BRATTLEBORO — The film Muscle Shoals chronicles the life of Rick Hall, a poverty-stricken Alabama native with a number of personal tragedies under his belt.
In the 1960s, Hall assembled a group of white teenage musicians as the house band at Fame Studios, a new recording studio he had built in the small town of Muscle Shoals, Ala.
Incredibly, “You Better Move On,” the first tune they recorded, was an instant hit. Sung by Arthur Alexander, a young black bellhop at a local hotel, it was followed by scores of other hit songs by talented black artists like Aretha Franklin, Etta James, Wilson Pickett, Percy Sledge, and Clarence Carter.
A partnership with Jerry Wexler at Atlantic Records kept the artists and the hits coming, and white rock groups aiming for that same “funky sound” began recording at Muscle Shoals: Rod Stewart, Paul Simon, Steve Winwood, the Rolling Stones, and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Even reggae singer Jimmy Cliff went there to absorb Fame Studios' magic.
While mostly concentrating on the music, the musicians, and Hall's life, the film also reveals the duality of life in Alabama and the South at that time.
On the one hand, Governor George Wallace was brutally fighting to prevent integration, and on the other hand, young whites and blacks were beginning to listen to each other's music and to make music together.
In fact, just a few hundred miles up the road in Memphis, Tenn., another integrated group of musicians, Booker T. and the MGs, was creating its own catalogue of hits for Stax Records.
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We see many shining gems throughout the film. There's a blind Clarence Carter talking about Muscle Shoals native Helen Keller. There's Percy Sledge reminiscing about fronting King Curtis's band when a young Jimi Hendrix was playing guitar.
There's the story of a young Duane Allman who, concerned about walking into a local diner with his long hair and black musicians, remained in the studio with Wilson Pickett during a lunch break and convinced Pickett to record the Beatles' “Hey Jude.”
And there's the story of Aretha Franklin's husband almost ending her career before it started when he ordered a trumpet player fired and then whisked her to New York City before she had finished recording the album that would contain her breakout hit, “I Never Loved a Man the Way I Loved You.”
We also learn how that song was almost discarded until one of the musicians, Spooner Oldham, came up with the keyboard introduction that is now so famous.
Peppered with interviews with luminaries like Bono, Keith Richards, and Mick Jagger, there is also plenty of footage of the “Swampers” (as Hall's musicians were nicknamed in Lynyrd Skynyrd's song “Sweet Home Alabama”) weaving their musical magic.
In this beautiful film with a lot of atmosphere, director Greg “Freddy” Camalier has done a great job keeping the story on track while providing lots of music, which - of course - is what the film is all about.
It becomes clear that in Muscle Shoals, the rhythmic groove was the thing.
Or, as Rick Hall says, “Imperfections [in music] are the human element - that's what people like. If a guy falls off his seat while playing drums, I don't care, so long as he doesn't miss a beat.”