![]() It is one of the most famous recording studios in the world, and has been home to some of the biggest names in music, including Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, and so many more. And sure enough, the rhythm section finished the joyful, reggae-gumbo hybrid in what was fast even by their standards, a half hour.FAME Studios is a recording studio located in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. All Stars, just moments before the session. “Despite no history with reggae, they picked up on the sound when Bell played them a Jamaican instrumental, ‘Liquidator,’ by the Harry J. “The musicians were, in turn, surprised when Simon told them he might need the studio for a few days to do a single track, ‘Take Me to the Mardi Gras.’ They prided themselves in finishing even the most challenging track in an hour,” Hilburn wrote. Times music critic Robert Hilburn wrote in “Paul Simon: The Life” (2018). “When Simon arrived at the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, he figured the young white guys sitting around the studio console were employees or visitors,” Simon biographer and former L.A. As it turned out, that group was the Swampers, which led Simon to Muscle Shoals. Simon was interested in doing something with a similar feel to what he heard on the Staple Singers’ recent hit “I’ll Take You There” on Stax Records in Memphis, and called the label’s co-owner, Al Bell, to arrange to work with the same musicians. & the MG’s, the Swampers knew that time was money. Like the Funk Brothers, the Wrecking Crew, and Booker T. Simon’s experience working with Johnson and the other Swampers at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio on his 1973 album “There Goes Rhymin’ Simon” was emblematic of the efficiency and creativity on which they prided themselves. The split created considerable bad blood between the Swampers and Hall, who believed that the new studio took his considerable lineup - from Bob Dylan to the Rolling Stones - and even hired away his secretary. That marked the birth of Muscle Shoals Sound Studio. “Jimmy Johnson politely stood up and told us to please spare them the presentation.” ![]() “Before Karl and I could even get into the particulars, the musicians waved us off and said they were not interested,” Hall wrote. He and Capitol executive vice president Karl Engemann called a meeting to explain to the Swampers what the new deal would mean for them. for his own FAME Records label, with plans to put FAME in the center ring rather than continuing to act as a supplier of hits to existing record companies. It was a remarkably successful collaboration, until 1969, when Hall was on the verge of finalizing a contract with Capitol Records in L.A. More than simply following written scores, as typically was the practice in the major recording studios in New York, studio musicians in Memphis and Muscle Shoals relied on “head charts,” arrangements they invented on the spot. The Swampers moniker was bestowed on the combo after producer Denny Cordell heard pianist Leon Russell praise their outfit’s soulful “swamp” grooves. This system gave the musicians the freedom to create new licks and helped them become musical creators.” “They all played by ear, or read number charts ….The musicians improvised licks as they played off each other and felt their way through the song. “As great as these musicians were, none of them could read a note of music,” Hall wrote. The result was another major Pickett hit, “Land of a Thousand Dances.” That group included lead guitarist Chips Moman, keyboardist Spooner Oldham, drummer Roger Hawkins and rhythm guitarist Johnson. With that in mind, “I hired a mix of Memphis and Muscle Shoals studio musicians, the cream of the crop” to back Pickett on his visit to FAME, Hall wrote in his 2015 autobiography “The Man From Muscle Shoals: My Journey From Shame to Fame.” Jones, guitarist Steve Cropper, bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn and drummer Al Jackson Jr., who achieved fame in their own right as Booker T. The Stax studio band was equally illustrious: organist Booker T. He was part of the backing group Hall assembled when Atlantic Records producer Jerry Wexler sent soul singer Wilson Pickett his way to try to score follow-up success to his early hits such as “In the Midnight Hour,” recorded in Memphis, Tenn., for the Stax Records label. He landed a job in the early ‘60s working for Hall when he was getting FAME Recording Studio off the ground, first helping out with clerical tasks before moving into the studio as an engineer and then as a session player. Goode’ and I knew that was what I wanted to do.” Citing Chuck Berry as his primary influence, Johnson told an interviewer in 2015, “My parents always tried to get me to play country music and I just didn’t like it that much. ![]() ![]() Johnson was drawn to music as a boy, earned $10 at age 15 for his first gig playing guitar at a sock hop. ![]()
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