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| Welcome to the City of Muscle Shoals (actually this photo was taken in Sheffield, Alabama, which is close enough) |
Let's start where the Muscle Shoals sound started:
FAME studios on Avalon Avenue in Muscle Shoals. It is a nondescript building on a street that is now an endless line of strip malls. But at what time this was one of the centers of the music universe.
The name "FAME" stands for Florence Alabama Music Enterprises. It started in Florence, across the Tennessee River from Muscle Shoals, but in 1961 it moved to its current location on Avalon Avenue. The first hit to come out of FAME was Arthur Alexander's "You Better Move On". But the first #1 hit to come out of FAME was Percy Sledge's immortal "When A Man Loves A Woman" in 1966.
The offices probably looked about the same then as now.
A huge number of famous artists came through the doors to record here at FAME studios under the legendary Rick Hall. Aretha Franklin (who only cut two songs here before leaving for New York City to finish her first record for Atlantic, taking the FAME backing musicians with her, but oh what two songs: "Do Right Woman" and "I Never Loved a Man"). Wilson Pickett. Bobby Gentry. Mac Davis. Clarence Carter. Candi Staton. The Osmonds (yes, those Osmonds, who recorded their five-weeks-at-number-one Jackson 5 soundalike "One Bad Apple" here with Rick Hall). Etta James. So many famous singers and musicians came here to capture the magic of the Muscle Shoals sound.
Yes, that is a harpiscord.
It was featured it many FAME recordings, but it is buried in the mix, usually with a piano playing the same notes over top of it, to create a "wall of sound" effect.
This is control booth that Rick Hall would have been manning for all those hits.
These are the various pianos used.
This is the second, larger studio in the same building.
My tour guide sat down at the electric piano and knocked out a tune.
The tour was something of an unexpected pleasure, because I did not know that FAME studios was open for tours.
I was just driving past to snap a few pictures of the building.
This is the famous Muscle Shoals Sound Studios. This is the home of the Swampers.
In 1969, the house band at FAME studios had a falling out with the studio owner Rick Hall. Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records doublecrossed Rick Hall and set the band up as proprietors of their own studio, just up the street, but actually within the city limits of Sheffield, Alabama.
A few of the "Swampers," as the house band came to be called after Lynyrd Skynyrd namechecked them in the hit "Sweet Home Alabama," are still alive. That may be the reason you do not hear a kind word about Rick Hall on the studio tour at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios. (They do admit Rick Hall was very hard-working, but that's about all they will concede.)
The studio at 3614 Jackson Highway is just one studio (with a vocal isolation booth). They later moved to larger quarters, but like FAME studios, this is still a working music recording studio.
So many giants of 1970s music recorded here. The Rolling Stones did three songs here. "Brown Sugar" and "Wild Horses" were the two hits. Paul Simon did "Kodachrome" here. See that piano?
Swamper Barry Beckett played the manic piano in the outro on this song. (Speaking of people about whom you will not here a good word on this tour: Paul Simon stiffed the Swampers on their royalties that they were owed. What a ----.)
So many giants of the 1970s recorded here. Bob Seger. (Swamper Pete Carr, who died earlier today, did that iconic guitar riff at the beginning of Bob Seger's "Main Street"). The Staple Singers (there is that funny story about Paul Simon wanting the same "black" band he heard on "I'll Take You There," not knowing that the band was the all-white Swampers). Boz Scaggs (his first record, with "Loan Me a Dime") (with Duane Allman as a session musician guitarist). Linda Ronstadt (but no hits, although she did have Glenn Frey and Don Henley in her band at that time -- they stood around and listened to the house band accompany her). Cher. Names. Names.
The Swampers played and they did production work here. The studio is still available for rent, although the Swampers no longer play.
The final stop on the Muscle Shoals tour, again, was outside of Muscle Shoals. It was the adjacent town of Tuscumbia.
Ivy Green. The birthplace of Helen Keller.
Helen Keller was born 140 years ago today, June 27, 1880.
She died on June 4, 1968. I did not know until today that Ms. Keller lived into the 1960s. I don't associate her with the Sixties. But she was alive when the Muscle Shoals sound was all over the radio, including when ... so here is the link ... Percy Sledge had the first #1 hit to come out of Muscle Shoals when he topped the charts all over the globe with "When A Man Loves A Woman."
I got there right at the end of the day for Ivy Green, so I did not pay to tour the house. The gardens were free, so I took advantage.
This statue depicts that iconic scene where Helen Keller's teacher Anne Sullivan taught Helen Keller the word "water" by having running water flow over Helen's open hand. Anne Sullivan was assigned to Helen Keller at a school for the deaf that was recommended to Helen Keller's parents by Alexander Graham Bell. From Alexander Graham Bell to Percy Sledge: that's a journey.
The garden area is decorated by gifts sent by people all over the world. Above is a gift from the people of New Zealand. And here I am, re-enacting that famous scene by letting the waters of the fountains in the garden run over my hand.
I always wanted to go to Helen Keller's birthplace, stick my hand in running water, and say out loud, "Water. Helen. Water." Luckily, no one was around at that time to hear me say it. I have idiosyncratic ambitions. And that one was realized today,
On the way out of town, I saw this statue.
This is the Singing River Statue, built in 2014. It is named for the Indian legend that the Tennessee River was a "singing" river, and that songs came from the river. I can't remember if it is the Cherokee or Chickasaw, but it is in that awesome Muscle Shoals documentary that you can find on youtube or Netflix. And when the Indians lost their land in the Tennessee River Valley around Muscle Shoals, and were exiled to Oklahoma over the Trail of Tears, they said that there were no more songs.
There were songs today. Muscle Shoals saved my vacation.
FAME studios on Avalon Avenue in Muscle Shoals. It is a nondescript building on a street that is now an endless line of strip malls. But at what time this was one of the centers of the music universe.
The name "FAME" stands for Florence Alabama Music Enterprises. It started in Florence, across the Tennessee River from Muscle Shoals, but in 1961 it moved to its current location on Avalon Avenue. The first hit to come out of FAME was Arthur Alexander's "You Better Move On". But the first #1 hit to come out of FAME was Percy Sledge's immortal "When A Man Loves A Woman" in 1966.
The offices probably looked about the same then as now.
A huge number of famous artists came through the doors to record here at FAME studios under the legendary Rick Hall. Aretha Franklin (who only cut two songs here before leaving for New York City to finish her first record for Atlantic, taking the FAME backing musicians with her, but oh what two songs: "Do Right Woman" and "I Never Loved a Man"). Wilson Pickett. Bobby Gentry. Mac Davis. Clarence Carter. Candi Staton. The Osmonds (yes, those Osmonds, who recorded their five-weeks-at-number-one Jackson 5 soundalike "One Bad Apple" here with Rick Hall). Etta James. So many famous singers and musicians came here to capture the magic of the Muscle Shoals sound.
Yes, that is a harpiscord.
It was featured it many FAME recordings, but it is buried in the mix, usually with a piano playing the same notes over top of it, to create a "wall of sound" effect.
This is control booth that Rick Hall would have been manning for all those hits.
These are the various pianos used.
This is the second, larger studio in the same building.
My tour guide sat down at the electric piano and knocked out a tune.
The tour was something of an unexpected pleasure, because I did not know that FAME studios was open for tours.
I was just driving past to snap a few pictures of the building.
But it was open. And the tour was great fun, very relaxed, as if I caught the production staff on duty and they threw together a tour. Very highly recommended.
Next stop; 3614 Jackson Highway.
This is the famous Muscle Shoals Sound Studios. This is the home of the Swampers.
In 1969, the house band at FAME studios had a falling out with the studio owner Rick Hall. Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records doublecrossed Rick Hall and set the band up as proprietors of their own studio, just up the street, but actually within the city limits of Sheffield, Alabama.
A few of the "Swampers," as the house band came to be called after Lynyrd Skynyrd namechecked them in the hit "Sweet Home Alabama," are still alive. That may be the reason you do not hear a kind word about Rick Hall on the studio tour at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios. (They do admit Rick Hall was very hard-working, but that's about all they will concede.)
The studio at 3614 Jackson Highway is just one studio (with a vocal isolation booth). They later moved to larger quarters, but like FAME studios, this is still a working music recording studio.
So many giants of 1970s music recorded here. The Rolling Stones did three songs here. "Brown Sugar" and "Wild Horses" were the two hits. Paul Simon did "Kodachrome" here. See that piano?
Swamper Barry Beckett played the manic piano in the outro on this song. (Speaking of people about whom you will not here a good word on this tour: Paul Simon stiffed the Swampers on their royalties that they were owed. What a ----.)
So many giants of the 1970s recorded here. Bob Seger. (Swamper Pete Carr, who died earlier today, did that iconic guitar riff at the beginning of Bob Seger's "Main Street"). The Staple Singers (there is that funny story about Paul Simon wanting the same "black" band he heard on "I'll Take You There," not knowing that the band was the all-white Swampers). Boz Scaggs (his first record, with "Loan Me a Dime") (with Duane Allman as a session musician guitarist). Linda Ronstadt (but no hits, although she did have Glenn Frey and Don Henley in her band at that time -- they stood around and listened to the house band accompany her). Cher. Names. Names.
The Swampers played and they did production work here. The studio is still available for rent, although the Swampers no longer play.
The final stop on the Muscle Shoals tour, again, was outside of Muscle Shoals. It was the adjacent town of Tuscumbia.
Ivy Green. The birthplace of Helen Keller.
Helen Keller was born 140 years ago today, June 27, 1880.
She died on June 4, 1968. I did not know until today that Ms. Keller lived into the 1960s. I don't associate her with the Sixties. But she was alive when the Muscle Shoals sound was all over the radio, including when ... so here is the link ... Percy Sledge had the first #1 hit to come out of Muscle Shoals when he topped the charts all over the globe with "When A Man Loves A Woman."
I got there right at the end of the day for Ivy Green, so I did not pay to tour the house. The gardens were free, so I took advantage.
This statue depicts that iconic scene where Helen Keller's teacher Anne Sullivan taught Helen Keller the word "water" by having running water flow over Helen's open hand. Anne Sullivan was assigned to Helen Keller at a school for the deaf that was recommended to Helen Keller's parents by Alexander Graham Bell. From Alexander Graham Bell to Percy Sledge: that's a journey.
The garden area is decorated by gifts sent by people all over the world. Above is a gift from the people of New Zealand. And here I am, re-enacting that famous scene by letting the waters of the fountains in the garden run over my hand.
I always wanted to go to Helen Keller's birthplace, stick my hand in running water, and say out loud, "Water. Helen. Water." Luckily, no one was around at that time to hear me say it. I have idiosyncratic ambitions. And that one was realized today,
On the way out of town, I saw this statue.
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| Yes, that's my rented Camaro convertible the statue guy is about ready to stomp on. |
There were songs today. Muscle Shoals saved my vacation.
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