Muscle Shoals Page #4

we'd probably be fired

on the spot.

I was apprehensive, very leery,

because it was

entirely different

from what we had been

doing in New York,

which was recording

with written arrangements,

arrangers, and studio players

who read the charts.

We would get in the studio

and would add a little bit

of this, a little bit of that,

and then we'll go to lunch,

come back,

and we didn't like that,

take it away,

you know, that kind of stuff.

We would sit there and we'd

make that record together.

Those guys are sittin' there

in the studio,

and just find the groove,

you know?

And I'd be right there

with 'em, singing along

and we'd all

work it out together.

Rick Hall, he stood there

every minute.

Rick Hall was his own engineer.

He built the studio.

He knew all the electrical

wiring in there.

And that drummer they had

was fantastic.

He was a funky drummer,

but he wasn't

wearing himself out

all over the place.

He was just...

he was just there.

We was cookin' away

on the thing

and Wexler was in

the control room.

He said, "Baby, it's working."

Hey, baby,

it's funky."

Rick Hall had a rhythm section

of exceptional players.

This was very inspirational

to me.

Jerry came out

at the end of the first day,

we had just cut

"Land of 1,000 Dances,"

and he walks out

in front of Roger,

and Roger's ears had never heard

anything like this.

He said, "Roger."

I said, "Yes, sir?"

He said, "Roger,

you're a great drummer."

And all of a sudden,

it just-

I just kind of relaxed

and became a great drummer,

just like he said I was.

After my first night

in that studio with them,

I was convinced that that could

be a recording home for me.

Mustang Sally

We cut "Mustang Sally"

all that, "Funky Broadway,"

"The Land of 1,000

Whole Dances."

Boy, these dirty slickers

chewin' the...

"How do you like that,

Wilson?"

Pickett and I were

soul brothers, we were.

We was nitty gritty.

Down in the cold nitty gritty.

Oh, guess I have to put your

flat feet on the ground now

Everything was just roses

with me, with Jerry Wexler.

Jerry took a liking to us

from the very beginning.

There's just something

that leaps out of a record,

I call it the sonority

of the record.

It's the way the sound

of the record impacts

on the ear, instantly.

And to me, that's

the magic ingredient

in a phonograph record.

Oh, I got to put your flat

feet on the ground

The Rolling Stones had it,

the Beatles had it,

and they had it,

and so from then on,

Muscle Shoals became the place

that I preferred to go

and loved to go.

I grew up north of Florence.

It really wasn't a town,

just a dirt road.

The only way to get

to Florence, at that time,

we had no car.

My mom and I would walk

from the dirt road down

to the highway

to catch a bus

to go into Florence,

which was five miles away.

I was born in Sheffield,

Alabama,

and graduated from

Sheffield High School.

While in high school,

I would see

Hollis Dixon and the Keynotes.

Was the first rock 'n' roll

band around here,

and I just fell in love

with that.

I thought, "I've gotta learn

how to do that."

You got Roger Hawkins

in a group called

The Del Rays.

Jimmy Johnson was playing

guitar.

I remember hearing the Del Rays

when I was going to

University of Alabama.

And I remember,

I could not get into

the fraternity house.

So I had to stay outside

and listen to it.

I mean, the ground

was rumbling, okay?

It was such a great band.

We met each other

when we started playing

at the Tuscumbia

National Guard Armory

at the square dance.

Half the night

was rock 'n' roll,

and then after that

it was all square dance.

We made $10 each for that.

After Wilson Pickett, I became

Jerry's right hand man.

And so he said, "I'm thinkin'

about signing a new act",

her name is Aretha Franklin.

She's on CBS Records

and it's not happening,

they can't sell records on her.

I'm only one step

ahead of heartbreak

I had heard her

real smooth records

on Columbia.

You couldn't really

get your teeth into 'em.

One step is

all I have to take

These lush arrangements

that she was doing at CBS,

which weren't

successful either.

No one knew

what to do with her,

she had this great voice,

but lots of people

have a great voice.

I've still got to find out

who and what I really am.

I don't know yet.

I'm trying to find the answer.

I wasn't exactly hoping

that she wouldn't have

any hits on Columbia Records,

but the way it went, they

dropped her after five years.

A week later we were in

my office in New York,

we signed her up.

He said, "You know, I've got

this great little studio"

down in Muscle Shoals,

and these cats... these cats

are really greasy.

"You gonna love it."

She walks in,

right over there.

And she's got this aura

around her pretty thick.

I mean, the girl was special.

I remember watchin' the guys

bein' good southern boys,

and they'd carry on

with anything

except looking

or dealing with her.

So she walked right over

to the piano.

She sat there a moment.

And then she just hit this

unknown chord, I would say.

Didn't anybody have to say,

"We're about to cut."

We did what we called head

sessions at that time,

and there was no real music

written for it.

The musicians would just listen

to what it was I was doing,

and then they would decide what

they were gonna do around that.

I think we heard a little demo

of this song,

"Never Loved a Man

the Way I Loved You."

To me it sounded

pretty much like junk.

I'm thinkin', "That's the song

they gonna cut?"

There was discussions.

Jerry Wexler and Rick.

There was a little confusion

and there was a little turmoil.

Everybody was a little uptight.

We can't find a groove, a beat,

a place to start.

They were... just had

all these gears workin',

but finally

it just came to a...

And suddenly

it was really quiet.

They had a song,

they had an artist,

but nobody knew what to do.

Not even all these geniuses.

But out of that quietness

came Spooner with...

And I said,

"Hey, Spooner's got it!

That's it."

Aretha jumped right on it.

You're a no good

heartbreaker

You're a liar

and you're a cheat

It was cut within

15 to 20 minutes.

You didn't have to ask,

"What do you think?"

Everybody knew it was a hit.

I think everything came together

for Aretha in Muscle Shoals.

They got Aretha to record

a much more funky kind of style

in Muscle Shoals.

It was really

the essence of her.

'Cause I ain't never

I ain't never

I ain't never, no, no

Loved a man the way that I

I love you

Coming to Muscle Shoals

was the turning point.

That's where I recorded

"I Never Loved a Man,"

which became my first

million-selling record.

So absolutely

it was a milestone

and the turning point

in my career.

Oh oh oh

Yeah

Yeah

I ain't never loved a man

We cut "I Never Loved a Man,"

which people to this day

still regard as being

maybe her most soulful

and really funkiest record.

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