Swampers bassist David Hood remembers Charlie Watts, Rolling Stones’ Muscle Shoals sessions

The British rock and roll quintet the Rolling Stones rehearse before a concert on the stage of the Saville Theatre in London, England, December 14, 1969. The band member, from left, are, Mick Taylor, guitar; Charlie Watts, drums; Mick Jagger, vocals; Keith Richards, guitar; and Bill Wyman, bass guitar. (AP Photo/Peter Kemp)
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Laying down hot grooves on big hits, while chilling in the background, happily ceding spotlights and stardom to others.

Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts has been described that way for nearly 60 years.

On Tuesday, Watts was described that way again, many more times, after news broke he’d died in a London hospital at age 80.

David Hood can easily relate to the way Watts approached music and life. As a member of Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, aka The Swampers, Hood played on many classic songs, ranging from Staple Singers’ gospel-soul jam “I’ll Take You There” to Bob Seger’s rock ballad “Mainstreet” and beyond. The Swampers’ goal was to make the songs they recorded famous, not themselves.

“Charlie Watts was a real tasteful drummer,” Hood says. “He wasn’t bombastic. He preferred playing jazz over playing rock & roll, but rock & roll paid the rent.”

Hood crossed paths with Watts back in 1969, when The Stones came to Alabama to record at Muscle Shoals Sound, the Sheffield studio Hood cofounded earlier that year with Swampers guitarist Jimmy Johnson, keyboardist Barry Beckett and drummer Roger Hawkins. The sessions took place from Dec. 2 to Dec. 4.

The Stones would arrive at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio each day around 5 or 6 p.m., just as the studio’s session-musician owners were leaving after a day of recording with singer R.B. Greaves.

“And so in that period of time, when we were both there, we of course would talk like musicians talk,” Hood recalls. “The bass players would compare basses or equipment and drummers would compare their drums and that kind of thing. But we just hung together and talked a little bit, and then we’d leave and they’d get to work.”

Hood says Watts already knew who Hawkins was and of course vice versa. “They compared notes. I just wish you could hear this from Roger’s mouth.” Hawkins, a massively influential drummer, died this May at age 75.

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A few days prior to arriving in Muscle Shoals, The Rolling Stones were in Florida performing at the Miami Pop Festival, where their set featured several songs from their soon to be released album “Let It Bleed,” including “Midnight Rambler,” “Gimme Shelter,” “Love In Vain” and “Live With Me.”

“They were looking for a place to record,” Hood says, “but they didn’t have the proper work permits to record. You could either do live shows or record, but not both with one permit.” The Stones were based and founded in London.

According to Hood, Memphis musician and producer Jim Dickinson recommend Muscle Shoals Sound, which was new as well as hot after cutting Greaves’ hit single “Take a Letter, Maria” there. Dickinson said in Muscle Shoals, a small sleepy North Alabama town in a dry county but with a vibrant recording scene, no one would know The Stones were there.

Some of The Stones flew into Muscle Shoals on a private four-propeller Super Constellation airliner and some of them flew commercial. Filmmaking brothers Albert and David Maysles were also with The Stones, as they were working on what would become the documentary film “Gimme Shelter.”

While in the Shoals, The Rolling Stones – Watts, singer Mick Jagger, guitarists Keith Richards and Mick Taylor and bassist Bill Wyman – stayed at the at the downtown Florence Holiday Inn.

“The Stones would travel in their rental cars from the Holiday Inn to our studio,” Hood says, “and these guys in more rental cars would be following them with cameras, hanging out the windows. So it was kind of a scene.” Footage of the band outside the Holiday Inn can be seen in “Gimme Shelter” as well as 2013 doc “Muscle Shoals.”

Johnson, Muscle Shoals Sound’s recording-engineer, hadn’t originally been tabbed to record the Stones sessions. Johnson died in 2019 at age 76, but in 2014 he told me, “All of a sudden 12 hours before the session I found out I’ve gotta do it. Because Jimmy (Miller, Stones producer) didn’t make it. He didn’t make the flight. Oh, boy.”

During the sessions, Johnson took on somewhat of a producer’s role too, although not credited. Hood says that Johnson, “would sit in there and tell them (The Stones) yes and no, and you didn’t do another take and that kind of thing.”

RELATED: A Swamper, a brother: David Hood talks Jimmy Johnson

Johnson captured two all-time rock classics: the swaggering “Brown Sugar” and country ballad “Wild Horses.” They also cut a cover of Fred McDowell blues “You Gotta Move.” The troika ended up on The Stones’ landmark 1971 album “Sticky Fingers.”

“We had to get those songs cut within about five hours (each),” Johnson told me in 2014. He recalled them doing maybe five or so takes for each song.

“When they were working they were drinking a little but they were not drunk,” Johnson recalled in 2014, “and there were not any drugs to speak of - there might have been a little smoke.”

Johnson said watching The Stones put together a song on the studio floor back then was amazing. “It would be so loose in the beginning, your eyes would kind of roll a little bit, if you know what I mean,” Johnson said in 2014. “But buddy, when they got down to it ... I immediately became their fan by the time they left.”

Muscle Shoals Sound is housed in a former coffin factory across the street from a cemetery. The humble cinderblock building’s iconic address is 3614 Jackson Hwy.

At one point during The Stones sessions, Hood says, “I remember standing outside of the studio while they were playing, and they were so loud, the ground was shaking.”

Johnson was having difficulty with volume from The Stones’ amps overloading Muscle Shoals Sounds primitive recording equipment of that time. His uncle Dexter Johnson, who helped out the studio more than once with equipment issues, produced a device Dexter called a pad.

“It was something that you would use to dampen down the loudness,” Hood says, “where you wouldn’t overpower the mics and all the equipment and stuff. Just like a plug-in thing between the loud guitars and the mixing console.”

Johnson used that pad device for the first time on The Stones recordings. “And he said that he never would have gotten that session recorded,” Hood says, “had it not been for that piece of equipment. You can’t tell Keith Richards to turn down, so it was very necessary.”

This in-the-red sound, referring to meters on recording equipment being pushed past traditionally advisable levels, is particularly effective on “Brown Sugar.”

“If you listen to that music they recorded,” Hood says, “it all has a little edge of distortion in it. That’s real (analog) distortion and it sounds great today. But at the time, it could have been a problem if Jimmy had not been able to turn it back.”

RELATED: Stoned in Alabama: Stories from Rolling Stones concerts in the state, from ‘60s to ‘90s

Hood calls “Sticky Fingers” a “great album” that “really holds up.” In addition to the three Shoals songs, other tracks on the LP, the rest of which was recorded in the U.K., include “Dead Flowers,” “Bitch,” “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” and “Sway.” It was part of The Stones’ unbeatable tetralogy also comprised of “Beggar’s Banquet,” “Let It Bleed” and “Exile on Main St”.

“It was a key time. I think ‘Brown Sugar’ really brought them back into the spotlight,” Hood says.

Recently this August, after Watts bowed out of the upcoming Stones stadium tour, Steve Jordan, the drummer in Richards’ solo band, was announced as the tour’s drummer. Jordan has worked with many stars including Bob Dylan, Stevie Nicks, B.B. King and Neil Young.

Hood worked with Jordan on Sheryl Crow’s 2019 album “Threads,” which Jordan coproduced and Hood played bass. “I’ve worked with Steve many times,” Hood says, “and he’s a great, great drummer. The (Stones) bass player Darryl Jones used to play with Miles Davis, and he and Steve share that jazz background. I don’t know if they’ll choose to keep Steve (after the Stones tour), but it wouldn’t surprise me if they did. Because how in the world you’re gonna replace Charlie Watts? There’s nobody else like him.”

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