I apologize if someone else has already posted something about the passing of Percy Sledge, a dedicated R&B performer that touched the entire world. I can't tell you how many movies, tv programs and advertisements I've seen that used Percy's "When A Man Loves A Woman" tune. A song that represents an entire era. A song that provided Percy not a penny in royalties it was reported.
For those familiar with the tune, I'm sure you can recall the "tinny" brass in the lead-in and bridge throughout the song. I read this concerning those horns:
"The song was recorded on February 17, 1966, in Sheffield, Alabama. Atlantic Records picked it up and wanted to redo the slightly out-of-tune horns, but the original version ended up being released." And we're glad it ended up that way.
We'll miss you Percy.
He will be missed. I did not realize he lived just down the road from me in Baton Rouge. Guess that is why he performed in the area quite often.
Local news article:
http://www.katc.com/story/28804723/remembering-percy-sledge-1940-2015
Mussel Sholes is a George Soule project. We have always kidded him that he opened that place so he could record the music that no one else would, mainly his own. (I will admit that he does have some really good cd's out there. I think Amazon carries them.)
In High School, George was one of the "Bad Band Boys". A bit of a musical outlaw.
Yep, he's from Meridian, Mississippi and was one year ahead of me in High School. Yeah, I'm old, but I got to hear all of the really good bands!
Several generations of Army veterans shed a tear on that news. That was a staple song in every GI bar around the world for nearly 50 years...
Yes, It was sad to hear of his passing. RIP Percy
He has performed here at small fairs and festivals, private parties, roadhouses etc thought the years here in the Florida parishes. It was always exciting to see a poster on a power pole or some other news bill posted somewhere that he would be performing. He would show and do his classic ballad at weddings also.
Music is spiritual and hearing it performed in intimate settings makes it a spiritual experience.
A lot of great blues musicians from Baton Rouge too. Buddy Guy, Tabby Thomas and Chris Thomas, and many more.
There was a very good documentary on Muscle Shoals a few years ago on PBS.
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/muscle-shoals/
Freddy Camalier’s film brings in legendary artists including Aretha Franklin, Duane’s brother Gregg Allman, Bono, Clarence Carter, Jimmy Cliff, Mick Jagger, Alicia Keys, Keith Richards, Percy Sledge, Steve Winwood, and others, as well as archival interviews with the late Wilson Pickett and Etta James, all who bear witness to the magnetism and mystery of Muscle Shoals and why it remains a global influence today
Thanks for the link... I will have to look that up.
I enjoyed that documentary. Rick Hall, the founder of FAME Records, is my mother's first cousin. I've never met him, but I've been hearing his name since I was a kid. Mom used to say "He liked to sing a lot". Bit of an understatement.
It's Muscle Shoals.
Either it was mispelled from the beginning, or it was named that because you had better have eat your Wheaties to paddle upstream through the shoals.
