Episode 4: The Rolling Stones

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Episode Transcript

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Welcome to the vibe of Muscle ShoalsSound, brought to you by Florence Lauderdale
Tourism. Visit them at visit Florenceal dot com and explore what the Shoals
has to offer. The Rolling Stonesat thirty six fourteen Jackson Highway on December
second, nineteen sixty nine, theRolling Stones landed the largest planes to ever

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land in Muscle Shoals Alabama, rentedrooms at the Holiday Inn in downtown Florence,
and then made the short trip tothirty six fourteen Jackson Highway and Muscle
Shoals Sound Studio in Sheffield, Alabama. For the next three days, December
third and fourth, they recorded threesongs that changed the landscape of Muscle Shoals

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music forever. The Stones had afew days off during their nineteen sixty nine
US tour. Keith Richards loved torecord while the band was in the middle
of a tour. He felt thatthe band was sharper coming off the road
and into the studio. Charlie Wattssaid the Muscle Shoals studio was very special,
a great studio to work in anda very hip studio. The band

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had been denied a work permit andneeded the session to be secret in Sheffield,
Alabama. Fifth the bill, TheStones arrived and their producer Jimmy Miller
was expected, but he never arrived, so swamper Jimmy Johnson was called into
action to engineer. Jimmy said theband was a little rusty and it took

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them some time before they got intothe groove at Muscle Stroll's sound. Then
all of a sudden, Keith wouldcome up with something and the band would
just fall in around it. TheStones worked at night and through the early
morning. Nine one December second,they tracked You Got to Move, a
traditional African American spiritual that carries themessage that regardless of one's situation in life,

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it is God that determines one's fate. The song was first recorded in
the nineteen forties, but the TwoGospel Keys recorded it in nineteen forty eight
and it became a staple, beingrecorded by Elder Charles D. Beck in
nineteen forty nine, Sister Rosetta Tharpein nineteen fifty, the original Five Blind
Boys of Alabama in nineteen fifty three, and even by Sam Cook in nineteen

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sixty four. But the version ofthe Stones based their take on was Mississippi
Fred McDowell's slow slide guitar version fromnineteen sixty five. Keith Richards recalled,
we're down in Alabama. We're inMuscle Shoals. We gotta cut some Mississippi
Fred McDowell's stuff. If you're gonnado it, it's got to be here.

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Jimmy Johnson of the Swampers said,we all got along fine, although
he did have one problem with MickJagger. One of the speakers in the
studio had a buzzing sound and wehadn't had time to get it fixed.
So I explained the situation and thatthe buzz was not on the tracks.
Jagger just whined and whined about thebuzz, and I eventually went over to

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him and stood right in his faceand explained the situation again with a few
colorful words, and Mick shut up. After that, Keith Richards said a
lot of good music was coming outof Muscle Shoals. Every record you'd say,
where was that recorded, it wouldturn out to be Muscle Shoals.
And I said, I've got totry that room out night too. The
Rolling Stones cut Brown Sugar. Jaggerattributed the sound of the song to Muscle

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Shoals. The thing about Brown Sugar, it has this sound. It was
quite distorted. It was pretty funky, you know, And that was the
whole idea of it. Keith said, we knew we had one of the
best things that we'd ever done.I thought it was one of the easiest
and rockinest sessions that we'd ever done. These sessions were as vital to me

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as any I had ever done.I mean all the other stuff, Beggar's
Banquet, Jimmy Shelter, street fightingman, you know. But I had
always wondered if we had cut themat Muscle Shoals sound, if they had
might have been just a little bitfunkier. Brown Sugar would become the first
single released off the Sticky Fingers album, and it went to number one.

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The subject of the lyrics have alwaysbeen controversial. The song's popularity overshadowed the
taboo subjects in the song. Dueto the ongoing legal issues with their previous
label, Brown Sugar wasn't released untilMay of nineteen seventy one, nearly in
a year and a half after itwas recorded, but the song was debuted

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live three days after the track wascut at the infamous Altamont Motor Speedway concert
Night three, the final night ofthe Muscle Shoals session Wild Horses Story one.
The night began with Mick saying thatKeith had a tune, but it
really wasn't finished. He had thechorus, but that was about it.

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So most of the song was writtenon the spot, and that spot was
the bathroom at Muscle Shoals sound.Keith locked himself in the bathroom, which
is in the tracking room while hefinished the lyrics and figured out the music.
Keith had just had a son,Marlin with his partner Anita Palenberg,
and Wild Horses is a song aboutKeith not wanting to tour story number two,

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and as they started to run throughthe song, Ian Stuart the Stones
longtime road manager and pianist, stoodup from the old tack piano in the
studio and started packing gear. Jaggersaid, I assume we need a piano
player. Jim Dickinson, the greatinstigator of so much American music, who
had been invited to the sessions,started playing along with the song. Keith

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walked by and heard him playing andturned to have a word with Jagger,
and Mick responded We'll just get himto play on it. Then Jim Dickinson
says, and his outstanding autobiography,I'm just dead. I'm not gone.
The Stone struggled for about forty fiveminutes playing the changes with Mick in the
control room with Jimmy Johnson. Jimeventually heard the talkback button and Mick said,

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Keith, what do you think ofthe piano? And Keith replied,
it's the only thing I like.Story number three. After vocal overdubs were
done, everyone met at the HolidayInn restaurant for a farewell breakfast. On
the last day of the session,I met Erdigan, the founder and president
of Atlantic Records, along with JerryWexler, the vice president of Atlantic,

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had arrived in town, and theysat at the Holiday Inn in Florence and
negotiated the Stones deal with Atlantic Records. Jim Dickinson was sitting in a booth
with Stones basis Bill Wyman and awaitress to ask you boys in a band?
Yes, said Wyman, and thewaitress just shrugged and took their orders.

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Keith Richards was quoted as saying therewas something about the muscle shoals fuel.
Charlie Watts really filled up that roomwith sound, it was so easy
to cut there. The Stones hadhad three of the most productive days in
their history, December third, andfourth, in a small town of Sheffield,

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Alabama, and then they left theMuscle Shoals Airport in route to the
Bay Area and the worst day oftheir career, Altamont. December of nineteen
sixty nine was the end of aturbulent decade and the exclamation point was Altamont.
Four people died that day and itwas the end of the age of
Aquarius. The Rolling Stones had cometo this small building in Sheffield, Alabama,

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located at thirty six fourteen Jackson Highway, and recorded three songs on one
of the greatest rock records ever made, Sticky Fingers. It took seventeen months
for Sticky Fingers to be released,and it does not say on the album
cover recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound dueto the legal issues. Thanks for listening

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to the vibe of Muscle Shoals Soundrecorded here at thirty six fourteen Jackson Highway
in Sheffield, Alabama. For referenceabout the Stones recording at Muscle Shoals,
pick up Jim Dickinson's amazing autobiography andalso check out the Mazell Brothers documentary Jimmy
Shelter with video of the Stones inthe Shoals, and of course the Muscle

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Shoals documentary Better Yet Come see usat Muscle Shoals Sound. Tours are available
beginning at ten thirty and the lasttour beginning at three thirty Monday through Saturday.
The Vibe of Muscle Shoals Sound isbrought to you by Florence Lauderdale Tourism.
Visit them at visit Florence al dotcom and explore what the Shoals has

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to offer. That's it for thisepisode of the Vibe of Muscle Shoals Sound.
See you next time.