Muscle Shoals (2013)

A documentary that celebrates Rick Hall, the founder of FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and the signature sound he developed in songs such as "I'll Take You There", "Brown Sugar", and "When a Man Loves a Woman".

Director:

Greg 'Freddy' Camalier

Stars:

Rick Hall, Aretha Franklin, Keith Richards

3 wins & 11 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Stephen Badger	...	Himself / Interviewer
Rick Hall	...	Himself, founder, Fame Studios
Aretha Franklin	...	Herself
Jerry Carrigan	...	Himself
Alicia Keys	...	Herself
Jerry Phillips	...	Himself
Barry Beckett	...	Himself
Jerry Wexler	...	Himself
Bono	...	Himself
Jesse Boyce	...	Himself
Bryan Owings	...	Himself
Jimmy Cliff	...	Himself
Candi Staton	...	Herself
John Gifford III	...	Himself
Clarence Carter	...	Himself

Storyline

Located alongside the Tennessee River, Muscle Shoals, Alabama is the unlikely breeding ground for some of America's most creative and defiant music. Under the spiritual influence of the 'Singing River' as Native Americans called it, the music of Muscle Shoals changed the world and sold millions upon millions of copies. At its heart is Rick Hall who founded FAME Studios. Overcoming crushing poverty and staggering tragedies, he brought black and white together in Alabama's cauldron of racial hostility to create music for the generations while giving birth to the 'Muscle Shoals Sound' and 'The Swampers'. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Percy Sledge, Gregg Allman, Clarence Carter, Etta James, Alicia Keys, Bono, and others bear witness to Muscle Shoals' magnetism, mystery, and why it remains influential today.

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Plot Keywords:

reference to stax records | electronic keyboard | keyboardist | new york city | drug abuse | 

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Taglines:

"You're in rock'n'roll heaven, man" - Keith Richards

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Genres:

Documentary | Biography | History | Music

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for thematic elements, language, smoking and brief partial nudity

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official Facebook

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 October 2013 (UK)

Also Known As:

Muscle Shoals - Dove nascono le leggende

Filming Locations:

Florence, Alabama, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$13,901, 29 September 2013, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$695,625, 9 March 2014

Company Credits

Production Co:

Ear Goggles

Technical Specs

Runtime:

111 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Winner of the Grand Prize, Boulder International Film Festival, 2013.

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Quotes

Rick Hall: Duane Allman, of course, came into Muscle Shoals and wanted a gig. So he put up his pup tent on my parking lot at the studio and found me. I gave him his shot.
David Hood: When Duane showed up, he was probably one of the first guys with long hair and kind of the hippie look, but what really made him stand out was he was a wonderful guitar player.
Rick Hall: I had never heard a slide guitar played like Duane Allman could play it.
David Hood: Duane had been in Los Angeles, had a group called the Hourglass with his brother Gregg.
Gregg Allman: ...
[...]

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Crazy Credits

Although Steve Winwood is feature prominently, including with on-screen name identification, hie name is NOT listed in the end credits.

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Connections

Version of Muscle Shoals

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Soundtracks

Sitting Here in Limbo
Written by Guilly Bright (as Guillermo Bright-Plummer) and Jimmy Cliff
Performed by Jimmy Cliff
Courtesy of Island Records Limited
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

Not what I expected, but quite good nonetheless

I always loved listening to the great albums recorded at the two Muscle Shoals studios, so I looked forward to seeing this documentary in the hopes of learning what exactly made the Muscle Shoals sound so distinctive.

Unfortunately, I think the musicians interviewed couldn't really explain what it was that made Muscle Shoals so special from a technical perspective. Bono, as always, was quite articulate, but he didn't offer anything technical. He instead talked philosophically about the power of the Tennessee River just as the Mississippi influenced the Blues. Most of the other musicians fell back on platitudes and clichés about funky white guys. Keith Richards was beyond hopeless as an interviewee. He seemed like he was doing a really bad Saturday Night Live impersonation of himself.

Don't get me wrong. The stories were entertaining. I particularly liked Greg Allman's story about how his brother Duane learned to play the slide guitar and Wilson Picket's story about the first time he came to Muscle Shoals. I also thought the documentary did a good job telling the history of the original FAME studio as well as the second studio started by the so-called "Swampers".

Nevertheless, I think at least one interview segment with a Rock historian or a musicologist to put everything in context and offer technical explanations would have been a great addition.

Finally, although it's clear that the Muscle Shoals musicians were far ahead of their fellow southerners on the issue of race, and the film rightly showcased this, it also showed clips of Lynyrd Skynyrd in concert proudly displaying a confederate flag. Displaying a confederate flag in 2013 is beyond bad taste. It's simply unacceptable.