Muscle Shoals Page #6

don't realize

that he only worked specifically

with black artists

in the very beginning.

Well, the basic feeling

I had for black artists

of course originated

when I was very young

on a farm in Alabama.

I felt a certain spirituality

about the black man's music.

And hearin' it

in the cotton fields,

that made one hell

of an impression on me.

Mr. Phillips heard people

singing in the fields

and heard trains

rumbling through

and the river

roaring around the bend

down here in the shoals.

It's a subconscious rhythm

that gets in your head.

There's like a groove,

there's a pocket

that sticks in your gut.

It's connected all of us.

Helen Keller was

from Muscle Shoals,

and it was just

always amazing to me

the things she was able

to accomplish

being blind and deaf.

Helen Keller was deaf,

completely mute,

completely blind.

And her only way of

communicating with the world

is with gestures.

You can still go to her house

and see the well

where she learned

her first word,

which was "water."

There's obviously

an incredible connection

to water here.

So you can see why

that would be the first word

that Helen Keller

learned, "water."

There's such a power

in this place,

and you feel it whether

you can hear it and see it

or not.

I'm a great believer

that landscape

is always very important

in music,

and somehow music

can reflect landscapes.

Something told me

it was over

Yeah

When I saw you

and her talking

People ask me always, "What

is the Muscle Shoals sound?"

You had a lot

of black musicians

playing with a lot

of white musicians,

and we all got

a different way of playing,

but it blends so well together.

There was this coming together

of styles.

And there was some hillbilly

background there,

there's some black music.

We were open minded

to be any genre.

Ooh

I would rather I would rather

go blind, boy

Than to see you

walk away from me, child

Hoo

The Muscle Shoals sound,

I think,

has a very heavy bass and drum

featured in the sound.

And it's just... that was

what sounded right to us.

"Turn up the bass,

turn up the drums."

This was, at the time,

cutting edge technology.

The fact that a drum kit

could be close-mic'd

meant that they could

turn up the bass drum.

That's what created that blacker

sound, that African sound,

that allowed you

to be sweet on the topsoil

but knowing that deep down

in the ground

there was some fierceness.

Ooh

I was just I was just

I was just

sittin' here thinkin'

Ooh

Of your kiss

and your warm embrace yeah

Woo, come on, there.

Woo! Woo!

When I was a young boy,

my mother was washing clothes

out in the yard

with a wash pot.

And the pot had

boiling hot water in it.

My brother,

who was three years old,

was playing in the backyard

with my first cousin,

and they were

pulling on a stick.

My brother ran backwards

and fell into the pot

of scalding water.

So my mother took him

in her arms

and went screaming

across the field

hunting my father.

He came running

and they took him to the doctor

in Red Bay, Alabama.

And they took his clothes off

and all of his skin came off

inside of his clothes.

He died three days later.

That was the start

of the decline

between my father's

and my mother's relationship.

He kind of blamed her

for the accident,

and she probably blamed him

for not being at home.

She left us and said,

"I'll never live

with you again,"

and, "Forget about me."

She moved in with Aunt Ess

who ran a red-light district.

So my father asked people

what she was doing up here.

And they said, "Well, Herman",

do you know what

the other girls are doing?"

And he said, "Yes, I do."

And they said, "Dolly

is doing the same thing."

It was earth shattering for me.

Even after all these years

and being away from her

and not spending much time

with her in my life,

not a day goes by that I don't

really miss my mother.

More acoustic guitar.

I ain't easy to love

Scars have made me

black and blue

But I feel

a lot less broken

Okay, all right, hold on.

There's too much happening.

I just need the intro and

everybody needs to cool it

a little bit and back off.

If everybody comes in

from the top,

where are you gonna

go from there?

If you get a chance or two

to cut a record,

produce a record and

get a budget to do it with

and you don't have a hit,

you will never get another call.

So I was always aware of that.

I always felt

that every record,

my life depended on it.

Time is like, "time."

It's like you're

whispering that part.

All right, you know,

I can always do mine over.

I know we can, honey,

but I'd like to do it this way.

All right.

Rick is so meticulous.

Oh, it's just a joy and pain

to work with Rick.

'Cause he won't stop

until he gets what he wants.

If it takes three days

on one song,

Rick's gonna get what he wants.

We're doing just what we just

got through doing.

We're doing the same thing

over again,

and I just want to perfect it

a little better.

We've changed a couple

of things, so you gotta listen.

Rick was a very demanding boss.

He would take

a thousand takes of something

till he was satisfied.

And sometimes he would not know

what he was looking for,

but he would keep

working until he got it.

I'm talking about...

it's too bright.

Oh, okay, I thought you were...

wanted it to be bright.

Well, I did want it bright

until I heard it,

when you hear it with the track

it's a whole different thing.

You gotta listen

to it in perspective.

That was very frustrating

and hard on the musicians

because you think,

"Well, I already did that."

Nobody ever worked

in the music business

without getting

their ass kicked.

If they did, they're out

on the street somewhere

pushin' a wheelbarrow

of concrete.

He was kind of like

a task master,

and I don't fault him for that

because he is

an imperfect perfectionist.

That's what made him

great though.

Oh, please forgive me,

darlin'

I ain't easy to love

Duane Allman, of course,

came into Muscle Shoals

and wanted a gig.

So he put up his pup tent

on my parking lot

at the studio and found me.

I gave him his shot.

When Duane showed up,

he was probably

one of the first guys

with long hair

and kind of the hippie look,

but what really

made him stand out was

that he was

a wonderful guitar player.

I had never heard

a slide guitar

played like Duane Allman

could play it.

Duane had been in Los Angeles,

had a group

called The Hourglass

with his brother Gregg.

They signed us

on this big contract,

and they wouldn't

let us play anywhere.

I think the first year

we were there

we played like three concerts.

So he finally said, "Hey,

I've had it with this place."

I'm leavin'."

And he wound up

in Muscle Shoals.

But right before he left,

I talked him into going

horseback riding with me

'cause we weren't

doing anything.

Finally went out there

and I said,

"Listen, we go from

the barn out to the field.

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