American
documentary film
about the
legendary place of hit records
Directorial
debut of Greg "Freddy" Camalier (2013)
Live
Music Head goes to Bloor Hot Docs Cinema
 |
| LMH at Bloor Hot Docs Cinema Toronto 4/30/13 |
Percy Sledge earned a living singing to the sick
at the
local hospital just before he recorded
When A
Man Loves A Woman
there.
Donna Jean Godchaux (The Grateful Dead)
helped
him do it by singing backup.
And she
had no idea she was making music history.
It was
the turning point of Aretha Franklin’s career too,
when she
recorded
I Never
Loved A Man The Way I Love You
there.
Two of
the most soulful songs I’ve ever heard in my life.
And
Wilson Pickett’s telling of his introduction to it
by way of
Memphis
got a big
laugh by cinema-goers
inside
the Bloor Hot Docs theatre.
As did
everything that came out of Keith Richards’ mouth.
Listening
to Richards talk about the music from there
is worth
the price of admission alone.
It was a
sold out night in Toronto
with a lineup on Bloor St W
that
wrapped around the cinema on both sides.
But we
got in to see this document on the life of Rick Hall,
Alabama
record producer, songwriter,
and music publisher,
and his
feud with New York record producer
Jerry Wexler,
who
produced Bob Dylan’s Slow Train Comin'
there.
We
learned all about Hall
wanting to be the next Sam Phillips,
(that guy
who made history at Sun Studio in Tennessee),
and how
he founded Fame Studios in his hometown
with the
help of a few local musicians.
It's the
story of a small town with a big sound.
And what
a story!
Hall’s
life was devastated by tragedy after tragedy.
Tragedies
that would have killed most people.
But Hall
in all his bitterness
“thrived
on rejection” in the music business.
One of his tragedies inspired the hit song
Patches by Clarence Carter.
And The
Rolling Stones recorded Wild Horses there.
Jimmy
Cliff recorded Sitting In Limbo there.
Bob Seger
recorded Main Street there.
Paul
Simon recorded Kodachrome there.
In fact,
so many great records were recorded there
by so
many great artists,
the head spins.
Lynyrd
Skynyrd not only recorded Free Bird there
but those
southern rockers
immortalized
the session players from there
in the
classic rock lyric:
"Now
Muscle Shoals has got The Swampers.
And
they've been known to pick a song or two.
(yes,
they do!)
Lord,
they get me off so much.
They pick
me up when I'm feeling blue,
now how
about you?"
It's also
a story about the challenges
blacks and whites faced
working
side by side in the southern United States
during
the scary days of the Civil Rights Movement.
Blacks
and whites who together made
some of the most soulful music
the world
has ever known.
This doc
is a Top 5 Must-See, trust me.
Watch
this clip and listen to all the musicians who matter
tell you
themselves
about the place where hit records were made...
The trailer for Muscle Shoals...
Bloor Hot Docs Cinema...
