t***@iwvisp.com
2009-06-19 03:08:36 UTC
Barry Beckett: musician and record producer
As a member of the Muscle Shoals rhythm section, Barry
Beckett played on innumerable classic records by everyone
from Aretha Franklin and the Staple Singers to Bob Dylan,
Paul Simon and Dire Straits. Musicians from across the
spectrum of soul, pop and rock queued up to record with the
team of crack session musicians known as "the Swampers".
Beckett played keyboards alongside guitarist Jimmy Johnson,
bassist David Hood and drummer Roger Hawkins.
Their sound was rooted in funky, down-home Southern R&B but
they were hugely versatile and capable of playing in any
style, incorporating blues, soul and country influences.
Among other regular session bands, probably only the Funk
Brothers at the Motown studios in Detroit and Booker T and
the MGs, who ruled the roost at Stax Records in Memphis,
played on more hits than Beckett and the Muscle Shoals crew.
Beckett was born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1943 and
attended the University of Alabama, where he got to know the
Del-Rays, a band that included Johnson and Hawkins. His
first job in music was playing piano in a dance school. By
1967 he was in Pensacola, Florida, working with the blues
producer "Papa" Don Schroeder, when he got the call to join
Johnson, Hawkins and David Hood in the session band employed
at Rick Hall's FAME Studios in Alabama, replacing the
keyboardist Spooner Oldham, who had moved north to Memphis.
The combination of virtuosity and "feel" for which the
musicians employed at FAME were noted had already attracted
the likes of soul stars Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin and
Otis Redding, even though the session band - dubbed the
Swampers by Leon Russell - were all Caucasian. With Beckett
on board, FAME went from strength to strength and by 1969
the Swampers' reputation was great enough for them to leave
Hall and collectively found their own rival Muscle Shoals
Sound Studio.
Established in their own studio, the Swampers became busier
than ever. Among the biggest hits that Beckett played on
during this period were the Staple Singers' I'll Take You
There (1972), Mel and Tim's Starting All Over Again (1972)
and Paul Simon's Kodachrome (1973), but his keyboards also
graced records by black artists such as Johnnie Taylor and
Bobby Bland as well as white rock stars such as Rod Stewart,
the Rolling Stones, Joe Cocker and J. J. Cale. The band's
renown was such that Lynyrd Skynyrd even name-checked them
in their 1974 hit Sweet Home Alabama: "Now Muscle Shoals has
got the Swampers; / And they've been known to pick a song or
two. / Lord they get me off so much. / They pick me up when
I'm feeling blue."
In 1979 a born-again Bob Dylan arrived at Muscle Shoals to
record Slow Train Coming. Beckett played piano and organ on
almost every track and also co-produced the record with the
Atlantic records veteran Jerry Wexler. The album, with its
strongly Christian imagery, was highly controversial and
infuriated many of Dylan's traditional fans. But it was his
first album to go platinum and whatever misgivings many had
about the message, all were agreed that it was one of the
best-sounding records that Dylan had ever made, due in large
part to Beckett and Wexler's clean and crisp production.
Slow Train Coming was so successful that a year later
Beckett was back in the studio with Dylan co-producing the
follow-up disc, Saved, which appeared in 1980. Beckett and
Wexler also co-produced Communique the second album by the
British rock band Dire Straits, whose guitarist Mark
Knopfler had played on the Slow Train Coming sessions.
Beckett left Muscle Shoals in 1985 and moved to Nashville,
where he took a job as head of A&R for Warner Brothers
Records. After leaving Nashville he became an independent
producer, taking charge of mostly country hits by Kenny
Chesney and Alabama.
Beckett was given a diagnosis of prostate and thyroid cancer
and suffered several strokes. He is survived by his wife,
Diane, and their two sons.
Barry Beckett, musician and record producer, was born on
February 4, 1943. He died on June 10, 2009, aged 66
Ray Arthur
As a member of the Muscle Shoals rhythm section, Barry
Beckett played on innumerable classic records by everyone
from Aretha Franklin and the Staple Singers to Bob Dylan,
Paul Simon and Dire Straits. Musicians from across the
spectrum of soul, pop and rock queued up to record with the
team of crack session musicians known as "the Swampers".
Beckett played keyboards alongside guitarist Jimmy Johnson,
bassist David Hood and drummer Roger Hawkins.
Their sound was rooted in funky, down-home Southern R&B but
they were hugely versatile and capable of playing in any
style, incorporating blues, soul and country influences.
Among other regular session bands, probably only the Funk
Brothers at the Motown studios in Detroit and Booker T and
the MGs, who ruled the roost at Stax Records in Memphis,
played on more hits than Beckett and the Muscle Shoals crew.
Beckett was born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1943 and
attended the University of Alabama, where he got to know the
Del-Rays, a band that included Johnson and Hawkins. His
first job in music was playing piano in a dance school. By
1967 he was in Pensacola, Florida, working with the blues
producer "Papa" Don Schroeder, when he got the call to join
Johnson, Hawkins and David Hood in the session band employed
at Rick Hall's FAME Studios in Alabama, replacing the
keyboardist Spooner Oldham, who had moved north to Memphis.
The combination of virtuosity and "feel" for which the
musicians employed at FAME were noted had already attracted
the likes of soul stars Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin and
Otis Redding, even though the session band - dubbed the
Swampers by Leon Russell - were all Caucasian. With Beckett
on board, FAME went from strength to strength and by 1969
the Swampers' reputation was great enough for them to leave
Hall and collectively found their own rival Muscle Shoals
Sound Studio.
Established in their own studio, the Swampers became busier
than ever. Among the biggest hits that Beckett played on
during this period were the Staple Singers' I'll Take You
There (1972), Mel and Tim's Starting All Over Again (1972)
and Paul Simon's Kodachrome (1973), but his keyboards also
graced records by black artists such as Johnnie Taylor and
Bobby Bland as well as white rock stars such as Rod Stewart,
the Rolling Stones, Joe Cocker and J. J. Cale. The band's
renown was such that Lynyrd Skynyrd even name-checked them
in their 1974 hit Sweet Home Alabama: "Now Muscle Shoals has
got the Swampers; / And they've been known to pick a song or
two. / Lord they get me off so much. / They pick me up when
I'm feeling blue."
In 1979 a born-again Bob Dylan arrived at Muscle Shoals to
record Slow Train Coming. Beckett played piano and organ on
almost every track and also co-produced the record with the
Atlantic records veteran Jerry Wexler. The album, with its
strongly Christian imagery, was highly controversial and
infuriated many of Dylan's traditional fans. But it was his
first album to go platinum and whatever misgivings many had
about the message, all were agreed that it was one of the
best-sounding records that Dylan had ever made, due in large
part to Beckett and Wexler's clean and crisp production.
Slow Train Coming was so successful that a year later
Beckett was back in the studio with Dylan co-producing the
follow-up disc, Saved, which appeared in 1980. Beckett and
Wexler also co-produced Communique the second album by the
British rock band Dire Straits, whose guitarist Mark
Knopfler had played on the Slow Train Coming sessions.
Beckett left Muscle Shoals in 1985 and moved to Nashville,
where he took a job as head of A&R for Warner Brothers
Records. After leaving Nashville he became an independent
producer, taking charge of mostly country hits by Kenny
Chesney and Alabama.
Beckett was given a diagnosis of prostate and thyroid cancer
and suffered several strokes. He is survived by his wife,
Diane, and their two sons.
Barry Beckett, musician and record producer, was born on
February 4, 1943. He died on June 10, 2009, aged 66
Ray Arthur