Director: Greg ‘Freddy’ Camalier.
Running Time: 102 minutes.
Synopsis: Down in Alabama, Rick Hall founded Fame Studios and gave birth to the Muscle Shoals sound. Aretha Franklin, Mick Jagger, Greg Allman, Etta James, Wilson Pickett, Alicia Keys, Keith Richards, Bono and others bear witness to the greatest untold American music story.
MUSCLE SHOALS is a perfectly lovely documentary about some of the finest music ever recorded in the good ol’ U. S. of A., and what a celebration it is. From the frenzied joy of Pickett’s ‘Land Of A Thousand Dances’ over the opening titles, to the end credits’ ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ by Lynyrd Skynyrd, we are treated to ‘choon’ after ‘choon’ for the entirety of the film. Director Greg Camalier has assembled a who’s who of talking heads that recorded some of their finest songs in a small studio right there in Muscle Shoals. Such luminaries include Percy Sledge (When A Man Loves A Woman), Jagger/Richards (Wild Wild Horses), and Aretha Franklin (R.E.S.P.E.C.T.) who also reminisce on the significance of this small town in Alabama and how the pieces all fell correctly for them to collectively cut some legendary numbers there.
Despite the incredible roster (and Bono, who outstays his welcome before the opening credits), the most interesting interviews come from the studio’s session musicians known as The Swampers. This ragtag bunch of troubadours have played with everyone from Alicia Keys to Bob Dylan and they sure have some stories to tell. Amongst all the light-hearted camaraderie is the more sinister underbelly of culture at the time. This was Alabama in the 1960s, where local black folk were still picking cotton. Like GOOD VIBRATIONS (see review here), this is a tale of some of the most important music of the era rising above the background noise of segregation and hatred. It’s a pity that Camalier doesn’t focus more on this, but it’s easy to see why he focused more on the narrative of these people, as it is a road less travelled and is inherently more crowd-pleasing.
The central character in the documentary is Rick Hall, the founder of Fame Studios. He tells us of his youth and the hardships of growing up how and where he did. Here is a man who has suffered more tragedy than anyone ever should, and where losing his new wife, little brother and father in tragic accidents could have destroyed him, it instead strengthened his resolve and he committed to making the most out of his life. The musical legacy Hall has cemented is perhaps beyond compare, and his is a story that needs to be told.
This said, it could have been told in less time. Despite its best intentions, MUSCLE SHOALS does drag a bit. It’s aesthetically pleasing and the director makes great use of his surrounding environment, capturing imagery of a town at work, mirroring the dedication that Hall has to his own craft. But essentially, this is a series of enjoyable anecdotes which would be more at home in a BBC Four documentary than on the big screen. If you like the music (and you really, really should), then you’ll find this to be an insightful and likeable experience, but not much more than that.
THE SUNDANCE LONDON FILM AND MUSIC FESTIVAL RUNS FROM 25-28 APRIL AT THE O2. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION AND TICKETS VISIT: http://www.sundance-london.com
kperk
May 26, 2013 at 5:28 am
John, I’m white and blacks weren’t the only ones picking cotton. In fact, I never saw a black person picking cotton but there plenty of us poor white folk out there.