Muscle Shoals Page #3

but I never thought

that would happen.

Percy worked at

the local hospital.

I was a orderly working

with the sick people.

I'd sing a song for 'em,

you know,

and they'd go to sleep.

I got such a big kick

out of that, you know,

and I could see my patient

layin' up there,

smilin', you know,

and feelin' better.

So one day I was invited to

sing at the Elks Club

here in Sheffield.

And it just so happened

Quin Ivy,

who was a disc jockey at WLAY,

and he heard me sing this song.

He loved the melody

and the feel.

He said, "Percy Sledge,

have you ever been interested"

in cuttin' a record?"

I remember the day

I got the call.

"Will you come do keyboards

on this recording session?

Be the first recording

this artist has ever done."

When I came in to the studio,

I was shakin' like a leaf.

I was scared.

When a man loves a woman

Can't keep his mind

on nothin' else

He'll trade the world

for the good thing he's found

Every time that he sang

the song,

he had different levels

for different parts

of the song.

And everything had to be

in your wrist.

Bring the level up and down.

All I had was a voice,

I didn't know anything

about no singing, you know.

Somehow, I got one down,

and Percy was on time with me

with a great vocal.

He'd give up all

his comforts

And sleep out in the rain

If she said that's the way

it ought to be

All this was just so new

to me and these guys

made me feel like hey, man,

you can do it,

you've got it, you know.

I used to call them my family.

Donna Thatcher,

all of them, you know.

My first wonderful experience

was singing on

"When a Man Loves a Woman"

with Percy Sledge

and you'd never know

when you're making history.

Baby, please don't

treat me bad

Quin called me

one Sunday afternoon

and said, "Do you know

of a place we can get a deal?"

And I said, "I think so,"

and I picked up the phone

and called Jerry Wexler

in New York.

Jerry Wexler was probably

the biggest record company guru

in the world.

It was a man named Rick Hall

who had a studio

in Muscle Shoals.

I said, "You told me

if I've heard something"

I thought was a big hit

"to call you,

and I'm callin' you."

Play a little bit

of this thing here.

And I heard some music

coming from there,

and it was fabulous.

What do you think?

We pressed and distributed

the record,

and that was a big hit.

When a man loves a woman

That began a great relationship

between Jerry Wexler,

Atlantic Records,

and Rick Hall.

And of course, the record's

still one of the most

classic records

in the business.

If she's played him

for a fool

He's the last one to know

Same melody that I sang

when I'm in the field.

I just wails out in the woods

and let the echo

come back to me.

When a man loves a woman

He can do her no wrong

I, George C. Wallace...

During that era of recording

basically all-black acts,

you gotta remember that

George Wallace

was standing in

the schoolhouse door

at the University of Alabama,

making sure that no black people

came to school there.

And I say segregation now,

segregation tomorrow,

and segregation forever.

This was a politics

that could not see

past the color of your skin.

It's the kind of thing

that I know people

of this era, they wouldn't want

to believe what it used to be.

I think of all the times

when we used to take a break

from the studio

to go out and to eat.

I was somewhat frightened

from time to time

when we'd go and buy dinner

for half a dozen black people.

That's where you saw,

like, what are you...

what are y'all doin'

sitting there?

Even though the civil rights

movement was already

in effect, it still hadn't

dawned on people

that this is the new era.

I have a dream that one day,

down in Alabama

with its vicious racists,

one day right there in Alabama,

little black boys

and black girls

will be able to join hands

with little white boys

and white girls

as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

When I was a young boy,

it was always, uh,

if I met a white boy,

I had to say,

"This is Mr. Robert

or, uh, Mr. Jimmy."

But... but in the studio,

we got away from that,

it was Jimmy, it was Robert,

it was Clarence, you know.

Go that way.

On the go

Or something like, you know.

Do it one more time.

You just work together,

you never thought about

who was white

and who was black.

You thought about

the common thing

and it was the music.

We were color blind.

There was never

any situation that came up

in the studio here ever

about, "You're black

and I'm white."

And you think about the South.

They didn't believe

that black and white people

could live together.

And here are vinyl records

that prove that not only

can they live together,

you might not know

who's black and who's white.

At the time,

this was revolutionary stuff.

Music played a big part

in changing the thoughts

of people, especially

in the South, about race.

By us being in Muscle Shoals

and puttin'

music together,

I think it went a long ways

to help people understand

that we all were just humans.

My stock went sky-high

with Wexler after

the Percy Sledge single went

number one worldwide,

and he said, "Rick,

I have a little bit of a dispute"

with Jim Stewart at Stax

and he don't want me to cut

"any more records over

at his studio."

The welcoming mat for me

at Memphis was cold.

So I got the idea

of calling Rick Hall

and saying, "Hey, can I bring

Wilson Pickett down here"

and, uh, make some records

with you guys?"

Which we did.

I gets off the plane,

southern airlines,

and here, this long, tall

white man,

we call 'em peckerwoods.

I met Wilson Pickett,

picked him up at the airport.

He looked like, to me,

a dangerous man.

He walked up like

he'd known me for 500 years.

"Hey, Wilson, come on, come on.

We gon' cut

some f***in' records."

Why, we gon' really cut

some records.

Come on, Wilson, come on,"

I said, "Wait, wait,"

I'm nervous,

you know what I mean?

Now what this white man know

about producin'

a Wilson Pickett?

And on the way to the studio,

I'll look at him

and he'll look at me,

and I could see it

in his eyes, he was thinkin',

"What am I doin'

with this cracker

down here in Alabama?"

We went through

the cotton patch,

people still pickin' cotton.

I said, "Is that what

I think it is?"

"Yeah, Wilson, they're still

picking cotton down here."

You can see his studio

from the cotton patch.

Pickett had a very

quick temper.

I was there to make it work,

period.

You know what I mean?

On session, if he didn't like

what was goin' on

and didn't like the attitude,

he's just liable

to whip the drummer.

Say, "Come out, son,

I'm gonna beat your ass."

I was nervous,

I was sittin' behind the drums

and I was gettin' things

together, like drummers do,

checkin' things.

Our band was super nervous

the first time we worked

for Jerry Wexler.

We had this feeling that

if we couldn't play

what he asked us to play,

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