710 ASHBURY STREET

VERY IMPORTANT ANNIVERSARY TOMORROW
ON OCTOBER 2, 1967:37 YEARS AGO TOMORROW- WEAR AND PIGPEN WERE ARRESTED AT 710 ASHBURY STREET.
HEY, MAN!!!! THEY NEEDED ROBERT HUNTER TO PLEAD THEIR CASE!!!!
BEST,
REG

RE: [MFV] When A Man Loves A Woman

Hey guys,
What's up? "When a man loves a woman" was recorded on an Ampex 350, 1/4" monorual machine. It was a 350 or351; can't exactly remember but, I believe it was a 350. The console (mixer - desk, whichever you prefer) was an old modified RCA radio station console with the "airplane"(big) knobs. No EQ. The horns were overdubed using a"Crown" mono 1/4" machine, which was a MF to use.No selenoid controls; totally manual.

Quin had built a vertical echo chamber behind the control roomright next to the bathroom. It was non-parallell walls and celings.A mic and a speaker was inside it.The best I can remember is; an "RCA 44" was used to mic the bass(forget direct in - it wasn't avaiable in those days). Quin had an"RCA 77" but I can't remember if he used it on the vocals or not.At the new studio on Broadway ave. I know the had one of thoseultra expensive (even then) "Telefunken" mics with the tube in itand the power supply on the floor. I can't remember the modelnumber. It was a "hoss" though. It would pick up a mousepissing on cotton at a hundred yards.

There was a mix up on the pressing of the final mix. Wexler didn't like the out of tune horns and wanted Quin to re-do them. Quin did re-do them using the Memphis horns. He sent it back to Wex and Wex, in turn, sent the wrong (original) mix to the pressing plant.And, as they say, the rest is history. I, personally, wouldn't have it any other way. The original has magic.I have a copy of the "new" horns. I much prefer the original with the Jack Peck out of tune trumpet.

The night the session was recorded I started to stop by but, I had been playing a gig and was tired and wanted to get home. Actually, I didn't want my wife bitching at me. But, I was by the studio the next day and Quin played it for me. I believe it was before the horns were overdubbed.God, that was in 1966. It's hard for me to remember back that far with any kind of precise accuracy. But, the recorders and mics I would bet the farm on.

By the way; that's one of those very shitty "Farfisa" organs on the record. It was borrowed from Bob Killen for this session. I played a gig with bob this past July. 'Course, he's updated his gear since then.

The personal we're Marlin Greene, Juinor Lowe, Roger Hawkins and Spooner Oldham. I'm not certain who played piano. It may have been Spooner. He may have overdubbed the Farfisa. Jimmy Johnson was the engineer.

Overdubbing was time intensive back then. You had to take the mastertrack and run it through one channel of the mixer and bring the instruments you were overdubbing through the other channels and take the output of the mixer and go to another tape recorder. All this was before multi-track recording.That old Crown machine I mentioned earlier would eat tape. One had to be very carefull using it.

Anyway, a little history. I was pretty much there when it happened, though not totally. Just about everything Percy recorded after that I was generally hanging around. Roger had the drumming gig sewed up then.

Wyker, you are right. Quin was a DJ. He was from Oxford Mississippi.He moved to the Shoals to work for WLAY radio. He also opened upa record store called "Quin Ivey's Tune Town". And yes, some of his recordings were released on "Norala". I have several of them. He also had a label called "South Camp" which was distributed by Atlantic.I'm pretty sure that Norala was just a label. The official name for the studio was Quinvy Studio. I'm gonna call Quin today or tonight and get the low down for certain.

BTW, this studio was later turned into Muscle Shoals Sound's B studio. 104 east second street.Their A studio was located at 3614 Jackson Highway.
Later on guys and gals
Be-Bop>
[Original Message]> From: ">MIGHTYFIELDofVISION@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [MFV] When A Man Loves A Woman>>>
Dear Ya'll !>
I have always thought that the whole "thinkin'" if you can call it that behind some of the thangs that people have done in the music bizzz was a little crazy...>> Take Quinn Ivy for example,,,,he's a DJ that thinks he can cut a hit...so he does'nt have much money...but he goes out and buys some gear that probably ain't what he would have bought if he had of had more money..>> anyway...the stuff works well enough...>> So he gathers a bunch of talented hungrey people around him and they set out to cut and R and B hit record...>> And what do you know....>> from ignorance and the limitations of money and equipment and all kinds of other obsticals they turn out WHEN A MAN LOVES A WOMAN.... with the horns out of tune and all....>> They turn out one of the greatest Soul,R and B,and all round great songs that has EVER been recorded..ANYWHERE....ANYTIME...WITH ANYBODY....ANYHOW !>>
And what do they do............they tear up the whole plan and say it is not good enough....but it made enough money to build somethang less "funky",,,,that cost more...but somewhere along the way they lost their soul !>> The old way was not good enough..but it worked !>> wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwyker>

MIGHTY FIELD of VISION>>>>> > > > From: Idrissa Dia > To: MIGHTYFIELDofVISION@yahoogroups.com> >
Subject: Re: [MFV] Irma Thomas/Doris Duke> > >
> Pete Carr said "...Ivey and Marlin Greene recorded the Percy Sledge hit> > but now that I think back Broadway was a newer studio".

Reading the> > previous message by Jim Evans, I understand now why that session was> > said to have recorded at "Norala" on some entries. We always simplify things by saying that it was at Quinvy. Thanks Jim for clarifying it for me.> >
Idrissa
Subject: Re: [MFV] When A Man Loves A Woman
In my ole deckhand daze, I used t' carry a Pignose out on the front of the
barges, away from the noise of the boat, tie a cord to it, lower it through
the manhole into the empty void tank that was about 35' X 12', plug in my
ES-335 and wail.
Talk about some great echo!

Course, right before I did that I'd usually burn one, which may have
improved the sound quality a wee bit...

olecap




I personally like beating on a mic stand base with a hammer.
That's what I used on "Middle Class Man" during the chorus. Get
a nice BAING sound.

--- In MIGHTYFIELDofVISION@yahoogroups.com,
"mikescarpetcleaning" wrote:
> I just retiled my bathroom floor and I've got several sections of
> tile that are still stuck to the cement board if anyone wants
them
> for tapping, or a splasback effect. God knows I'm not gonna
use em.
>
>
> --- In MIGHTYFIELDofVISION@yahoogroups.com, Stephen
Foster
> wrote:
> > The Eurhythmics cut their first two albums in their apartment
on an
> > 8-tk, using the bathroom for reverb chamber. After they went
gold,
> > they cut the 3rd album at a big studio, and liked it so little that
> > they did the 4th back at the apartment on the old 8-tk.
> >
> > >Here's Ken Babbs's[Kesey's best buddy who was a main
character in
> > >Tom Wolfe's THE ELECTRIC KOOL-AID ACID TEST] reply
on Evans's
> > >description of the recording of "When A Man Loves A
Woman" .Check
> > >out Babbs website
http://skypilotclub.com
> > >
> > >sounds like the same kind of recording techniques kesey
and I used
> > >with our ampex including adding overdubs later by playing
the
> > >original tape on one channel of another machine and
overdubbing on
> > >the second channel of the other machine if that makes
sense; we
> also
> > >did some crazy echo chambers using bathrooms, shower
stalls and one
> > >of the best was a milk vat at his brother chuck's creamery.
lotsa
> > >fun, great sounds. great tapes. all stored now, maybe
someday
> someone
> > >will work on them and make them available.
> > >
> > >kb

Hey Hans,
I apologize for copying and pasteing from your website but you can copy and paste from my website.
We just out here in the world. Nair nothin' but a thang. Nothin' but a chicken wang hangin by a strang down at the Burger Kang where I'm looking fo' my wedding rang while smoking a KoolFilterKang from my porch swang down on Martin Luther Kang!!!!
Hope ya like what ya see.
best,
roberto http://robertoreg.blogspot.com
http://snakedoctor.blogspot.com
http://cottonkingdom.blogspot.com


From:
"abbdiscography"
To:
robertoreg2003@yahoo.com
Subject:
Re: mo' allmans stuff
Date:
Thu, 30 Sep 2004 03:17:32 +0200


Hi Roberto,

Thanks for your email and the link to your weblog. I found some interesting facts there about the Allman Joys. I've printed it out and and gonna take a closer look at it.
I've noticed that there is some discussion about an Allman Joys picture with the big white lettering "THE ALLMAN JOYS 1966". I used that picture for the cover of a CDR with the 1966 Pensacola, FL recording that I received through a trade and added the big white lettering myself, not knowing at that time who the other musicians on the picture exactly were and when this picture was taken. This picture with the big white lettering shown on your weblog was taken from my website http://www.abbdiscography.com/ so the big white lettering was not on the original picture.

Take care,
Hans van Ryswyk
(The Netherlands)


Subject: mo' allmans stuff
I gotta weblog called “Cuba, Alabama” and I am starting to collect Allmans stuff. http://robertoreg.blogspot.com/
Check it out.
Love what you’re doing.
Best,
Roberto KA$H Register



By the way, the Allman Joys line-up in that photo
L-R is: Gregg Allman (does anybody know what kind of
keyboard he's playing?), Bob Keller (the Allman Joy
who would later be bassist for the Hour Glass between
albums one and two. He's the guy who disappeared just
before a gig, catapulting Pete Carr into the position
of official bassist for the band), Duane Allman, and
Bill Connell. Bill took Maynard Portwood's place on
drums. Bill also was previously the occasional
drummer for the 5 Minutes (a/k/a the Men-its).
Hornsby told me that Sandlin and Connell went back and
forth -- one or the other of them quitting every few
weeks, and that the Allman Joys finally solved the
problem by "stealing him" for their band.

-- Randy

THE WEBS: The Roots of Dothan Rock 'N Roll
THANK YOU JIMMY DEAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LEFT TO RIGHT: DAVE ROBINSON, AMOS TINDALL, BOBBY GOLDSBORO, JOHN RAINEY ADKINS, GERALD HALL

http://www.archives.state.al.us/famous/academy/f_rose.html

Subject: Re: [MFV] Re: CAUTION!!!! YOU ARE NOW ENTERING THE SWAMP ROCK ZONE!!!!
ashamed of the area's past.>

Damn,Dick, those words stuck with me. For more ways
than one, a lot of people I have no use for have the
same opinion as you do. Like the people on the State
of Alabama Board of Education who eliminated Alabama
History as a graduation requirement in Alabama's
public schools so for the first time in my lifetime,
seniors graduating from Alabama's high schools in
2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004 had no Alabama History in
the ninth grade and like my son who is in the 10th
grade this year who will never have the opportunity of
taking Alabama History in high school.

But I kept thinking about "being ashamed of the
area's past" and I tried to blow it off but I just
couldn't forget what you wrote and I was kinda in
denial because I said things to myself like," Yeah,
I'm ashamed of Alabama's past because my ancestors
didn't kick the Indians asses in 1804 instead of 1814
or that my people didn't kill more Yankees during the
War Between the States." But I was still bothered by
what you wrote and last night I remembered a moment
when I was ashamed of Alabama's past. When I came up
to enroll at Bama in the fall of '68, I got in a lot
of trouble right off the bat. I beat the shit out of a
guy from my high school named "Stud" who had also
enrolled at the University of Alabama. Man, they
threatened to kick me out of school and take away my
2-S deferment until they found out that "Stud" really
did need the bloody royal ass whipping I had
administered. Anyway, I got to know all the dorm
directors because they were the ones I was dealing
with because of the fight. One of the dorm directors
was David Carroll and I knew him from Boy Scouts down
in Dothan. He and I became really good friends at Bama
and we ate together in the Friedman Hall cafeteria.
Well one night we come into the dining room and
they're serving us tossed salad, baked potatoes and
STEAK! I looked behind me in the serving line and
there was Dr. Frank Rose, the President of The
University of Alabama. When I sat down, he sat down
right across the table from me because he wanted to
eat with David. I don't know whether you remember Dr.
Rose but he could suck the oxygen out of the room. He
had a PRESENSE. We asked him what he was doing there
and he said he wanted to talk to us in the TV room
after we finished eating. We asked what he was gonna
talk about and he said he was gonna quit the
University and he wanted us to be the first to know.
We were in shock. We asked him why he was quitting and
he said something like this," All my life I have been
able to raise money but I can't raise money for the
University anymore in Montgomery because I am being
shunned by the Wallace crowd."
"But Dr. Rose," somebody said," Wallace ain't the
governor. Brewer is." to which Rose replied,"Wallace
still runs Montgomery and he will be re-elected in
1970 and he will not support this university as long
as I am the President."
"Why,Dr. Rose?"
"Because I integrated the University of Alabama
without any violence and by all accounts integration
of this institution is a resounding success!"

Yeah, I know what it feels like to be ashamed of
Alabama's past. Thanks for reminding me.
best,
robert

Robert,
The book is progressing very well. We plan to ship the disks by the end of October to Hong Kong for printing. There are a few photos that we need to obtain a higher resolution so we can obtain the highest print quality possible. The book is large. It's probably going to come in around 480 11" x 17" pages and will include 400 + photos. It will be cloth hard back and be probably the purple maroon color you see at the http://www.heybabydays.com web site. The laminate dust jacket will have a similar theme as the web page. The book might weigh as much as 10 lbs. because we are using 100 lb. gloss paper. The two cds containing 47 cuts by 46 bands will be packaged inside the book. I think there are 7 cuts by bands from Alabama from the ‘60s. Unfortunately, the book will not be ready by the Goldsboro concert but when it is ready, we would be pleased to have the book sold in Dothan to raise money for a worthy cause. There is significant amount of material in the book about Wilbur Walton & The James Gang as well as the Candymen and we have had tremendous support from many of their members as well as Buddy Buie. Since there are photos of all those groups as well as Buddy in the book, maybe they could be on hand to sign the book and make it more meaningful for their fans. WE DO NOT HAVE A PHOTO OF THE EARLY WEBS WHICH WE REALLY NEED, especially if book proceeds are going to help underwrite the cost of a mural. Provided the members of the James Gang, Candymen, Webs, and Buddy Buie are behind the project, we would be happy to help.
Regards,
Greg Haynes


From: robert register <http://us.f606.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=robertoreg2003@yahoo.com&YY=77952&order=down&sort=date&pos=0&view=a&head=b>>
Date: 2004/09/27 Mon PM 07:06:48 EDT>
To: http://us.f606.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=rarereads@bellsouth.net&YY=77952&order=down&sort=date&pos=0&view=a&head=b>
Subject: Financing Dothan's Giant Rock 'N Roll Work Of Art>
> Greg:>
Got any ideas on how to raise money to paint the Webs mural. Goldsboro is gonna play the Dothan Civic Center on Friday, November 19. Maybe we could get the ball rolling then.> How's progress on The Heeey Baby Days of Beach Music coming?> best,> robert

05-07-69: University of Alabama,Tuscaloosa, Alabama Johnny B. Goode, Purple Haze, Manic Depression, Hey Joe, I Don't Live Today, The Wind Cries Mary, Fire, Foxy Lady, Red House All Along the Watchtower, Voodoo Chile(Fat Mattress opened)

Jimi Hendrix performing at the Memorial Coliseum in Tuscaloosa, May 7, 1969
courtesy of WTBC
http://www.wtbc1230.com/history.html
Robert,
Ok here is the story.
On May 7th I went to the Hendrix concert at Memorial Coliseum (now
Coleman Coliseum) with my room mate Hoagy (Guy Huthnance) and his
girlfriend who's name time has swallowed. She was the key to this story. Fat
Mattress, Noel Redding's group, opened the show. At the break we all went
to the bathroom. Hoagy's date was a very attractive person and the head
of the University Program Council had the hots for her. During the
break she ran into him and he said " why don't you come with me after the
show. We are taking Hendrix to the Citizen's club for a party." She
said, no thanks and then came and told us what was going on. I had run into
Pete Kinnear and told him of our plans to go to the Citizens Club to
party with Hendrix. The four of us crammed into my Triump Spitfire and
went to the club. This was the old Citizens Club that burned 20+ years
ago and was later moved to a new location. I had been there several times
before with other mixed race bands that I had played with and felt
comfortable being there. When we got there, we were the only white folks
there, but that was OK. We waited and enjoyed the soul band that was
playing there. About 30 minutes later, when we were beginning to doubt that
they would show, here came the entourage. I stood up and shook
Hendrix's hand and told him how much I enjoyed the show. They all sat down at
the table next to us. The British guys from Fat Mattress were seated
next to me and we partied with them that night since Hendrix was
immediately surrounded by groupies. They were a little nervous about being in a
all black club in the south, but loosened up enough to get up and play.
They played a few songs and then left the stage. After their set, I
went to pee and Noel Redding came in. We had a nice chit-chat about music
while we both emptied our bladders. The rest of the night was spent
drinking beers and talking music with new friends. End of story.



Boy,Howdy! Do I ever have memories of that show!!!!

http://www.dothanalcvb.com/murals.htm
I had a long phone conversation with former Dothan Mayor Larry Register tonight. The key to going before the mural committee with a Dothan Rock 'N Roll mural is to put your money where your mouth is. Larry wants me to contact everyone who was a part of the Webs to see whether they have any ideas about paying for the mural. These paintings are high. They have been done for as little as $10,000 but the railroad mural being painted now will cost $75,000. Larry feels like Movie Gallery is going to be a good place to pitch. They are getting into the music business now. They are into soundtracks to movies but they are also selling extended play videos over the Web. Please check out the Movie Gallery information below and check out this unique way they are selling country music over the Internet. If any of ya'll have an inside track with Joe Malugen or Harrison Parrish, please forward this email to them. I also want Buddie Buie to receive this email.
Every day is another opportunity to excell and the progress we are achieving is remarkable.
best,
Robert Register

Movie Gallery was formed in 1985 by Joe Malugen and Harrison Parrish in Dothan, Alabama. Through its wholly-owned subsidiary, M.G.A., Inc., the Company's founders began operating video specialty stores in southern Alabama and the Florida panhandle, and franchising the Movie Gallery store concept. By June 1987 the Company owned five stores and had a franchise operation of 45 stores. In 1988, the Company began to consolidate the franchisees into Company owned stores. By 1992, The Company had a total of 37 stores and annual revenues of $6 million.

Given the Company's rural roots, it was a natural progression that Movie Gallery would concentrate on building new stores in smaller towns and cities. Additionally, the rapidly growing and very profitable video rental industry had grown primarily as an industry built by a large number of entrepreneurs, each of whom had a relatively small number of locations. With this in mind, Messers. Malugen and Parrish set out to consolidate the industry through the acquisition of various "mom and pop" operators. By 1994, the Company had grown to 73 stores with annual revenues of $12 million.


Today Movie Gallery is the second largest video specialty retailer in the United States with over 2000 stores, and is the proud employer of over 16,000 associates. Given the quality of our associates and the loyalty of our customers, the future is very bright for Movie Gallery. Every day we get closer to making our mission statement a reality:

"We will be the dominant entertainment source for video and video game rental and sale in rural and secondary markets in the United States."

Movie Gallery is now getting into the music business. They are selling music videos over the Internet. Check it out by clicking on the address below:
http://www.moviegallery.com/templates/mixmusic.html

Subject:
[MFV] Re: CAUTION!!!! YOU ARE NOW ENTERING THE SWAMP ROCK ZONE!!!!

Was it some sort of reverse racism/prejudice? Because that's what it sounds like.It really is a shame because before 10 years of "Reconstruction" had taken its toll and made black and white enemies of each other there really wasn't much of a difference between poor whites and recently freed blacks (keeping in mind that there really was no middle class in those days, just haves and have-nots) southern culture was southern culture, not black culture or white culture.If you go up north and eat in a soul food diner what you usually find is not exclusive to black folks but is what we all ate, and in a lot of cases continue to eat to this day down here, but since whites up there don't chow down on hog jaws, black eyed peas or pig knuckles, fatback, cornbread, and a whole slew of other thangs that my grandma used to cook they think that it's food exclusive to black folks and don't even realize that it comes from years of agrarian living and eating the "whole hog" if you will, because in a few months there might not be another hog and you had to use everything, not just bacon and hams and chops, and dang I still love me some cracklin's.I kinda got off the subject but it has always seemed to me, being from North Alabama where all this great music happened (being from around here helps to at least know what was going on, the average guy black or white doesn't know that it was black singers and white guitarists, writers, etc on those Gold Soul albums Ktell puts out), it always looked to me like people with soul weren't black or white, but were for the most part, southern.I hate that King was shot, I hate that nobody seemed to know that they were being played for a fool (society in general that is) when black and white were being torn apart culturally and musically. It really shows what the power of suggestion can do. The powers that be keep us filled with distrust of each other I guess so that we won't have time to worry about what they are actually doing to us.I know, I know, some say slavery was the cause of that, but let's face it, anyone who is alive in 2004 and doesn't know that slavery wasn't just about whites owning blacks but blacks owned blacks as well is just wanting to be ignorant about the fact, plus blacks actually fought on the side of the Confederacy, along with the Cherokee indians just proves my point. We weren't really that seperated a society before the Jim Crow laws went into effect, we were southern, black, white, red, with our chow and our music, we were southern.
AS Ever,
Hubbard

Subject: Re: [MFV] Re: CAUTION!!!! YOU ARE NOW ENTERING THE SWAMP ROCK ZONE!!!!




Subject:
Re: [MFV] Re: CAUTION!!!! YOU ARE NOW ENTERING THE SWAMP ROCK ZONE!!!!

http://www.simonsays.com/content/content.cfm?sid=33&pid=487708&agid=2&aid=1050396
Dick:
Thanks for the comments. The link above is to Simon & Schuster's web site and they include Kemp's Preface, Intro and an excerpt from a chapter.
I just can't relate to what he's talking about because I have never had this love/hate relationship with our region that Kemp writes about. All of the terrible racial incidents that he quotes from Jimmy Johnson, Phil Walden, Jerry Wexler, Charlie Daniels, Dr. John and from his own life seem pretty damn tame to me. Just everyday life. No big deal. Now cutting and shooting, that's a big deal. I didn't read anything about that in his descriptions of incidents that showed a little bigotry from a few Southern white folks. I'd like to know what his mother and her kin folks think about his "Dixie Lullaby."
I guess I can't relate because I have had to sacrifice so much time and money in my life to trying to get high with some pussy. That's what rock music has always meant to me: A good vibe that makes a pretty girl want to shake her ass. This other stuff goes over my head.
Again, thanks for taking the time to respond. I still think Mr. Kemp oughtta just twist one up, pop a beer, turn up the volume , give his girlfriend a phone call and leave the cultural commentary on the Deep South to some other idiot from New Yawk City.

I'll bet he'll be going back to the icy north where he belongs and go back to writing for the New York Times and The Rolling Stone before it's all over with. Southern man don't need his sensitive ass around anyhow....
best,
Robertdickdjour wrote:
Robert,I'm sorry, from the perspective of the studio players and producersinvolved the murder of Dr. King caused the end of the white playersworking on soul records. I've heard the people involved discuss thison many occasions, and their stories are all pretty much the same.The black artists just quit using white musicians after Dr. King's death.There are exceptions, but I really don't think there is any connectionbetween the rise of Southern Rock and the demise of multi-racial soulrecordings.Muscle Shoals Sound more than any studio continued the Soul trend,i.e. the Staple Singers, Dells, Millie Jackson, etc., but that wasmore dependent on the personalities and musicianship of Beckett,Hawkins, Hood, Johnson, Hinton, Carr than on the fact that they werewhite. Ronnie Van Sant certainly represented the rise of the new Southernrocker, but he was influenced more by the British musician's versionof Black music than anything done by Pickett, Redding or theircontemporaries.The situation with Duane is somewhat of a gray area, but Duane was aunique individual that didn't fit into any particular niche. Histalent transended stereotypes of the time.I don't mean to take anything away from the Southern Rock artists.They certainly drew from many styles of music. Skynyrd was greatlyinfluenced by Jimmy Johnson and the guys at MSS, but it wasn'tnecessairly connected to Soul music.Wexler is especially strong on this point. He had obviously been atthe forefront of the Soul Music movement. He has told me that theshooting of Dr. King was the pivotal event that changed everything.
Dick

Chuck:
Renegade Robert Nix (drummer for The Candymen, Atlanta Rhythm Section and for Skynyrd on "Tuesday's Gone") is backing you up fellow:

I MUST ADMIT I REMEMBER THIS EXACTLY THE WAY CHUCK HAS IT!!! WE WERE ALL IN ATLANTA AS A RHYTHM SECTION VERY MUCH INFLUNCED BY WHAT ROGER HAWKINS AND THE SWAMPERS HAD BEEN DOING FOR YEARS!! GOD BLESS THEM FOR THEIR AMAZING MUSICAL FUSION!!! WHAT THE HELL HAS RACE GOT TO DO WITH IT ANYWAY? EXCEPT MAYBE SOME WHITE DUDES WERE BACKING UP SOME BLACK BROTHERS AND SISTERS!!! OF COURSE, THESE ARE MY MEAGER PERCEPTIONS AND NOT MEANT TO UNCOVER ANY NEW PROFOUND MUSICAL REVELATIONS!!! YOU'D THINK THIS GUY HAD UNEARTHED THE SOUTHERN MUSIC ROSETTA STONE OR SOMETHING!! I THINK HIS INTERPRETATION IS A LITTLE OFF BASE!!! RENEGADE ROBERT NIX!!!

Subject:

Re: [MFV] Re: CAUTION!!!! YOU ARE NOW ENTERING THE SWAMP ROCK ZONE!!!!

Hubbard:

Really enjoyed your comments. They brought a lot of things to mind for me. The military bases in Alabama were all integrated in 1948. From that point until the Civil Rights Act of 1964, legal segregation in Bama was a Supreme Absurdity. Luckily, I grew up near Ft. Rucker and had a father who liked to point out the ridiculous and crazy local customs like allowing a black man to purchase anything he wanted in the new Sears store but not allowing him into the lunch counter to buy his children a Coca-Cola.

A really good book on race relations in Alabama is now out of print but you can probably get it from the library. It is entitled GREEN POWER and was written by A.G. Gaston, the founder of Booker T. Washington Insurance Co. I never met Mr. Gaston but I met his wife on two occasions and she was one of the greatest leaders I have ever been around. You may remember Louis Willie being the first black to get into Greystone Country Club after the PGA blowup with Mr. Thompson. Gaston hired Mr. Willie as his accountant and Mr. Willie became Gaston's right hand man and eventually took over the company.

Gaston describes in detail the frustration he experienced when he returned from Europe after World War I. All the blacks in the U.S. Army had been promised their civil rights when they returned home after victory but when they got back here all they found was a resurgence of the KKK fueled by W.D. Griffith's Birth of a Nation.

Blacks who fought during WWII were made the same sorts of promises but when they returned they found white politicians who would sell their soul for a vote and watched as these rascals worked to divide the races rather than unite them. Big Jim Folsom was the exception but he had some other problems and next thing ya know John Patterson is elected Governor in '58 preaching racial segregation and other politicians knew a good thing when they saw it and got on the segregation gravy train.

I do sincerely believe one thing is true. This is not the time or place for anyone in Alabama to be suffering from "White Guilt." Entire neighborhoods in Tuscaloosa are always a moment away from lawlessness and West B'ham is a totally hopeless situation. After the Thursday, June 17, killing of Officers Owen, Bennett and Chisholm at that crack house in Tuxedo Junction, most folks have written the Tragic City off. Might as well build a wall around it and let 'em go at it. People are being murdered over there all the time and NO MURDER WARRANT IS EVER ISSUED TO ANYONE. Everything there is becoming based on personal retribution. No law at all.

Anyway, all of us need to be good citizens and do everything in our power to make our communities safe. I am out there in it every day and I have never done any work more satisfying than to provide safe shelter for little children, even if their mother did become a great grandmother at the ripe old age of 45.

best,

roberto

mikescarpetcleaning wrote:

Was it some sort of reverse racism/prejudice? Because that's what it
sounds like.

It really is a shame because before 10 years of "Reconstruction" had
taken its toll and made black and white enemies of each other there
really wasn't much of a difference between poor whites and recently
freed blacks (keeping in mind that there really was no middle class
in those days, just haves and have-nots) southern culture was
southern culture, not black culture or white culture.

If you go up north and eat in a soul food diner what you usually find
is not exclusive to black folks but is what we all ate, and in a lot
of cases continue to eat to this day down here, but since whites up
there don't chow down on hog jaws, black eyed peas or pig knuckles,
fatback, cornbread, and a whole slew of other thangs that my grandma
used to cook they think that it's food exclusive to black folks and
don't even realize that it comes from years of agrarian living and
eating the "whole hog" if you will, because in a few months there
might not be another hog and you had to use everything, not just
bacon and hams and chops, and dang I still love me some cracklin's.

I kinda got off the subject but it has always seemed to me, being
from North Alabama where all this great music happened (being from
around here helps to at least know what was going on, the average guy
black or white doesn't know that it was black singers and white
guitarists, writers, etc on those Gold Soul albums Ktell puts out),
it always looked to me like people with soul weren't black or white,
but were for the most part, southern.

I hate that King was shot, I hate that nobody seemed to know that
they were being played for a fool (society in general that is) when
black and white were being torn apart culturally and musically. It
really shows what the power of suggestion can do. The powers that be
keep us filled with distrust of each other I guess so that we won't
have time to worry about what they are actually doing to us.

I know, I know, some say slavery was the cause of that, but let's
face it, anyone who is alive in 2004 and doesn't know that slavery
wasn't just about whites owning blacks but blacks owned blacks as
well is just wanting to be ignorant about the fact, plus blacks
actually fought on the side of the Confederacy, along with the
Cherokee indians just proves my point. We weren't really that
seperated a society before the Jim Crow laws went into effect, we
were southern, black, white, red, with our chow and our music, we
were southern.

AS Ever,

Hubbard

AMEN! Brother Chuck! Tell it all, bruthuh, tell it all!
Hope ya don't mind me posting this on Cuba, Alabama but your comments hit the nail on the head. Don't worry about being called any names because of your opinion. You had no ill will in anything you wrote but I won't say the same about Kemp. As much trouble as we have in this world and this knucklehead goes out and writes a book where he waves the "race card" at a time when we gotta work together if we're gonna do something about this huge mass of young, cussing, unhappy, miserable, worthless jokers walking our streets and waving pistols in the air while hunting up hell on a daily basis.
thanks,
roberto http://robertoreg.blogspot.com


cedwinsnow wrote:
If I have my history right, John Hammond or someone like him cut two
albums on Aretha in New York which were total flops. It was only when
she came south and recorded in the shoals that any success at all
occurred. The mixture of memphis jazz and blues, unique idioms like
bluegrass and southern hillbilly and country music figured in, and
there were some invented elements as well, a little dash of
rockabilly, and this amalgam of musical styles became soul music as
we know it, and the existence of black musicians in this milieu is to
soul music as the ornaments and lights are to the christmas tree. The
identity of soul music appears to have its roots in Muscle Shoals
players of the day, and this writer cat Kemp has got the cart before
the horse--blacks just went on to other forms of music, mostly
ballads surrounding themes of personal relationships and bodily
functions, and later "Hip-Hop"(which I strenuously object to calling
music) and their absence from the scene did not do anything to alter
soul music, it just sort of moved into white soul music, which it was
from the beginning and always will be anyway--witness the 'rhythm
section' of the day and one can look at folks like The Allman
Brothers, Wyker's band(s), and in the mid-years Sea Level, Dixie
Dreggs, the Alabama Power Band, American Cyrkus, etc and in latter
days, Delbert McClinton and Bonnie Raitt. If this were not true, all
the black soul acts would have started out recording in memphis or
atlanta or los angeles, detroit or new york--which some later did--
staxx, motown,etc....but it all started with a bunch of white
southerners from Alabamalamaland!!

The black artists did not close ranks and split the scene, they did
not invent the scene, the scene predated them and they were just
lucky enough to have passed through and have some of our white soul
rub off on them.

I am not speaking as a racist here at all--more as a musicologist,
just interpreting historical events and laying it out as I see it.

That's my impression. I look forward to hearing what the tribe has to
say on the subject--

Thanks and happy Sunday to everybody!!

Chuck

Randy:
Squirm is Bill "Squirmy" Stewart who played drums in ' 69 with Tippy Armstrong, Paul Hornsby and Frank Friedman/Charlie Hayward in SouthCamp along with Ronnie Seitel and Chuck Leavell. It is my understanding that Mr. Stewart does not appreciate being called by his nickname because he earned the tag by being squirmy.
best,
Robert Register


SouthCamp: August '69
courtesy of Bruce Hopper
far left,with only head partially showing, Chuck Leavell
Paul Hornsby on keyboards
Bill "Squirmy" Stewart on drums
Glenn Butts on guitar
Frank Friedman on bass

"Wow the Southcamp photo that was second is very similar to the one I took that afternoon in August of 1969. Same angle. There was a lot of jammin going on that aafternoon. was Townsend the source for that picture? He is mistaken about Mullinex playing. My picture has Squirmy on drums (same shirt as in your pic, but you can see Bill's receding hairline in my pic, definately not Lou. My pic also includes Hornsby and half of Chuck's head. Glen Butts is standing where Charlie is and Frank is playing bass. In your pic, Frank's bassman is on the ground but in by pic it is on the stage. I think that a lot of people played that day on the quad. The neat thing is that there is only a two recepticle plug that came out of the ground next to that big Oak Tree. All the power came from there. You had to be careful about how many amps were pluged in or someone would have to go and replace a fuse in the ROTC building." BRUCE HOPPER

Another shot from the same afternoon

T-TOWN GIG ON THE QUAD- Bill "Squirmy" Stewart on drums, RONNIE SEITEL WHO PLAYED FOR THIS SIDE UP, CHARLIE HAYWARD(now playing for the Charlie Daniels Band) ON BASS AND FRANK FRIEDMAN WHO ALSO PLAYED FOR THIS SIDE UP

Dear Pete, Changing the subject from politics for a moment,I've got a couple of CD-Rs Swamp Dogg burned for me ofIrma Thomas - In Between Tears & Doris Duke - I'm ALoser. On the credits, both albums say the guitars areyou and Duane. Regarding the Irma Thomas album, I'veread that Duane only played on "You're The Dog (I DoAll The Barking Myself)" and the medley called "ComingFrom Behind (Monologue)/Wish Someone Would Care." (That medley blows me away everytime I listen to it. The way she segues right from the monologue straightinto the song is amazing.) Is it your recollectionthat Duane and you played together on those two tracks(and that he wasn't on any of the other songs on thatalbum)? Re: the Doris Duke album, I've read that youplayed lead and Duane played rhythm on the wholealbum. Is that your recollection? Finally, the Irma Thomas album lists the drummeras "Squirm." Was that Johnny Sandlin or somebodyelse? I know Johnny played on the Doris Duke album,but I'm not aware of his nickname being Squirm (unlessthat's something Swamp Dogg just made up for the albumcredits). Thanks.Randy

Randy Poe is writing a definitive biography of Duane Allman. Here's an email he sent Johnny Wyker [Magnificent 7, Rubber Band, Sailcat] last night. Thought you cats might like to see how well the wheels of progress are turning.

Dear Wyker, Okay, this one's for you. I'm working on thesection of the book where Duane's now started doingsessions at Fame. According to Rodney Hall, the dateson the tape boxes show that Duane came to town andplayed on sessions with Clarence Carter (Road of Love,Harper Vallety PTA, etc.) prior to playing on thePickett session that included "Hey Jude." (Mostpeople seem to recall "Hey Jude" being the first thingDuane played on at Fame, but the tape box dates andRick Hall both dispute that. I'm conjecturing thatsome people think that was the first thing Duaneplayed on because that was the session that causedRick to call Wexler and play him Duane's guitar soloat the end of "Hey Jude" over the phone.) I've found a quote from Duane where he says thatafter the Pickett session, Rick convinced him to moveup to the Shoals. It would appear that prior tomoving to Muscle Shoals, Duane was commuting fromJacksonville (where he was living with Berry Oakley)when he played on the Clarence Carter and WilsonPickett sessions (and maybe even the Arthur Conleysession that took place about a week after the Pickettsession). I read in an interview you did for Gritz that atone point you and Eddie Hinton and Duane wereroommates. Was that when he first moved up to Alabamain what would have been late '68 or early '69? Or wasit sometime prior to that? If it was prior to that,do you recall if he was already playing on sessions atFame? The earliest things I can find that he playedon for Rick as a session player at Fame were Carter,Pickett, Conley and Willie Walker, all of which wouldhave been in late '68. The Hour Glass demos were done at Fame on April11, 1968, so Duane was already familiar with thestudio by the time he ended up there playing on theClarence Carter sessions that started in October of'68 (after the Hour Glass broke up). I'm still tryingto figure out how he ended up there in October of '68.Rick says he just showed up, looking for work afterthe demise of the Hour Glass. Unfortunately, Duane'snot around to say how or why he was there, and Greggwas out of the picture at that time since he had runback to LA to cut a bunch of pretty bad solo recordsto fulfill the Hour Glass's contractual obligations toLiberty Records. Anyway, I know Duane eventually lived in theStokes Cottage cabin on Wilson Lake, but I'm assumingthat's after you and Eddie and he were roommates. Does that make sense? Thanks.Randy