Our trip south this spring to Memphis, Mississippi, Arkansas and Alabama got us an amazing opportunity to immerse ourselves in the struggle for Civil Rights that took place in the 1950s and 1960s. There are a significant number of important sites within reasonable driving distance of each other that can be visited in a little more than a week. We knew a trip like that would be difficult and painful and would not necessarily bring us much hope or joy. We were really right about that last part.
Our route from Memphis into Mississippi and Arkansas and across into northern Alabama would bring us face to face with another reason to be in that area of the country: music. There is perhaps no other place in the United States (or the world, for that matter) more responsible for the music that most of the world listens to today than Mississippi, Memphis and northern Alabama. It is the birthplace of that most crucial American music* born out of the pain of slavery that rocked juke joints that was originally unabashedly about sex and love that became what just about every child and teenager and adult listens to today (yes, I'm differentiating children from teenagers). It has been transformed a million different ways by a million different artists in a million different places including the places where it started. Rock and roll. Soul. Funk. Punk. Pop. Grunge. Disco. Heavy metal. Folk. Alternative. Whatever you want to call it. It was born, nurtured and taken to some of its highest forms in Mississippi, Memphis and northern Alabama.
Need some proof? How about this list? B.B. King. Muddy Waters. The Rolling Stones. Dusty Springfield. Otis Redding. Johnny Cash. Sonny Boy Williamson. Wilson Pickett. Aretha Franklin. Linda Ronstadt. Paul Simon. Elvis Presley. William Bell. Albert King. Robert Johnson. Booker T and the MGs. Rod Stewart. Jerry Lee Lewis. Roy Orbison. Isaac Hayes. Carl Perkins. Bob Dylan. Levon Helm. Ike Turner. Howlin' Wolf. The Staple Singers. John Lee Hooker. Elmore James. Sam and Dave. Duane Allman. Bob Seger. Percy Sledge. Lynyrd Skynyrd. U2.
All of those artists and way more have connections to the area we visited. There are signs and monuments and houses and museums all over the place that tell their story. There are also four incredibly important recording studios that starting in the 1950s put the music recorded in this area down on records and cassettes and 8-tracks and compact discs and influenced the history of music in immeasurable ways. We visited all four. Two in Memphis and two in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. And they did bring us hope and joy. Lots of it!
Sun Studio
When you go to Sun, expect a lot about Elvis. It's understandable. He was the biggest thing to happen to that record company. But it's not the whole story. And you will also get more than just Elvis when you are there.
On January 3 of 1950, just about as few days into the 1950s as you could get, a new recording studio opened in Memphis with the very, very imaginative name of the Memphis Recording Service. It was the brainchild of 27 year old Sam Phillips, who wanted to be part of the recording industry in a more significant way than his job as a local disc jockey broadcasting out of Memphis' famous Peabody Hotel allowed him to be. Instead of just playing the songs recorded in the Memphis area, Sam would start putting some tracks onto vinyl.
Initially, the Memphis Recording Service was a contractor for other in town and out of town record labels that wanted musicians from Memphis and the Mississippi Delta recorded on their labels for local and national distribution. Sam cut tracks for the likes of B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf, Sleepy John Estes and Rufus Thomas out of his studio on Union Avenue. But when he recorded Jackie Brenston with his Delta Cats record "Rocket 88" he started to think maybe he should quit his job as a DJ and start a record label of his own.
If you don't know the song that Jackie Brenston recorded at Sun, that's OK, but it's considered by many people to be the first true rock and roll record. Jackie's band wasn't really Jackie's band at all; their real name was Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm but I guess that's not necessarily relevant to the story. On the day they recorded "Rocket 88", they damaged one of their amplifiers pulling it out of the car and under a time crunch to get the thing repaired, Sam Phillips suggested they stuff some newspaper inside to keep the woofer and cone inside the amp in place. It produced a distorted sound that Phillips loved and made the song unique to that point. Hello, rock and roll!!
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| Either me or Larry Mullen, Jr. at Sun Studio. |
The second significant story about Sun Studio is the discovery of Elvis Presley which probably had more influence on the history of rock music than "Rocket 88". I'm not being sarcastic with that sentence. "Rocket 88" was hugely influential. When I write "probably", I mean it, in spite of Elvis' obvious importance to the history of music.
As a means of making some extra money and getting some local talent in the door without a lot of expense, Sam Phillips offered to record anyone who walked in the door at Sun for the cost of $4 for two tracks. Sam wasn't there the day Elvis Presley walked in to record "My Happiness" for his mother but his receptionist Marion Kessler was astute enough to make a second copy of Elvis' recording. About a year later with constant prompting from Marion, Elvis is back in the studio at Sam's request to record sone songs with bassist Bill Black and guitarist Scotty Moore. And it just wasn't working until Sam called a halt to the whole thing and Elvis started messing around with an old Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup song called "That's All Right" when the recording had stopped. Phillips loved it, offered some edits, recorded it and delivered it to local DJ Dewey Phillips. Dewey played it 14 times in a three hour show. The rest is history.
The single studio at Sun is pretty much exactly the way it was in the early 1950s. There is even some tape on the floor where Bill Black and Scotty Moore placed their instruments when recording "That's All Right". It's tiny and it looks like it's been put together with spare parts and has no chance of anything significant happening there ever. But the artists that recorded just for Sun Records (not counting B.B. King etc.) is astounding: Elvis, of course, but also Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison. Are you kidding me? All cranking out songs in that cramped studio on Union Avenue. There is some serious music history coming out of that room.
The Sun Studio sat dormant for years but recently (and maybe not so recently with the album I'm about to name drop) it has been used on a regular basis again. The drum set in the photograph above was left over from U2 recording their 1988 release Rattle and Hum.
Marion Kessler, by the way, was directly and indirectly responsible for signing Cash and Orbison. Johnny was an appliance salesman when Marion met him and he later found Roy on tour in Texas. The history of Sun Studio is not all about Sam Phillips.
Stax Records
Meanwhile in Memphis to the south of downtown...
Making records in the 1950s must have been a crazy scene. It seems like anyone with a little know how and some adventurousness could have started a record label back then. While Sam Phillips was setting up shop and cranking out hit after hit with legendary artists in downtown Memphis, Jim Stewart decided to start the Satellite Record Company in his wife's uncle's garage about 20 miles east of Memphis in Brunswick, Tennessee. Eight years later, after moving to Memphis and being threatened with a lawsuit by another Satellite Records, Stewart had a more permanent studio on McLemore Avenue with the help of his sister Estelle Axton. The first two letters of each of their last names made up the new label's name: Stax Records.
The original Stax Records building is long gone. It was demolished in the 1970s after the original label went out of business. If you want to make a Stax pilgrimage these days, you'll have to satisfy yourself with a visit to the Stax Museum of American Soul Music. It's on the same site as the original studio and it is actually very satisfying and definitely worth a visit or two or more. The soul that came out of this block in Memphis was just spectacular music.
This was not my first visit to the Stax Museum. I visited way back in 2006 when I had no idea what Stax was or what amazing music came out of the place. This time I was way more educated which made this 2021 visit way more special. Since that first visit, I've dipped my toes into the Stax waters a bunch of times with a bunch of different artists. This time I was visiting as a fan.
There is one significant and obvious difference between Sun and Stax as a recording studio and that is Stax had its own house band that was hugely important to its success. And you can't really talk about how great the music on that record label was without giving a huge amount of credit to the band who backed almost every artist who recorded in their building on McLemore Avenue (at least in the label's infancy). Pianist Booker T. Jones, bassist Lewie Steinberg (and later Donald "Duck" Dunn), drummer Al Jackson, Jr. and guitarist Steve Cropper (they also recorded by themselves as Booker T. and The MGs) with a horn section called The Memphis Horns featuring Wayne Jackson and Andrew Love.
The house band appearing on almost every record produced by the label created a Stax Records sound. Sure, Rufus Thomas and Carla Thomas and William Bell and Bobby Marchan and Otis Redding and The Veltones and Eddie Floyd and David Porter all were different artists with different styles but the house band at Stax provided a common feel. Motown did the exact same thing up in Detroit but just started a couple of years after Stax. There is an obvious comparison between Motown and Stax. They were both soul-focused music labels that emerged in the 1950s and 1960s with house bands and in house songwriters made up in large part of people just from the neighborhood. I feel it is unfortunate that Stax's artists are probably less well known than Motown's. They are every bit as good.
The Stax house band is important in another respect. In the mid-1960s Atlantic Records entered into a national distribution deal with Atlantic Records. The deal was good in theory for Stax because it would extend their distribution network, although it ended up being a terrible contract for the label. From Atlantic's side of things, it got owner Jerry Wexler access to a band who was perfect for backing his soul music artists for Atlantic's emerging soul catalog. Atlantic's partnership with Stax didn't last long (just about three years) but if nothing else, it produced Wilson Pickett's "In The Midnight Hour" (that Steve Cropper co-wrote).
There's a reason I mention this. This is not the end of Jerry Wexler in this post.
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| The Booker T. and The MGs display at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music. |
The experience at Stax today is completely different from the other three studios we visited. While there is some sort of museum type experience at the other three, the primary focus of the visit is the studio (or studios) where the music was recorded. Because the original Stax building and studio are long gone, there is none of that at Stax.
Now sure, there is a recreation of the original studio built to the specifications of the original space (a former theater as it turned out so the floor of the re-creation slopes just like the original theater floor) and there are some original instruments used on the recordings in display cases but it's not the same as the original studio itself. Ironically, the studio space in the museum lacks the kind of soul I was seeking in these visits. Having said that, if I lived in Memphis, I'd go here a lot, way more than Sun Studio. There is so much in that museum to explore.
FAME Studios
When Jim Stewart terminated the contract between Stax and Atlantic, Jerry Wexler went searching for another studio that offered what he briefly had in Stax: a recording studio in the south with a kickass house band. He found Rick Hall's FAME (yes, all caps; an acronym for Florence Alabama Music Enterprises) Studios in Muscle Shoals, a small town in northern Alabama on the Tennessee River that would have an an almost inappropriate (and I mean that in the very best way) influence on the history of music.
Rick Hall founded FAME (but not the current studio) in 1959 with partners Billy Sherrill and Tom Stafford in nearby Florence, AL. That partnership didn't last long. Sherrill and Stafford found out pretty quickly they didn't want to work with Hall too long and split, which ended up working out fine for Hall just the same. The original FAME studio was built in a space over a drug store and Hall struck it rich when Arthur Alexander (who was a bellhop at a local hotel who somehow knew Hall) recorded his song "You Better Move On". The proceeds from that record allowed him to build the current studio pictured above.
FAME is all about the hard work of Rick Hall. He persevered through a (I guess...) failed partnership; built his own ideal studio; worked the release of the first song ("Steal Away" by Jimmy Hughes) recorded in that building by personally driving the completed record to record studios himself; and assembled the band (keyboardist Barry Beckett, drummer Roger Hawkins, bassist David Hood and guitarist Jimmy Johnson; the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section) that made Wexler turn his attention to Muscle Shoals. But visiting these studios for me was important so I could stand in the spaces where some of the music I love so much was created. For me at FAME, that meant Aretha Franklin.
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| Wurlitzer. FAME. Aretha. Special stuff. |
Aretha signed her first recording contract with Columbia Records at age 18. When that contract expired six years later, Jerry Wexler convinced her to move to Atlantic Records and when she did, he sent her down to Muscle Shoals to record with the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. The result was two songs on her I Never Loved A Man The Way I Loved You album: the title song and the Dan Penn / Chips Moman song "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man". These two recordings were the primary reason I was at FAME in May of this year. Being in that space and standing next to the actual Wurlitzer organ used on those recordings was one of those "knees weak" moments for me.
Aretha recorded those two songs in FAME's Studio A, which was the only recording studio in the building at that time. That studio was clearly the most well put together studio we visited. There was none of the DIY aesthetic that we got at Sun Studio; this was a professionally put together space that reflected (as I see it anyway) Rick Hall's professional approach to making music.
There is a second studio (Studio B) at FAME which is less polished. The first band to record anything in that studio were the Allman Brothers Band, which got me another significant connection to my own music collection that I didn't expect out of this trip. In fact, if it weren't for Duane Allman camping out in the FAME parking lot insisting he get a chance to play there (and on Wilson Pickett's "Hey Jude"), he might never have met Berry Oakley and Jaimoe Johanon which might have changed the course of music for the worse forever. FAME is important.
Muscle Shoals Sound Studios
There is Sun, there is Stax, there is FAME and they are all special in their own way. But the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio is an entirely different place whatsoever. This was THE place I wanted to go on this trip. I know that visits to places where music was created are special on different levels for different people. Muscle Shoals Sound Studio is on an entire different planet from the other three for me, even with Albert King and Otis Redding at Stax and Aretha at FAME.
If being in the same room where Aretha recorded two songs in 1967 got me some weak knees, standing in the single recording studio at the Muscle Shoals Sound Studios made me want to spend days or weeks there soaking up all the good vibes and mojo from everyone that I love having recorded in that one room over the years.
And yes, Jerry Wexler had something to do with it again. And this time he maximized his involvement. Rick Hall was presented with an exclusive contract with Capitol Records which he decided to sign. Capitol in, Atlantic out! Hall thought this was great news but when he informed the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, they didn't feel the same way. So they split and started their own studio. And Wexler went with them. This place wouldn't have existed without that decision.
The search for a new studio space took the Rhythm Section to an old casket salesroom with its own recording studio already partially set up. Apparently the owner of the casket business was interested in recording choir music and set something up. That got the studio up and running by 1969 and continued until its closure in 1978. That's not a long time. Fortunately, just like Sun, interest in recording in a such an historic place has reopened the studio. Which means it's available for recording and for tours.
The first album recorded in the brand new Muscle Shoals Sound Studios was Cher's 3614 Jackson Highway, which also happens to be the street address of the studio. But pretty soon after that, Jerry Wexler convinced the Rolling Stones, who had no legal right to record music while touring on a work visa issued for that purpose and that purpose alone, to stop by and cut a couple of tracks. This is the reason I came here, because the songs they cut ended up on my favorite album of all time: Sticky Fingers.
The Stones intended to record just one song in their time in Muscle Shoals, a cover of the Reverend Gary Davis' song "You Gotta Move". But faced with a quick completion of that track and some time on their hands in what was then a dry county, they got back to work and completed writing and recording from start to finish two pretty important songs in their catalog: "Brown Sugar" and "Wild Horses". I know it's a little silly but being in the place where Mick finished "Brown Sugar" and Keith finally worked out everything on "Wild Horses" (in the bathroom of all places) is some goosebumps type stuff. I felt it in Liverpool in 2018 in the McCartney family living room; the feeling in Muscle Shoals was pretty much the same thing. History happened here. History that affects me every year. What would have happened if the Stones hadn't visited Muscle Shoals? Chilling stuff, I'm telling you.
After the Stones, the guest list is a who's who of rock and roll, with many of these artists occupying a spot in my own music collection: Linda Ronstadt, Paul Simon, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bob Seger, Rod Stewart, The Staple Singers, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Cat Stevens. The piano that still sits in the center of the studio was used to record Paul Simon's "Kodachrome" and was the genesis of the piano intro to Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Freebird" by then roadie Billy Powell.
There is a good deal of good fortune in the history of this building. After the initial closure of the studio in 1978, future owners of the building did not demolish the studio nor did they remove the recording equipment from the sound booth, meaning reconstructing the space for tours and business was a significantly easier endeavor than it might have been otherwise. The instruments were removed in 1978 but most have been reclaimed or recovered and now sit in their former places which were documented in David Hood's personal photograph collection.
Our trip to Muscle Shoals Sound Studio was for me, by far, the highlight of our mini recording studio tour itinerary. And not only because of the Stones and the other artists that had recorded there. Two final thoughts here.
First, it was the only place where we got inside the control room. Not that I know necessarily what all the slides, knobs and buttons do but this is the machine that recorded the music that I love so much. Without this machine, maybe nothing quite works out the same.
Second and finally, and maybe as an indication of how big the world that we lived in was back then and how small it is today, our guide (who grew up seven miles from the Studio and who at 13 years of age when the Studio was originally active was absolutely crazy about music) had no clue at all that this amazing music was being laid down less than 10 miles from where she lived. I think it's kind of cool that in the 1970s some of the most famous musicians on the planet could be recording some of the best tracks ever made in a small town in northern Alabama. Imagine rolling by this place in 1969 and seeing Keith Richards and Mick Jagger hanging out on the back porch (because apparently that's where the musicians used to hang out). How wild is that? Definitely worth a pilgrimage to this place.
The Stones' bill for their recording time, by the way, was $1,009.75. I'd say that was money well spent, even if there was no alcohol available.
How We Did It
Sun Studio is open seven days a week beginning at 10 a.m. daily. They run tours (which is the only way you can walk beyond the gift shop) every hour on the half hour. They are open until 5:15 p.m. every day except Friday and Saturday when they are open for an additional hour. Tours are first come, first served. We got the first one of the day and there were about 15 people in line when we got there. Parking is street parking. Our whole experience took about 45 minutes.
The Stax Museum of American Soul Music is open Tuesday through Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. It took us about two hours to get through the whole museum and we read a lot but certainly not more than half of the exhibits there. You could easily spend a half a day here if you read every word on every display. There is a huge parking lot behind the building dedicated to the museum.
FAME Studios runs tours through its studios twice daily Monday through Friday at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. On Saturdays, they run five tours hourly from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Advance reservations are available online. We called to see if we really needed a reservation and were told we probably didn't. I mean how many people are coming through Muscle Shoals, Alabama to tour FAME Studios on any given day? When we got there, we found that our tour group was maybe 15-20 people. If I had to do it all over again, I would have made a reservation, even though it worked out for us. There is a parking lot either side of the building. You might be rushed out of Studio A. They still record during the daytime there.
Muscle Shoals Sound Studios runs six tours each day Monday through Saturday starting at 10:30 a.m. and every hour after that. Advance reservations are also available here which we did make. There's no way we were not getting into this place. There's a parking lot on the right side of the building. If you are wondering if you can take the 2:30 p.m. tour at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio and still make the 4 p.m. tour at FAME, the answer is yes, you will have tons of time. You will even have time to make the trip up to the Hampton Inn in Florence to see the "Mick Jagger Slept Here" sign as well.
* There is an asterisk in this post. That's because I didn't invent the term "most crucial American music." I swiped it from page 49 of Warren Zanes' excellent book called Dusty In Memphis, about the album of the same name. Dusty In Memphis was another Jerry Wexler project, this time with Wexler sending English singer Dusty Springfield over to Chips Moman's American Music Studio in Memphis. That studio is long gone. Dusty In Springfield is a top five album ever made for me.
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