SOUTHERN FILM
Muscle Shoals (Magnolia Pictures)
“In Muscle Shoals they’ve got the Swampers 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.” - Ronnie Van Zant
I love documen-
taries. Especially docu- mentaries about the music that I love so much. But every once in a while a film comes along that stands head and shoulders above the rest – Muscle Shoals is one of those. I was absolutely
blown away by the beautiful scenery, amazing shots of rural Alabama, and the deep history of the Muscle Shoals sound. The pro- ducer did much more than just create a docu- mentary, he created a work of art. The way he sets up his interview subjects, whether stand- ing in front of a barn or sitting in a single chair in the middle of an empty warehouse, the cinematography really adds to the overall beauty of this film. There are breath taking shots of the Tennessee River, kudzu vines, swamps and back roads, ancient architecture – crumbling at its foundations but intoxicat- ingly beautiful. The interviewees featured in the movie
read like a Who’s Who of R&B and rock ‘n roll. We hear from Keith Richards, Mick Jag-
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ger, Bono, Donna Jean Godchaux, Jimmy Cliff – just so many greats. One of the original artists who recorded at Fame Studios, Candy Staton, says “It’s that the down coming out of your, coming out of your soul – that’s the Muscle Shoals sound.” Bono from U2 says “it’s like the songs come out of the mud.”
I learned so much more about the history
of the Muscle Shoals sound that I did not know before. I like that. Great stories from Percy Sledge, Aretha Franklin, Quinn Ivey, Clarence Carter, and Wilson Pickett. Keith Richards talks about one of the great Muscle Shoals artists, Arthur Alexander. He says that over in Great Britain, the R&B of Arthur Alexander was hailed as some of the finest music anywhere. He said that the Beatles barely beat them to recording an Arthur Alexander song by about two weeks. Both bands were raised on American blues and r&b.
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