Alex Henderson

The Muscle Shoals Horns
Born to Get Down

Soul music came in many different flavors in the 1960s and 1970s. The northern soul of Berry Gordy’s Motown Records in Detroit and the Kenny Gamble/Leon Huff empire in Philadelphia was known for its lavish, sophisticated orchestral arrangements and sleek production, but down south, a rawer style of soul prevailed in Memphis, Tennessee (home of Stax Records) and Muscle Shoals, Alabama. A long list of soul greats recorded in Muscle Shoals back then, including Percy Sledge, Wilson Pickett, Clarence Carter, Etta James, Solomon Burke, Candi Staton, Bobby Womack, Arthur Alexander, Joe Tex and the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin. And when artists wanted that gritty, tough, bluesy Muscle Shoals sound, they turned to the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, a.k.a. the Swampers, and the four horn players who came to be called the Muscle Shoals Horns: trombonist Charles Rose, trumpeter Harrison Calloway, tenor saxophonist Harvey Thompson and baritone saxophonist Ronnie Eades.

The Muscle Shoals Horns were incredibly busy as session players during the 1970s: when they weren’t backing top-notch soul stars, they were backing all the rockers who ventured to Muscle Shoals to record (an impressive list that includes the Rolling Stones, Bob Seger, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Joe Cocker and Paul Simon, among many others). But the Muscle Shoals Horns enjoyed some exposure as leaders rather than sidemen when, in 1976, Bang Records released their first album, Born to Get Down.

Produced by the Swampers’ Barry Beckett, Born to Get Down found the Muscle Shoals Horns combining elements of the Muscle Shoals sound with the popular funk and disco sounds of 1976. Born to Get Down has plenty of fun party music, from the instrumental disco-funk of “Open Up Your Heart” to the Kool & the Gang-influenced energy of “Hustle to the Music,” “Who’s Gonna Love You,” “Get It Up,” “Bump De Bump Yo Boodie” and the hit single, “Born to Get Down (Born to Mess Around).” But the album moves into sociopolitical commentary on “Where I’m Coming From,” a jazzy, medium-tempo, Latin-tinged song that examines race relations in the United States and melodically, isn’t unlike something War would have recorded in the 1970s.

Meanwhile, “Get It Up” and the instrumental “Break Down” favor exuberant soul/funk with a strong rock edge. And speaking of rock, Born to Get Down also includes a cover of the J. Geils Band’s 1973 single, “Give It to Me.” It’s no secret that the J. Geils Band, although primarily a rock act, were greatly influenced by R&B—and “Give It to Me” fits right in alongside the original material that dominates this album.

After Born to Get Down, the Muscle Shoals Horns recorded two more LPs on their own: Doin’ It to the Bone (released by Ariola Records in 1977) and Shine On (released by Monument Records in 1983). Now, in 2015, FunkytownGrooves is reissuing all three albums on CD.

Interviewed in March 2015, Rose, Eades and Calloway had much to say about the Muscle Shoals Horns’ achievements. Rose  recalled that while the single “Born to Get Down (Born to Mess Around)” was popular all over the U.S.—where it reached #8 on Billboard’s R&B singles chart—it was especially popular in Miami. “I believe that for awhile, ‘Born to Get Down (Born to Mess Around)’ was the #1 R&B single in Miami,” Rose noted. “Consequently, we put a road band together and made several trips to perform in Florida that summer. On the second trip down there, several gigs opening for James Brown were canceled when James didn’t show up.”

Rose adds: “We also played a gig in Huntsville, Alabama fronting for Parliament/Funkadelic. And we played a gig that summer in Muscle Shoals, both fronting for and backing up Arthur Alexander, who had, in 1961, recorded the first R&B hit out of Muscle Shoals, ‘You Better Move On.’ We barely made enough money to pay for the hall and our backing band. I recall Arthur being very disappointed when he received his half of the money, which I think was around $25. The four of us in the Muscle Shoals Horns split the other $25. These were the only gigs we ever played as a band. We did no gigs in support of the next two albums.”

Eades remembered how hectic things could get for the Muscle Shoals Horns during the 1970s. “We were working quite a bit—three, four, five days a week,” Eades explained. “We also would go to Nashville about twice a week. One time, I remember, we worked 42 straight hours in the studio. We were doing sessions in Muscle Shoals as well as Nashville and Memphis. It seemed someone was always pulling on us to get some other things done. We were being pulled on a lot. Of course, with us, we loved it so much we wouldn’t have minded it if we had been pulled on a little bit more. It was like that a lot. We had some breaks, maybe a week off here and there.”

Calloway noted that the Muscle Shoals Horns even dabbled in country along the way, and that included an appearance on the Oak Ridge Boys’ smash version of Dallas Frasier’s “Elvira”—which soared to #1 on Billboard’s country singles chart in 1981. “One of the producers in Nashville heard about our horn section and wanted to put some horns on country music, which hadn’t been tried before,” Calloway recalled. “So we went to Nashville and met up with the Oak Ridge Boys, who were big in country. The producer wanted to put some horns on some of their numbers, and we thought that it was funny. But we did it and recorded ‘Elvira,’ and it was a huge hit.”

Recording Born to Get Down, Doin’ It to the Bone and Shine On did not mean that the Muscle Shoals Horns gave up session work—far from it. Long after recording the three albums, they continued to be in heavy demand among both R&B and rock stars. But the three albums gave them a chance to sit in the driver’s seat for a change, and in 1976, the Muscle Shoals Horns made it clear that they were Born to Get Down.

—Alex Henderson, March 2015

 Alex Henderson’s work has appeared in Billboard, Spin, Salon.com, Creem, The L.A. Weekly, AlterNet, JazzTimes, Jazziz, Cash Box, HITS, CD Review, Skin Two, Black Beat, The Pasadena Weekly, Black Radio Exclusive (BRE), Music Connection, The New York City Jazz Record, Jazz Inside Magazine and many other well-known publications. Henderson (alexvhenderson.com) also contributed several thousand CD reviews to the popular Allmusic.com website and The All Music Guide’s series of music reference books.