Director: Greg ‘Freddy’ Camalier
Talent: Rick Hall, Aretha Franklin, Keith Richards, Bono
Release Date: 25th October 2013
Given the recent welter of music-related documentaries (Very Extremely Dangerous, Beware of Mr Baker, Sound City), the arrival of Muscle Shoals is not the most exciting prospect, and any reservations one might have are deepened when the first voice heard is that of Bono opining gassily about magic, alchemy and turning metal from the earth into gold. However, this documentary about music producer Rick Hall’s creation of the Fame recording studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and the work of its session musicians, the Swampers, is both exciting and engrossing. There are contributions from the artists who recorded there, including Wilson Pickett, Percy Sledge, Aretha Franklin, Keith Richards and Steve Winwood, but the most powerful ingredient is the music itself: Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman”, Wilson Pickett’s cover of “Hey Jude”, Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” and the Stones’ “Wild Horses”. The guiding impulse within recent music documentaries is to sell the romance of recording and musicianship: few of these films, however, have as rich a history on which to draw as that celebrated in Muscle Shoals.
Words: Tony McKiver
