Muscle Shoals Page #8

You got to move

You got to move, child

You got to move

Oh, when the Lord

gets ready

You got to move

The first thing we did

was a blues tune,

"You've Gotta Move."

We're down in Alabama,

you know, in Muscle Shoals,

we've gotta cut

some Fred McDowell stuff.

If ever I'm gonna do it,

it's gotta be here, you know,

and we're probably soaking up

a little Indian maiden,

too, you know?

Get ready

You got to move

We don't come from here,

but we know quite a bit

about the deep south.

From here.

Their producer did not show.

And it wound up

I became the engineer.

And I was thinkin', "Oh, man,

can you believe this?" You know?

Because right when they

come in, you know, you're...

Yeah, but that's there, it

doesn't come in till the solo.

No, I know, I know.

But I must point

something out here,

that nobody was drinkin'

and nobody was druggin'.

Well...

You got to move

I think we were drinking

quite a lot.

I'm sure there were

lots of drinking

and smoking marijuana

and so on.

Well, you know, I mean,

you put it on a scale

of what, you know?

That was recording

in those days,

that was part of it.

But otherwise it was a lot

of serious work as well.

And once we knew

the room was tuned to us

and we were tuned to the room,

then it became, you know,

"Right, let's get as much

done here as we possibly can,"

you know?

Keith had this tune

"Wild Horses,"

but I don't think

that was really finished.

He had the chorus,

but that was about it.

So that was all written

on the spot.

It was just an idea

and it had to go to the

bathroom for a little while

just to sort of figure it out.

And then say,

"Okay, I'm ready,"

back in, and then take,

you know?

Childhood living

Is easy to do

The things you wanted

Muscle Shoals Studio is in this

rather interesting place.

Being there does inspire you

to do it slightly differently.

"Wild Horses" is a sort

of country song,

and I remember

we used Jim Dickinson,

he played tack piano.

A sin and a lie

I have my freedom

But I don't have much time

Wild horses

Couldn't drag me away

Wild, wild horses

We'll ride them someday

I thought it was

one of the easiest

and rockingest sessions

that we'd ever done.

I don't think we'd been

quite so prolific ever.

I mean, we cut three

or four tracks in two days,

and that, for the Stones,

is going some...

We left on a high

with "Brown Sugar."

We knew we had one of the best

things we'd ever done.

The thing about "Brown Sugar,"

it had this sound,

it was quite distorted.

It was pretty funky, you know.

That was the whole idea of it.

I always wanted to go

back there and cut more,

then sh*t happened,

so we ended up in France

in a basement doing

"Exile on Main St." there,

but otherwise, "Exile"

would probably have been cut

in Muscle Shoals,

but politically,

it wasn't possible.

I wasn't allowed

in the country at the time.

So, there's that, you know.

Brown sugar

How come you taste so good

Brown sugar

Just like

a young girl should

Those sessions

were as vital to me

as any I ever done.

I mean, all this other stuff,

"Beggars Banquet"

and the other stuff we did,

"Gimme Shelter,"

"Street Fighting Man,"

"Jumpin' Jack Flash," you know,

but I've always wondered

that if we'd have cut

them in Muscle Shoals,

if they might not have

been a little bit funkier.

Drums beatin',

cold English blood runs hot

Lady of the house wonderin'

where it's gonna stop

House boy knows that

he's doing all right

You shoulda heard him

just around midnight

So, I got this great new

deal with Capitol Records,

but I've had this

feud with Wexler,

and he's taking my musicians

and going across town

and going to put me

out of business, so he says.

I imagine Rick was pissed.

Hey, I got this deal,

and I don't have

a rhythm section.

But if Jerry thinks

these are the only guys

left in the world that you

can cut hit records on,

then he's mistaken

because I believed

that I could cut hit records

with any group of musicians.

We began to call

every musician we knew

and put them under contract.

So, that's why he calls me,

get me up there real quick,

and he said,

"Do you know a bass player?"

I said, "I know

a great bass player."

So, I started playing,

and he said,

"Do you know of any

other rhythm guys?"

I said, "Yeah, Freeman Brown,"

who became one of the best

fat back drummers

for Muscle Shoals.

He said, "And I also

need a horn section,"

and I said, "Yeah,

there's some guys"

that I met

out of Nashville."

Rick Hall wanted

to put a band together

and called it the "Fame Gang,"

and I ended up

being part of that.

For me to surround myself with

the strongest people I could

made me a better producer.

Now, here's what we're going

to do, we're going to let him

play back the tape

four or five times

in succession, I want

to work with the horns.

This is a sad song,

you know, so don't

jazz it up too much...

and take away from the lyrics

so it sounds

like a dance record.

The truth is

after Barry Beckett

and Jimmy Johnson,

Roger Hawkins, David Hood

left and bought

their own studio,

we come in here with this

new rhythm section

who was not a real

studio band yet,

but 1971, Rick Hall's

the producer of the year.

He didn't have that

with the other guys.

I started over again,

and I believed I was

as good as anybody.

Here's Candi Staton

to sing her big,

big hit on FAME.

At FAME, we experienced

a lot of great artists,

starting with Candi Staton.

We started to explode.

The world was coming

to Muscle Shoals.

You may think I'm silly

To love a man twice my age

But I know from

experience, girls

Sometime, it pays

I did Bobbie Gentry

for Capitol Records,

I did King Curtis,

I did Lou Rawls.

Little Richard,

Willie Hightower,

Mac Davis, Joe Tex.

I'd rather be

an old man's sweetheart

Than to be

a young man's fool

And we cut all those records

when Donny Osmond,

the Osmond Brothers, in 1971,

I think they sold something

in the neighborhood

of 23 million records

in one year.

Joe Simon, the group Alabama,

Paul Anka, and Tom Jones.

Clarence Carter,

Wilson Pickett, Bobby Womack.

I had one of the biggest

record companies

in the world behind me,

I was getting twice

the quality rate

that I was getting

from Atlantic and Chess.

So I was shitting

in high cotton.

I'd rather be

an old man's sweetheart

Than to be

a young man's fool

Don't want to be your fool

We were forming

a production company

in about '69 or '70,

and our friend, Alan Walden,

found this band in Jacksonville

called Lynyrd Skynyrd.

I was a sucker to want

to cut that band immediately,

so we signed them.

When I first joined

Lynyrd Skynyrd,

Ronnie had always talked

about the guys in Muscle Shoals.

Apparently they had

gone up there and recorded

an entire album

with Jimmy Johnson producing.

They had no money,

and I remember they

would come up here

and they'd check

in a truck stop

where they'd get in fights

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