Session 7: Muscle Shoals (2013)

Session 7: Muscle Shoals (2013)

Session 7: Muscle Shoals (2013)

Today’s film is Muscle Shoals. That’s the name of a small town in Alabama with a very large reputation for a distinct sound.

Session 7: Muscle Shoals (2013)

SHOW OF HANDS: how many have never seen this film before?

Session 7: Muscle Shoals (2013)

• Director: Greg 'Freddy' Camalier

• Cinematography: Anthony Arendt

• Editor: Richard Lowe

• Starring Rick Hall, The Swampers, many others

• Premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival

• Released September 27, 2013 (USA)

–Budget $$$$; box office $524,288

• Expository documentary

Session 7: Muscle Shoals (2013)

• 3 Awards and 11 Nominations:

-- Grand Prize, Boulder International Film Festival 2014

– Golden Trailer from Golden Trailer Awards for Best Documentary Poster 2014

– Audience award from Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival 2013

– Rotten Tomatoes score: Critics 96% ; Audience 89%

Session 7: Muscle Shoals (2013)

• Starring-- Jimmy Cliff (left below) 2012?-- Clarence Carter (right below) 1970s?-- Aretha-- Many, many others

Rick Hall at an event for Muscle Shoals (2013)

Is this what they mean by handlebar moustache?

Greg 'Freddy' Camalier

LEFT - Around the time of making Muscle Shoals (2012) RIGHT - ??

Greg 'Freddy' Camalier resume

• Has 2 credits as a director, 5 as a producer and 1 as a writer

–Directorial efforts include Muscle Shoals (2013), Independent Lens (TV series documentary on Muscle Shoals) (2014)

–Won Audience award from Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival 2013

Anthony ArendtCinematographer

LEFT - - 2012 RIGHT - - on set of Muscle Shoals

Anthony Arendt resume

• Has 9 credits as a cinematographer and 1 as a director

–His 9 creds are almost all for documentary shorts

• He also has 8 credits as a “Camera and Electrical Department” dude

You might notice that some of the footage in today’s film is the same as some in Gimme Shelter.

Lights off!

Let’s watch the movie.

The Swampers

The members of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section were Pete Carr (lead guitar), Jimmy Johnson (guitar), Roger Hawkins (drums), David Hood (bass guitar) and Barry Beckett (keyboards).

Affectionately called The Swampers, the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section was a local group of first-call studio musicians (initially working at FAME and then at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios) who were available for back-up. They were given the nickname The Swampers by music producer Denny Cordell during the Leon Russell sessions because of their "funky, soulful Southern 'swamp' sound".

The Swampers continued

In the song "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd, a verse states:

Muscle Shoals has got the Swampers.And they've been known to pick a song or two.Lord, they get me off so much,They pick me up when I'm feelin' blue.Now, how 'bout you?

When Lynyrd Skynyrd recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios once early in their career, they saw the various gold and platinum records on the walls bearing the words "To The Swampers", and later included it in the song as a tribute.

There’s more to it

• Muscle Shoals Sound Studio at 3614 Jackson Highway in Sheffield, Alabama was formed in 1969 by four session musicians called The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section (and affectionately called The Swampers) who had left Rick Hall's nearby FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals to create their own recording facility. The group closed the Jackson Highway studio in 1979, moving the operation to 1000 Alabama Avenue. The old studio has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since June 2006. It was partly restored in the early 2000s and was sold to the Muscle Shoals Music Foundation in 2013. This group completed a major restoration and the location reopened on January 9, 2017. The Alabama Avenue location ceased operations in 2005 when it was sold to a record label.

And more • FAME (Florence Alabama Music Enterprises) Studios is a recording

studio located at 603 East Avalon Avenue in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, an area of northern Alabama known as the Shoals. Though small and distant from the main recording locations of the American music industry, FAME has produced a large number of hit records and was instrumental in what came to be known as the Muscle Shoals sound. It was started in the 1950s by Rick Hall, known as the Founder of Muscle Shoals Music. The studio, owned by Hall until his death in 2018, is still actively operating. It was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage on December 15, 1997, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016. The 2013 award-winning documentary Muscle Shoals features Rick Hall, the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section (also called The Swampers), and the Muscle Shoals sound originally popularized by FAME.

Hall at FAME Recording Studios, 2010

Early lifeRick Hall was born into a family of sharecroppers in Forest Grove, Tishomingo County, Mississippi to Herman Hall, a sawmill worker and sharecropper and his wife, Dolly.After his mother left home when young Hall was aged 4, he, along with his siblings was raised in rural poverty by his father and grandparents in Franklin County, Alabama. According to The Guardian, Dolly worked in a bordello after leaving the family. His father was a gospel music fan and his uncle gave Rick a mandolin at age 6. Later, he learned to play guitar.Hall moved to Rockford, Illinois, as a teenager, working as an apprentice toolmaker, and began playing in local bar bands. When he was drafted for the Korean War, he declared himself a conscientious objector, joined the honor guard of the Fourth United States Army, and played in a band that also included Faron Young and the fiddler Gordon Terry.

Can you get a date?

Rick Hall (1932 – 2018) owned FAME until his death

FAME Studios (Florence Alabama Music Enterprises) started by Hall in late 1950s with Billy Sherrill

The SwampersBarry Beckett, keyboards 1943 – 2009Roger Hawkins, drums 1945 –David Hood, bass 1943 –Jimmy Johnson, guitar 1943 –Pete Carr, lead guitar 1950 –

Muscle Shoals Sound Studio started 1969 by Beckett, Hood, Hawkins and Johnson. It closed in 1985.

Can you get another date?

1964 “Steal Away” by Jimmy Hughes, cut with studio band

1965 “You Better Move On” by Arthur Alexander

1966 “When a Man Needs a Woman” by Percy Sledge

1967 “Mustang Sally” by Wilson Pickett

1967 “I Never Loved a Man” by Aretha Franklin

1967 “Funky Broadway” by Wilson Pickett

1968 “Tell Mama” by Etta James

CastGregg AllmanBonoClarence CarterJimmy CliffAretha Franklin (final film appearance)Donna Jean GodchauxRick HallRoger HawkinsDavid HoodMick JaggerEtta JamesJai Johanny JohansonJimmy JohnsonAlicia KeysEd KingSpooner OldhamDan PennKeith RichardsPercy SledgeCandi StatonJohn Paul WhiteSteve WinwoodWilson Pickett