"Muscle Shoals" Documentary Trailer

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by No Static, Jan 15, 2013.

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  1. d.r.cook

    d.r.cook Senior Member

    i finally saw it this wknd, at the belcourt in nashville . . . very well done, entertaining. would like to have heard more from penn and spooner, but minor quibble.

    disappointing that no one made a point of bringing eddie hinton's role more into play. he's listed in the credits, but i think he was a vital enough player to have been touched on/discussed at some point--maybe in place of :30 secs. of bono's screen time. :sigh:

    do we know when the dvd will be out?

    doug
     
  2. Pete Norman

    Pete Norman Forum Resident

    A truly great doc!
     
  3. ssmith3046

    ssmith3046 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Arizona desert
    I've got to see this.
     
  4. Myke

    Myke Trying Not To Spook The Horse

    Not yet, but I check at least daily. Will post here as soon as I know.
     
  5. Peachy

    Peachy Forum Resident

    Wow, learned a lot from this movie! Great american story. A must see for any fan of American popular music
     
    Mister Charlie likes this.
  6. Reed

    Reed Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Orleans, LA
    Today I heard that it's looking like a March release for this on DVD/BR. So there's that.
     
  7. Myke

    Myke Trying Not To Spook The Horse

  8. Reed

    Reed Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Orleans, LA
    No Static and Myke like this.
  9. djej

    djej Forum Resident

  10. No Static

    No Static Gain Rider Thread Starter

    Location:
    Heart of Dixie
    Got my copies yesterday. One standard DVD and one Blu-ray. Nothing fancy...just the DVD in the case but there is bonus content not in the documentary.

    There was a DVD signing event in Muscle Shoals (just down from FAME studios) with Rick Hall, Jimmy Johnson, David Hood and Spooner Oldham doing the "meet and greet". The line was long but it was lots of fun. Glad I went.
     
  11. m5comp

    m5comp Classic Rock Lover

    Location:
    Hamilton, AL
    I saw some copies of this at Wal-Mart yesterday, but there were no price stickers, so I didn't bite.:sigh:
     
  12. Adam9

    Adam9 Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй.

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    I saw the movie last week and was very impressed. A great story well told. When I saw the clip with the album covers I was surprised to realize how many Muscle Shoals-recorded records I own and love!
     
  13. Scope J

    Scope J Senior Member

    Location:
    Michigan
    Excellent !

    wish they coulda got
    Dylan to interview
     
  14. No Static

    No Static Gain Rider Thread Starter

    Location:
    Heart of Dixie
    IIRC they're 15.00 for standard DVD and 19.00 for Blu-Ray at the Walmart(s). I got one each and the BR is the better deal.
     
  15. Subvet

    Subvet Forum Resident

    Location:
    Southern Maine
    I watched this on Vudu and enjoyed it greatly. It's also available on Amazon streaming.
     
  16. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    The doc says it pretty clearly, as in Guralnick's book. They were trying to record the instrumental track for "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man". A new horn player and Ted White, Aretha's husband, were drinking from the same bottle. The horn player kept progressively making remarks about, or toward, Aretha, that offended Ted, and they got into it. Wexler told Rick Hall to fire him, and he did. But, then, Hall started drinking vodka, and the next day told Wexler he was going over to the hotel to fix things with White. Wexler told him to leave it alone, but Hall went anyway.

    According to Rick Hall, when he got there, White opened the door ard started up with him, and the two got into a fight and tried to throw each other over the rail. Aretha's husband disappeared, and she decided she wasn't staying either, so she went to the station and spotted her husband getting ready to leave without her. Wexler then took Aretha back to NY and told Hall he would never step foot in his studio again, and invited The Swampers to do her records in NY. with Wexler and Tom Dowd. However, Atlantic artists still kept cutting records there after the incident.

    What I didn't know until this blu-ray, that I just bought, is that the first organ chords came from Spooner Oldham. I always figured Aretha initiated that. I also didn't know that they went into the session blind with no one knowing what they were going to record. They were all very nervous with Aretha around.

    Another thing I didn't know until this doc was that The Swampers played on those Staple Singer albums and hits. I had always thought they were cut in Memphis.

    What the doc didn't explain was how Rick decided to build and open up that studio, or how he came to love R&B so much. I thought it was odd because of how open Hall was about the things that happened to his mother.

    I never cared much for the song "Patches", and Clarence Carter had always said that it was an unlikely song for Black folk in 1969, but it was really (loosely) about Hall's life or father, and he loved the song so much that he persuaded Carter to do it. I have a new respect for it now.

    What I would like to get is a major list of all the records The Swampers every played on. The quick flash of the albums on the screen just wasn't enough to soak in.
     
    Last edited: Mar 11, 2014
    beatlematt likes this.
  17. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    Not a cool way to put it, but Rick had a hard life and a lot of tragedy. I'm glad someone made this doc about him, because I had no idea about this music man. He's not commonly mentioned along with the other southern musical legends like Sam Phillips, Jim Stewart, and Al Bell.
     
  18. d.r.cook

    d.r.cook Senior Member

    the spooner/opening chord thing is in sweet soul music; also in wexler's bio, rhythm and the blues . . .

    also of note is joe south's opening guitar for CHAIN OF FOOLS, which, as referenced in the recent Staple Singers/Mavis bio, was based on wanting a Pops Staples feel. he was brought in mainly for that--kind of amazing when you have jimmy johnson AND eddie hinton in and/or near the room. pretty masterfully executed.

    nothing jumped out at me as factually wrong in the movie, but it's not a long movie--only so much can be explained . . . IF I recall, Hall sort of backed into the R&B thing by way of seeking talent. there's quite a bit of early stuff that was more pop, but his love of r&b was surely genuine.

    a lot of early sessions were after-hours when he wasn't around . . . penn was notorious for doing demo sessions after hours.

    Dan Penn's really the only guy (he was there, but didn't play) who knew Aretha's talents well. maybe spooner, by way of Penn, since they were in the process of moving their act to american sound in memphis . . .

    not that it's a "competition"--even in historical terms--but i think american sound/chips moan produced more hits in a shorter time (around 120 in 2-3 yrs) than any of the other southern soul studios . . . and they were really even broader w/non-soul stuff, especially as far as hits go. not as many classic soul sessions, probably, as muscle shoals . . .

    Muscle Shoals benefitted greatly from the early 70's upheaval at STax, and Al Bell bringing the Staples in, but still a tiny fraction of the whole.

    doug
     
    Grant likes this.
  19. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!


    Oh "Chips" Moman! Forgot all about him! You're right, he was more pop and country, but whatever he worked on still has that soul.

    Most people remember the guys with the labels like Stax and Motown, but forget about, or just don't know all about the smaller labels like the Mala/Amy/Bell labels, the studios, and all those production people and musicians. It was really all one huge extended family, really. I was a little kid in those days, and I heard all that music growing up, but I was too young, and not in the right place, to appreciate the environment that bred it. In fact, my interest and appreciation of all this southern soul, and more, is becoming more intense as I tire of hearing all about Motown/Detroit and Philly. "Northern Soul", as the Brits call it. Some people think that Motown is all there was to 60s soul music.
     
    Myke likes this.
  20. Myke

    Myke Trying Not To Spook The Horse

    Johnny Rivers' label Soul City too. :righton:
     
    Last edited: Mar 11, 2014
    Grant likes this.
  21. d.r.cook

    d.r.cook Senior Member

    yeah, you're absolutely right about all of that . . . a lot gets lost in the "shuffle" among studios that were labels, masters getting leased, projects for-hire, etc. If Moman had been THE LABEL for all of the hits from American, his would be a household name.

    and i'm def in your camp, having kind of OD'd on Motown's biggest hits and found a lot of the Memphis/Muscle Shoals/Nashville (!) R&B a treasure trove of gems. (thank goodness for Ace/Kent reissues!)

    Moman was a key player very early at Stax (actually found the theater they moved into), but had a falling out w/Stewart over money, and I think Stewart saw the writing on the wall as Cropper being more malleable, making it easy to dump Chips and upgrade . . . Chips moves to the edge of town and cranks up his own juggernaught . . . (he had a brief run as a studio guy on the west coast, and also at Hi, which is where he met most of his house band). to realize that Angel of the Morning, John Prine's first album, most of BJ Thomas's biggest hits, Dusty In Memphis, Suspicious Minds AND "Wolly Bully" were all cut in one dinky studio using a house band (except for "wolly" w/the Pharaohs) is mind boggling . . .

    "somewhere" in one of these books i've read, it may've been THE MEMPHIS BOYS on American Studios, one of the key people in the era offers the idea that just about all of the southern soul scene, musician-wise, grew out of 3 or 4 frat party bands that ended up in these various studios . . .
     
    Grant likes this.
  22. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    Ans, although it isn't the south, another legendary R&B studio in Detroit that predates Motown, United Sound, is being threatened with Michigan wanting to build a freeway in its path. A lot of greasy soul was recorded there, too, including Issac Hayes' "Hot Buttered Soul".
     
  23. d.r.cook

    d.r.cook Senior Member


    yes, absolutely. Nathaniel Meyer's one that I ran across lately, who was on Fortune in Detroit . . .def, as you say, down and greasy. Even cities like Seattle and certainly the Twin Cities in MN (Phoenix w/Dyke&the Blazers) had vibrant soul scenes at various times along the way.

    as i'm sure you know, the Great Migration played such a key role in the development of popular music, soul and blues in particular . . . so many big names--Aretha, Sam Cooke, Barry Gordy were born in or had very recent roots in the south, then family moves for better opportunities (and to get away from the main problem which could never be completely escaped) where they sang in church and found stardom . . .

    the detroit part of Hot buttered Soul was mainly strings and mix. the Bar-Kays backed him on the original tracking, and Terry Manning at Ardent in Memphis, an unsung hero w/a lot of Stax stuff, did some engineering work on it. with all due respect to the work done at United, I'd say it would have to be classified as a Stax/Memphis record mainly, given that the main sessions and vocals were cut at Stax.

    that Memphis/Muscle Shoals to Detroit connection happened on a fair amount of Staples stuff as well, mainly via Don Davis, who Al Bell brought in as a producer at Stax. i'd imagine good strings and larger groups of horns were more readily avail via United, though Moman quite often used players form the Memphis Symphony . . .

    there's always another stone to turn up with more great soul to be found!
     
    Grant likes this.
  24. lyniv

    lyniv Forum Resident

    Location:
    Grand Junction, CO
    One of the best music docs I've seen. Love the whole look of the film and nature shots as well.
     
  25. mick_sh

    mick_sh Hackney diamond

    Location:
    Madrid, Spain
    Excellent documentary. And funny too!

    Keith and Mick reactions when asked about the amount of drugs they use in Muscle Shoals are priceless. Also, the Paul Simon phone call to Al Bell, asking him: “Hey, man, I want those same black players that played on ‘I’ll Take You There.’ ” Bell replied: “That can happen, except these guys are mighty pale.” :laugh:
     
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