5 ms·

There's an interesting documentary about this Alabama studio "Muscle Shoals" available on Netflix & Amazon Prime. Seems an awful lot of good music came out of t

There's an interesting documentary about this Alabama studio "Muscle Shoals" available on Netflix & Amazon Prime. Seems an awful lot of good music came out of there. Combination of excellent studio musicians, production and maybe a magical local vibe.

lprubin 5y ago
If you like that type of documentary, I recommend another called "Standing in the Shadows of Motown" about the mostly anonymous studio musicians who played on a ridiculous number of Motown and Pop tracks from 1959 - 1972. "The Funk Brothers produced more hits than The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys and Elvis Presley combined." [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_in_the_Shadows_of_Motown https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_in_the_Shadows_of_Mot...
- HarHarVeryFunny 5y ago
  Thanks - I'll check it out.
- chrisdhoover 5y ago
  There a few interesting documentaries out. The Wrecking Crew about LA studio musicians. There’s one on Brian Wilson. 20 feet feet from stardom about back up singers. Laurel Canyon is interesting - its about the music scene there
  - AlbertCory 5y ago
    I've seen all of these and lots more. I'm just a music movie junkie, I guess. Can't wait for the Peter Jackson movie about The Beatles. The Laurel Canyon one with Jakob Dylan is outstanding.
    - mgkimsal 5y ago
      I wanted the Laurel Canyon one to be more interviews and less "recreate the music". I'm sure there was far more interview footage that would have been more interesting.
      - AlbertCory 5y ago
        YMMV. I actually liked seeing modern artists do the old songs.
        mgkimsal 5y ago
        would have preferred that to just be a separate movie. it felt very disjointed to me. glad you liked it though - a number of people probably did.
- jbigelow76 5y ago
  Thank you, I upvoted you, lprubin, and belter, but I'll respond just here to not be repetitive. I come to HN for the tech but I stay for the etcetera :)
belter 5y ago
"OneMic Series - Muscle Shoals Sound Studio - Tour" https://youtu.be/hP4IwPgylzE https://youtu.be/hP4IwPgylzE
- mstade 5y ago
  This is a pretty good overview, even shows the "secret" bar in the basement! Thanks for sharing this, takes me right back to my memories of visiting a couple of years ago. I pretty much had the same "ooh, ahhh, wow" kind of reactions as the people in the video. :o) Wonderful place to visit, I'll go back there on purpose given half a chance.
bsder 5y ago
> maybe a magical local vibe Translated to: nothing else to do. If I remember correctly, part of the reason for sending the Stones here was so that they couldn't misbehave quite as much and would actually finish their music.
- code_duck 5y ago
  I was wondering why or how this would happen in Alabama.
  - bsder 5y ago
    Well, if you look at a map, Muscle Shoals is fairly close to equidistant to Memphis, Nashville, and Birmingham. (Although, as I recall, it might as well have been Antarctica because nobody in the Rolling Stones could drive a car ... LOL). However, it's probably mostly happenstance relating to a laissez-faire (for the time) attitude toward race from the area. WLAY would play both "hillbilly" and "race" music. Sam Philips (founder of SUN Records and ex-DJ from WLAY) and Rick Hall (founder of FAME Studios) were quite happy to record (some people would say exploit) artists regardless of race and that was a really big deal at that point. Quote from here about the issues in the Jim Crow South: https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/entertainment/music/2021/02/08/chitlin-circuit-inside-roaring-nights-shaped-american-music-hallowed-sound/4406777001/ https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/entertainment/music/2021/0... "You'd go into a town and you'd find somebody nice enough to fix a dinner for you and let you sleep in a bed," Rush said. "You'd put some mattresses on the floor ... or you'd sleep in your car. That's what we had, man, and we didn't think nothin' about it." And, do remember, The Blues in the US was almost dead by 1965--rock had pushed everything aside. It was all those silly Brits with electric guitars picking it back up and putting it into rock that effectively resurrected it.
    - code_duck 5y ago
      That is very insightful, and thank you!
- mstade 5y ago
  This is part of the lore they told us when we did the tour at the studio a couple of years back. Not only was there almost nothing to do around there but record music, it was also a dry county. Of course they had their ways of scoring booze (and other things) anyhow, and there's even a "secret" room with a bar in the basement of the studio, but there were no clubs or the likes that they could frequent. Moreover, very few locals actually knew them at the time. Everyone knows The Rolling Stones these days, but back then without the internet word didn't travel as fast, and very few people in Muscle Shoals or Florence at the time had even heard of the Rolling Stones let alone seen them. Apparently this was true for most artists who recorded at the studio back then. So aside from there being few distractions, the talent could actually roam free in town without being bothered by photographers or locals. It seems to me that there was this perfect confluence of circumstances that made muscle shoals sound studio such a great place to record at the time. It wasn't far from Memphis or Nashville, while also being private, more or less distraction free, great studio musicians and engineers and perhaps most importantly a great sound. Another cool story they told us was when the stones where there to record they didn't have all the lyrics to wild horses ready, or they had to redo parts of it, so Keith Richards (if I recall correctly) locked himself in the bathroom and didn't come out till they were done. The rest of them impatiently hanging out right outside waiting for the man to emerge with a hit. They referred to the toilet as the most important song writing room in the house. :o) When we were there one of my buddies got so inspired by the studio that he actually came back about six months later or so and recorded with a band we'd met in Jackson the night before. Sadly the video is in black and white, but you can at least get a bit more of a sense of space in the studio than from the pictures in the article: https://youtu.be/s_HHgeKLqog https://youtu.be/s_HHgeKLqog It's a wonderful place to visit, highly recommend it.

lprubin 5y ago

If you like that type of documentary, I recommend another called "Standing in the Shadows of Motown" about the mostly anonymous studio musicians who played on a ridiculous number of Motown and Pop tracks from 1959 - 1972. "The Funk Brothers produced more hits than The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys and Elvis Presley combined." [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_in_the_Shadows_of_Motown https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_in_the_Shadows_of_Mot...

HarHarVeryFunny 5y ago
Thanks - I'll check it out.
chrisdhoover 5y ago
There a few interesting documentaries out. The Wrecking Crew about LA studio musicians. There’s one on Brian Wilson. 20 feet feet from stardom about back up singers. Laurel Canyon is interesting - its about the music scene there
- AlbertCory 5y ago
  I've seen all of these and lots more. I'm just a music movie junkie, I guess. Can't wait for the Peter Jackson movie about The Beatles. The Laurel Canyon one with Jakob Dylan is outstanding.
  - mgkimsal 5y ago
    I wanted the Laurel Canyon one to be more interviews and less "recreate the music". I'm sure there was far more interview footage that would have been more interesting.
    - AlbertCory 5y ago
      YMMV. I actually liked seeing modern artists do the old songs.
      - mgkimsal 5y ago
        would have preferred that to just be a separate movie. it felt very disjointed to me. glad you liked it though - a number of people probably did.
jbigelow76 5y ago
Thank you, I upvoted you, lprubin, and belter, but I'll respond just here to not be repetitive. I come to HN for the tech but I stay for the etcetera :)

belter 5y ago

"OneMic Series - Muscle Shoals Sound Studio - Tour" https://youtu.be/hP4IwPgylzE https://youtu.be/hP4IwPgylzE

mstade 5y ago
This is a pretty good overview, even shows the "secret" bar in the basement! Thanks for sharing this, takes me right back to my memories of visiting a couple of years ago. I pretty much had the same "ooh, ahhh, wow" kind of reactions as the people in the video. :o) Wonderful place to visit, I'll go back there on purpose given half a chance.

bsder 5y ago

> maybe a magical local vibe Translated to: nothing else to do. If I remember correctly, part of the reason for sending the Stones here was so that they couldn't misbehave quite as much and would actually finish their music.

code_duck 5y ago
I was wondering why or how this would happen in Alabama.
- bsder 5y ago
  Well, if you look at a map, Muscle Shoals is fairly close to equidistant to Memphis, Nashville, and Birmingham. (Although, as I recall, it might as well have been Antarctica because nobody in the Rolling Stones could drive a car ... LOL). However, it's probably mostly happenstance relating to a laissez-faire (for the time) attitude toward race from the area. WLAY would play both "hillbilly" and "race" music. Sam Philips (founder of SUN Records and ex-DJ from WLAY) and Rick Hall (founder of FAME Studios) were quite happy to record (some people would say exploit) artists regardless of race and that was a really big deal at that point. Quote from here about the issues in the Jim Crow South: https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/entertainment/music/2021/02/08/chitlin-circuit-inside-roaring-nights-shaped-american-music-hallowed-sound/4406777001/ https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/entertainment/music/2021/0... "You'd go into a town and you'd find somebody nice enough to fix a dinner for you and let you sleep in a bed," Rush said. "You'd put some mattresses on the floor ... or you'd sleep in your car. That's what we had, man, and we didn't think nothin' about it." And, do remember, The Blues in the US was almost dead by 1965--rock had pushed everything aside. It was all those silly Brits with electric guitars picking it back up and putting it into rock that effectively resurrected it.
  - code_duck 5y ago
    That is very insightful, and thank you!
mstade 5y ago
This is part of the lore they told us when we did the tour at the studio a couple of years back. Not only was there almost nothing to do around there but record music, it was also a dry county. Of course they had their ways of scoring booze (and other things) anyhow, and there's even a "secret" room with a bar in the basement of the studio, but there were no clubs or the likes that they could frequent. Moreover, very few locals actually knew them at the time. Everyone knows The Rolling Stones these days, but back then without the internet word didn't travel as fast, and very few people in Muscle Shoals or Florence at the time had even heard of the Rolling Stones let alone seen them. Apparently this was true for most artists who recorded at the studio back then. So aside from there being few distractions, the talent could actually roam free in town without being bothered by photographers or locals. It seems to me that there was this perfect confluence of circumstances that made muscle shoals sound studio such a great place to record at the time. It wasn't far from Memphis or Nashville, while also being private, more or less distraction free, great studio musicians and engineers and perhaps most importantly a great sound. Another cool story they told us was when the stones where there to record they didn't have all the lyrics to wild horses ready, or they had to redo parts of it, so Keith Richards (if I recall correctly) locked himself in the bathroom and didn't come out till they were done. The rest of them impatiently hanging out right outside waiting for the man to emerge with a hit. They referred to the toilet as the most important song writing room in the house. :o) When we were there one of my buddies got so inspired by the studio that he actually came back about six months later or so and recorded with a band we'd met in Jackson the night before. Sadly the video is in black and white, but you can at least get a bit more of a sense of space in the studio than from the pictures in the article: https://youtu.be/s_HHgeKLqog https://youtu.be/s_HHgeKLqog It's a wonderful place to visit, highly recommend it.