So you could balance it out, but not stop leaking altogether.

Exactly, you couldn't really snuff the sound out. It wasn't as evident in the other mics, but it was there.

How did you mic the guitars?

On the guitar amplifiers, let's see there were two different ones, on Mick's I had a Shure SM-57, and then on the other I was using.. I might have been using an RE-15 on Keith. But I had a real problem with Keith because he was running a Fender Twin amp WIDE open, I mean that sucker was getting... it. I had a real problem with distortion going on, but I happened to remember that my maintenance guy, about a month before that, had left me a 20dB pad that he had made, a homemade pad, so I just stuck it in between. So I dropped that level before it hit the front of the Universal Audio and it saved the day. Otherwise, I would have been fucked. I still thank God for that. I would have just been screwed. So on Keith's amp, 'oh no, I remember what was on his amp, an RCA 77DX, because I was having to get that level down any way I could, it was a ribbon mic. With the pad and that RCA, I made it, just barely. A lot of that had to do with how it sounded, and I was always real pleased with that guitar sound.

I assume you close-miked the amps.

Yes, they were miked about two or three inches from the grille cloth, and with the Twins, we would get right in front of one of the two speakers. I'd make sure that both were working all right, and that one didn't have a hole.

How about the piano mics? On the piano I was using only one mic, not two, so I had to move it around to find the hot spot. I'm going to have to think on that one. I think it was a U47, that was the other one, because three was all we had. And we used them all on every session. Jagger sang on a U47.

So the U47 on Jagger, that was a live vocal track? Or was it overdubbed?

I don't think so, not unless he had to fix something in London. The only overdub I remember was the percussion that he did. He had mono earphones of course, and they were hearing what the board was hearing, they couldn't get a separate mix.

Did you have a mic on the bass amp?

Yes, the bass guitar mic was an RCA 44. We didn't have direct back in those days.

How much separation could you get in that studio?

Well, Keith's guitar amp was in a booth, and Jagger was in the back of the room with baffles around him. There was some leakage going on, but you couldn't tell because he was so close to the mic. It was part of the sound. The drums did not have a booth, they were open, but with baffles. But there was a lot of leakage on the drums, cymbals and stuff, even though he didn't play real hard.

Really? But there's a lot of impact in the drums on that song, more than on most Stones tunes.

Yeah, it's that mic and the way we set it. Even today, that would be a good way for a rock band to mic their drums, if they like some great live drumming sound. They would be surprised to find that sometimes less is more. I think it would blow them away.

And the sound of Keith's guitar is so good, and I really attribute it to that RCA DX77 with the pad, going into that Universal Audio tube console which warmed it up, too. Pretty wild, huh.

Did you use any compression on those tracks?

None. At the time, I did not have a compressor in the building. It was a couple more years before we had compressors. The only outboard gear was that 20dB pad, that's all I remember.

What about board EQ? Did you use much of that?

Mostly, on all sessions, I would use one click or two on the highs to air it out. It was set at around 3 or 4K, with two dB steps; you could go to two or four. We had 100Hz for the low end, and I guess around 3500 for the high.

I remember Barry Beckett saying he was sitting outside on the steps and could feel the building shaking.

Yeah, when they stated grooving around one in the morning, when I started the machines, it was an unbelievable thing; I have not experienced anything quite like that since.

If you compare Brown Sugar to other cuts done by Glyn Johns at about same time, most came out on Let It Bleed, you don't get that kind of room sound. They have that clean separation, you don't get the feeling of the whole room being pumped up by the music.

Right. You get the same thing from those old Motown records, cut at Hitsville USA in Detroit. When they moved to LA it all changed, they never had that wonderful sound again. I don't understand how they could divorce it that way. But I love that sound, and the old Philly Studio, Sigma Sound and all the great records done by Gamble and Huff, God they were great!

Yeah, but up in Philly, they were probably saying, "How can we get that funky sound they have down there in Muscle Shoals?"

Oh, we didn't even think about that. I suppose the grass is always greener somewhere else.

RELATED LINKS

More on the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio during that era.

A series of articles on Muscle Shoals music scene from the local newspaper.

Jimmy Johnson's home page.