Episode 5: Boz Scaggs

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Episode Transcript

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Welcome to the Vibe of Muscle ShoalsSound podcast recorded live here at Muscle Shoals
Sound Studios at thirty six fourteen JacksonHighway in Sheffield, Alabama. This podcast
was brought to you by Florence LauderdaleTourism. Visit them at visit Florence al
dot com and explore what the Shoalshas to offer. Boss Skaggs had been

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in the Steve Miller band, andin September of nineteen sixty eight he made
the decision to leave. In thenext few months, he played in local
clubs in the San Francisco Bay area. He eventually would meet his next door
neighbor, a young man who hadstarted a new venture, a magazine called
Rolling Stone, and that neighbor was, of course, Rolling Stone founder Yon

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Winner. Their friendship turned into acollaboration. Skaggs had made a solo debut
album in nineteen sixty six, andstrangely enough, it was only available in
Sweden, and he wanted to makea proper debut for the United States audience.
Winner was looking for funding for hisfledgling magazine and he had gone to

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New York to speak with record executivesabout securing advertising dollars. One of the
executives he met with was the vicepresident of Atlantic Records, Jerry Wexler.
Winner gave Wexler a demo tape ofsongs that Scaggs had been working on,
and Wexler was impressed and offered arecord deal with Atlantic to Skags. He
also suggested that Winner be the producer. The next question was where to record.

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Scaggs was interested in Memphis, Makinand Muscle Shoals Bos and Winner came
up with a rather unusual plan todetermine which studio to use. Winner gave
Scaggs press credentials as a reporter forRolling Stone. Bos Now calls it a
lame brain idea, but he wouldvisit Muscle Shoals Sound. He had written

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a few record reviews for Rolling Stonemagazine, but now he had a business
card in a free passed to hangout up the studio and see how the
swampers worked. Skaggs later recalled thateveryone at the studio was loose and welcomed
me, but one of the swampersasked if he had given up music.
He was busted. Everyone was onto him, but it broke the ice
and he could come clean about whathe was doing in Sheffield, Alabama.

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Prior to arriving in the shows,Skaggs had gone to Making Georgia, and
while he was there he met DwayneAlmond. Dwayne had just put together the
Almond Brothers band and they had justmoved to Making from Jacksonville, Florida,
and of course Dwayne had played atboth Fame and Muscle Shoals Sound. Bos
fell in love with Dwayne and hisplaying, especially on the Wilson Picket records

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that had been recorded at Fame withthe Swampers. Bos caught an early rehearsal
of the Almond Brothers and made uphis mind to try and coax Dwayne into
playing on his record. After someinitial resistance, Almond agreed to work on
the record after he was told itwas an Atlantic Records project. Skaggs arrived
at Muscle Shoals Sound, where we'dbe working with Jimmy Johnson, David Hood,

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Roger Hawkins, and Barry Beckett theSwampers, as well as the great
guitarist Eddie Hinton. Jon Winner saidthat he and Bos had been listening to
Bob Dylan's Nashville Skyline and all ofthe Muscle Shoals recorded Clarence Carter Records,
and they envisioned a record that wouldbe a combination of those styles, and
after six days, they did justthat. Side one opens up with two

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blue eyed soul tunes I'm Easy andI'll Be Gone. One review of the
record compared I'm Easy to the soundof Rutha Franklin and I'll Be Gone to
Dion Warwick. Both tunes had agospel feel. Track three Another Day Another
Letter was a solid rock ballad,and Now You're Gone is a Hockey Talk
number, finding him in a contemporarypop song. Side one wraps up with

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a folk song called Look What IGot. Side two opens with a cover
of the great Jimmy Rogers hit fromnineteen twenty nine, Waiting for a Train.
Skaggs tells the story of swamper JimmyJohnson coming up to him during the
session and telling him he was ahuge Jimmy Rogers fan. Jimmy said,
I really love what you're doing andyour songs, but I really think it

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would be great to cut this JimmyRogers song. I think it would be
a gas and your voice is perfectfor it. Bos liked the idea and
it came down to finding a fiddleplayer to give the song that Jimmy Rogers
feel. The only fiddle player thatSwampers knew was a local muscle shoals barber
named al Lester. Al agreed toplay, and next they had to find

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Dwayne and Dobro. After all thatwas accomplished, they were off and running.
Bos was initially skeptical about his abilityto yodel, but he realized it
wasn't as hard as he had initiallythought. Next, what was to become
the dominant track on the record,Loan Me a Dime, a cover of
the Fenton Robinson pen track Somebody Mea Dime. The initial pressing of the

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record credited the song to Bos,but that was later corrected. Lone mea
Dime was twelve minutes and forty eightseconds, and it became one of the
songs that would define the early daysof FM radio. One of the takes
of the song ran for nearly fortyminutes. While recording Lone mia Dime,
Yon Winner became so caught up inwhat he was hearing that he ran into

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the studio waving his hands, mouthingkeep going, keep going, and the
swampers Duane and the horns picked upthe tempo with Duane's lead imitating the horn
lines. They came to the endof the take and Swamper drummer Roger Hawkins
says, let's break into a slowboogaloo and play out the chords. The
band broke into a slow boogaloo andthen into a slow shuffle and then a

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swing shuffle, Dwayne sololoing and BarryBeckett soloing. After listening to the playback,
all boskag could say was god Man. The last track on the record
is Sweet Release, a song thathas tremendous meaning for Boss Skaggs, a
song about how music can redeem youwith its power. In August of nineteen

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sixty nine, Boss Gaggs was released, and it was ignored by listeners and
only sold about twenty thousand copies inits first year on the shelves. Some
critics, however, praised the record. Billboards said that the record would boost
Scaggs into the public eye, andrenowned critic for The Village Voice Robert Christgau
praised the playing, especially Dwayne Alman, and he called the record a tribute

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to American music. Rolling Stone creditedthe record for exploring all genres of American
music and said that the record soundedeffortless, and in two and twelve,
Boss S Gaggs was ranked by RollingStone as one of the best five hundred
records ever made. The album wasby no means a hit, but boss
says it was a great place tostart the energy and the thrill of making

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music. Like they did in muscleshows. I always worked with the best
players and the right players. Eversince, I repeat that process that I
learned at Muscle Shoals Sound on everyrecord. One last note. The photos
of the Swampers on the album gatefoldwas shot by Stephen Paley, the photographer
that shot the Share thirty six fourteenalbum cover as well as the first Alman

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Brothers record. The photos of Bozand Yon Winter were shot by Paley also,
but at the otis Redding Ranch inMaking Georgia. Thanks for listening,
you can hear the vibe of MuscleShoals Sound podcast. Wherever you listen to
your podcast, come by Muscle ShoalsSound and take a tour of the studio.
We're open ten until four Monday throughSaturday, with tours at ten thirty

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eleven thirty, twelve thirty, onethirty, and three thirty. The vibe
of Muscle Shoals sound is brought toyou by Florence Lauderdale Tourism. Visit them
at visit Florence al dot com andsee everything that the Shoals has to offer