Magic City Nights by Andre Millard

Author:Andre Millard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
Published: 2017-04-19T04:00:00+00:00

The New, New South

The more hits on Capricorn Records, the more bands were attracted to Macon, which was fast becoming a regional music center. Atlanta — the hub of Georgia music and the largest club scene in the state — also benefited from the rise of southern rock. Buddy Buie made the most of this opportunity. Born in Dothan, Alabama, he hung out in Ed Boutwell’s studio in Birmingham to learn about record producing. After moving to Atlanta, Buie put together a band called Classics IV, which contained two musicians from Alabama—J. R. Cobb and Dean Daughtry. In 1968 they had a major hit with “Spooky,” which helped bankroll Buie’s ambitious plans to set up an independent studio on the lines of those he had studied in Alabama. He recruited several members of Classics IV to work as session men at his Studio One complex just outside Atlanta, in Doraville, and these made up the aptly named Atlanta Rhythm Section. The band had strong connections with Atlanta, and their “Champagne Jam” was not only a successful recording but also became a self-affirming concert experience that reflected the newly found, and somewhat bewildering, affluence of the New South’s great city.

Atlanta was pulling ahead of all its rivals in the New South in terms of its economic development, global outlook, Yankee entrepreneurship, and lively bar scene. Its population grew in the 1960s, while that of Birmingham dropped by over 10 percent, as “white flight” took many from the city into the suburbs. The most segregated city in America had now been comprehensively overtaken by a city allegedly too busy to hate. Atlanta was now busy having a good time and enjoying its newfound wealth. Its vibrant music scene drew bands from all over the South, including Lynyrd Skynyrd, who moved up from their base in Jacksonville. And like many other emerging southern rock bands, Skynyrd looked to Muscle Shoals to make their first records and learn something about the process of turning their music into a salable commodity. After making a few demos at Quin Ivy Studios in 1970, Lynyrd Skynyrd teamed up with producer Jimmy Johnson at Muscle Shoals Sound to produce some impressive recordings, which brought them to the attention of MCA, a major record company. Before moving out to Los Angeles in 1974 Lynyrd Skynyrd cut two songs at Buddy Buie’s Studio One in Atlanta. The first was “Free Bird” — a song that became a tribute to Duane Allman and ended up as an homage to Ronnie Van Zant. The second was called “Sweet Home Alabama.” Van Zant had a good feeling about this song: “We got it down real fast … It’s always the ones you get down fast that make it.”9

The Allmans had demonstrated that it was possible for a southern band to break into the big time of rock ’n’ roll without selling out. The successes of Rick Hall, Buddy Buie, and Phil Walden showed that Sam Phillips and Sun Records had not been an accident of history but steps in the direction of southern autonomy in the music business.

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