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Topic: Muscle Shoals studio shuts down (SSC) Return to archive
February 21st, 2005 12:44 PM
Monkey Woman From Rolling Stone:
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/7037431/markknopfler?pageid=rs.Home&pageregion=single1

Muscle Shoals Shuts Down

Alabama studio birthed Dylan, Stones, Aretha records


Muscle Shoals Sound Studios, the Alabama venue where Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Wilson Pickett, the Rolling Stones and Paul Simon all made classic records, has closed its doors forever.

"It's a sad day in America," says producer, session musician and arranger Al Kooper. "So many great records were made there. The musicians, engineers and the magic of the room made it special."

Muscle Shoals Sound Studios was founded in 1969 in an old Sheffield, Alabama, casket warehouse by musicians Barry Beckett, Roger Hawkins, David Hood and Jimmy Johnson, who doubled as its famous house band, the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section (a.k.a. "the Swampers," as immortalized in Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama"). Their first client was Cher, who recorded her 3614 Jackson Highway album there, and named it after the studio's address.

Atlantic Records producer/executive Jerry Wexler was an early supporter, booking many of the label's artists into the studio. "It seemed we could do nothing but make good records: Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, Willie Nelson -- Lulu came from England," says Wexler. "We had this little hideaway, this little retreat with these really terrific musicians, these incredible white boys who played the blues so authentically that it caused a lot of head-scratching. The best part of my career was not the gold records or the Hall of Fame or awards -- it was hearing the music being recorded live at that time."

After more than three decades of operation, the studio -- which moved to a 31,000 square-foot building on the banks of the Tennessee River in 1978 -- recorded its last sessions in December and shuttered on January 14th because of declining business. The two Neve consoles have been sold to studios in Los Angeles and Detroit, the studio owners are exploring donating memorabilia to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and a local film production company has purchased the property.

"It almost brought me to tears when I had to do this," says co-owner Wolf Stephenson, who, along with his two fellow executives of blues/gospel label Malaco Records, purchased the studio from the Rhythm Section members in 1985. "It's heartbreaking."

"It's a strange thing," adds Hood. "All of a sudden, the gold records are down off the walls . . . I'm not sure I know what to think yet."

However, for artists like Bob Seger -- who, after hearing the Rhythm Section's work on Arthur Conley's "Sweet Soul Music," recorded five albums at Muscle Shoals -- it was not the building but the band that made the studio special. "Muscle Shoals did the ballads like 'Main Street' much better than my band," Seger says. "The wonderful thing about them is the second you started playing the song, it sounded like a record."

Another attraction was that the studio's small-town location was far away from big-city distractions and prying eyes. "The town never impinged upon anyone," says Wexler, recalling a day when the Rolling Stones ordered breakfast at the local Howard Johnson's. "One little waitress said, 'Are you a group?' One of the members said, 'Yeah, we're a group. We're Martha and the Vandellas.'"

Scottish-born rocker Mark Knopfler, who first recorded with Bob Dylan at the studio, found the cuisine somewhat lacking. "Jerry introduced me to salted ham and grits," he says of Wexler. "I don't understand grits. To me, they always tasted like wet newspaper." But, for Knopfler, recording at Muscle Shoals made it all worth it. "Laptops and home stations are fine, but it's another thing to be in a proper recording studio full of creative people all sharing in the same piece of music at the same time."

Hood, whose son Patterson fronts the Drive-By Truckers, maintains that all that magic still resides in Alabama. "I don't want the closing of Muscle Shoals Sound to make anybody think that music is no longer happening here," he says. "It's been happening since before I started, and it's still going on today. It was always the people."


BEVERLY KEEL
(Posted Feb 18, 2005)


P.S. Among the songs recorded there by the Stones in 1969: Wild Horses, Brown Sugar. They had finished the American tour and just had one more gig to do: the infamous free concert at Altamont... Writer Stanley Booth travelled with them and recounted everything in his book about the tour. A must read. Nearly everybody was stoned during the recording, except the sound engineer, who managed to work all night long without chemical enhancers. Stout fellow!

[Edited by Monkey Woman]
February 21st, 2005 09:06 PM
Soldatti Thanks Nico again:

1969
2nd - 4th December: Florence, Alabama, Muscle Shoals Sound Studios. Producer: Jimmy Miller. Sound engineer: Jimmy Johnson.
2nd December:
- You Gotta Move I (Fred McDowell/Rev. Gary Davis) -unverified
Note: About nineteen takes of You Gotta Move were recorded, most of them were erased.
3rd December:
- Brown Sugar I (MJ/KR) -STU on piano, very early vocal mix, with "oh baby" at end
- Loving Cup (MJ/KR) -unrecorded, MJ (voc, p) only
Note: The Stones rehearsed Brown Sugar the whole night until they had a proper take.
4th December:
- Wild Horses I (MJ/KR) - with Jim Dickinson on tack piano, given as demo to Gram Parsons.
- Brown Sugar II (MJ/KR) - STU on piano; new vocals, no sax, much better mix to version I, from "Decca-acetate"
- Say It’s Not You (Dallas Frazier) -unrecorded; KR on piano only
- Your Angel Steps Out Of Heaven (Jack Ripley) -unrecorded; KR on piano only

Note: The Stones recorded all in all twelve takes of Wild Horses, most of them were erased.
The recordings (and the stay in Alabama) were filmed by the Maysles brothers for the upcoming Gimme Shelter-movie.
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