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8. A Place in the Sun
- University Press of Mississippi
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8 9 One album for Wilson Pickett, the beginning of a new project for King Curtis, and an additional few sides cut for Don Covay—by the time the Atlantic crew left American at the end of that monumental Fourth of July week, they must have felt they had been treated to a display of fireworks like none other. Those summer months were the turning point. C h ap t e r 8 A Place in the Sun American became a success before the musicians fully had time to realize it. One minute they were a struggling studio with only a few outside accounts, most of whom, like Quinton Claunch and Papa Don Schroeder, were themselves in the aspirant category; the next, seemingly overnight, they were the Southern recording base for two New York labels (Atlantic and Bell) and were welcoming artists of worldwide renown. Once everyone became aware of what was happening, there was a tremendous sense of accomplishment, a feeling that they were all part of something creative, vital, and growing. “I just remember the early days of American being a fun time,” Bobby Wood reminisced happily. They were learning about each other, about themselves, and about working together; and they were delighted at having proven that they could work with established artists, create quality recordings with them, and have hits— the success of Atlantic’s first batch of records made with the group had proven it. Jerry Wexler knew a hitmaking team when he heard one, so Tommy Cogbill and Spooner Oldham once again joined their friends from the Shoals in New York that summer for work on Aretha’s second album. The sessions were slightly delayed due to the singer’s having broken an arm while she was on tour; she was determined to play piano, however, so she simply worked with one hand throughout the week of recording. The mood and character of this adventure differed slightly from the first New York road trip six months earlier. Tommy and Spooner had been up again for the Solomon Burke sessions , and even the Shoals musicians, back in New York for the second time, were more at ease. Though they had all mostly played close to home until they began doing work for Atlantic , they were growing accustomed to being in a 9 0 a p l ac e i n t h e s u n large city, and running on and off planes. “Our first jet was a 727, we used to call it ‘727, gonna take us to heaven,’” laughed Jimmy Johnson. They had gone home from the first road trip with a sense of pride: “We said well, by golly, no one can ever take this away from us, we’ve done it once. By the second trip, I was out there flaggin’ the cabs. We Alabama rednecks, we adapt!” (Perhaps, but another dimension can be heard on the old Cecil Gant wartime ballad, “I Wonder,” in which all of the musicians paint a heartfelt, moody portrayal of homesickness .) Jimmy Johnson recalled a different hotel this time. “They moved us up to Central Park South. They’d give us our own private room. It was like, wow. We wound up goin’ to little old restaurants right around the studio there. Once they heard us talkin’, we were the Rebs. The better the places got, the nicer they treated us. That’s why we knew we had to make it!” The musical lineup was different, too. Chips Moman had the studio going fulltime now and could not get away as easily, so Atlantic hired Joe South, who was developing a reputation as an incisive guitarist and interesting songwriter , to come up from Bill Lowery’s in Atlanta (where J.R. Cobb was now ensconced as a studio player and composer) and replace Chips on lead guitar. Joe had already written his famous crosstown romance, “Down in the Boondocks,” which had been a big hit for fellow Lowery artist Billy Joe Royal; “I Knew You When,” a treatise on snobbery, had also been successful. In addition, he had the cachet of having worked with Bob Dylan for the Nashville Blonde on Blonde sessions. He was musically adventurous enough to fit in perfectly with these players and with Aretha, who seemed to willfully defy categories on this album, presenting listeners with unusual reworkings of “Satisfaction,” “You Are My Sunshine,” “That’s Life,” and even the novelty song “96 Tears.” Among those category-defying selections was Willie...