Before she made the pilgrimage down South, Franklin was a Detroit gospel singer beginning to find success as a pop singer. It was 1975, and the British rocker had traveled to Sheffield, Alabama, with a specific mission in mind: He wanted to record at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio with the musicians who created Aretha Franklin’s unforgettable, hit-making sound.
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