By Brian Corrigan
MSNHA music-preservation consultant
Muscle Shoals music marked another tragic milestone last week with the passing of Swampers drummer Roger Hawkins.
Born in Indiana, in 1945, Hawkins moved to the Shoals with his parents as a child and got his start in the music business playing drums on the regional fraternity circuit. As a member of Rick Hall’s FAME rhythm section during the 1960s, he laid down the propulsive drum track for Wilson Pickett’s “Land of 1,000 Dances,” copying a rhythm that Pickett slapped out on his leg prior to the session. After playing on early takes of Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” in the Shoals, he flew to New York with his FAME compatriots to cut the legendary single version.
During the 1970s, after Hawkins and his fellow Swampers broke with Hall and established Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, his playing graced million-selling hits like Paul Simon’s “Kodachrome” and “I’ll Take You There” by the Staple Singers. Hawkins is ranked No. 31 on Rolling Stone’s list of the top 100 drummers of all time and was inducted along with his fellow Swampers into both the Musicians Hall of Fame and the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.
Hawkins died Thursday, May 20, at his home in Sheffield.
For more on Roger Hawkins and other Shoals music legends, visit the MSNHA’s Roots of American Music Trail website at musictrail.una.edu. (Photos courtesy of Dick Cooper and FAME Studios.)
