Muscle Shoals Page #4

and I think we cut

"Better Move On"

maybe a month later.

There's, uh,

a love of Arthur Alexander.

You ask me

to give up the only love

I've ever had

At that time, we had

no idea where this was recorded,

but it's interesting to know

one of the first things

that we cut was

a Muscle Shoals production,

you know.

Better move on

This original Muscle Shoals

rhythm section

opened for the Beatles in 1964,

their first American concert.

And, of course,

a year later, in '65,

we all go to Nashville.

The guys went on to become

great pickers and producers

and learned from experience

here at FAME,

man, we can do it.

When they left,

there was nobody else.

We were the only game

in town for him to get.

They took the ball

that we started rolling,

and they rolled it

and made it bigger.

Individually, I never really

thought we were great players.

But together, we were

great players.

We had the magic together.

We liked playing funky.

All funky was was that

we didn't know

how to make it smooth.

We're rock 'n' roll

players, okay?

You just didn't expect them

to be as funky

or as greasy as they were.

I know a place

Ain't nobody cryin'

The grooves that we set up

came from

rhythm and blues music.

I remember when Paul Simon

called Stax Records,

talked to Al Bell.

And said, "Hey, man,

I want those same black players"

that played on

'I'll Take You There.'"

He said, "That can happen,

but these guys"

are mighty pale."

Let me take you there

I'll take you there

You got to, got to,

gotta let me

A lot of people could not

believe

that my whole band

was white guys that played

behind me.

People have arrived

at Muscle Shoals

expecting to meet

these black dudes,

and they're a bunch

of white guys

that look like they worked

in the supermarket

around the corner.

Muscle Shoals rhythm section:

David Hood, bass player.

Jimmy Johnson, guitar.

Roger Hawkins, drums.

Barry Beckett, keyboard player.

Later on, became known

as the Swampers.

A strong rhythm section

made the difference

when you went in the studio

every day with the same pickers

and the same players,

and they became a team,

and it was hard to beat that.

We began to bring in

songwriters and musicians,

anybody that wanted

to be in the music business.

I guess during high school,

I started going over

to FAME studio.

That was like a melting pot

for songwriters, musicians.

I was, as a teenager,

really impressed with all that.

I came up here

and I'm just a kid, really.

And all these people here

were kids, too.

I mean, nobody knew anything.

We're just doing our best

to learn how to make records

and learn how to write songs

and learn how to play music.

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