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Roger Hawkins, Muscle Shoals Drummer on Aretha Franklin Classics, Dead at 75
As drummer in the Swampers, Hawkins played on hits like Wilson Pickett's "Mustang Sally," Percy Sledge’s "When a Man Loves a Woman"
Roger Hawkins, the drummer in the legendary Swampers and Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section who played on hits like Aretha Franklin’s “Respect,” Wilson Pickett’s “Mustang Sally,” and Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman,” has died at the age of 75.
[Producer] Jerry Wexler called Roger, ‘the greatest drummer of all time.’ Roger was a kind and generous man who loved family, friends and his fellow musicians… We will think of you as we listen to your many hits including, ‘Respect Yourself,’ ‘Mustang Sally,’ ‘When a Man Loves A Woman,’ ‘Chain of Fools,’ ‘I’ll Take You There’ and so many more.”
In the mid-Sixties, Atlantic Records’ Jerry Wexler brought artists like Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin to record at FAME, resulting in Hawkins and the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section performing on some of the most iconic and biggest hits of the era: Wilson Pickett’s “Land of 1000 Dances,” “Mustang Sally,” and his cover of the Beatles’ “Hey Jude”; Franklin’s “Respect” and “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You),” “Chain of Fools” and “Think.”
The Muscle Shoals musicians left FAME in 1969 to open their own studio at 3614 Jackson Highway — an address immortalized in the title of the Cher album recorded there — in Sheffield, Alabama. Now the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, the musicians continued to feature on hits like the Staple Singers’ “I’ll Take You There,” Paul Simon’s “Kodachrome” and Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock and Roll” and “Mainstreet.” Willie Nelson recorded his 1974 album Phases and Stages with the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, while artists like the Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, Sam & Dave and Joe Cocker all made the sojourn to Alabama to play with the group.
“Wilson Pickett slapped out the beat he wanted for ‘Land of 1000 Dances’ on his leg and Hawkins took it from there; Paul Simon sought a particular lope for ‘Kodachrome’ and the drummer captured it by tapping on a tape box. The intricate cymbal pattern Hawkins builds up to on Aretha’s ‘Chain of Fools,’ the wry funk patterns he runs under the Staple Singers’ ‘I’ll Take You There,’ the subtle drama he lays out on Percy Sledge’s ‘When a Man Loves a Woman’ — it all makes it hard to argue with Wexler.”
Hawkins ranked Number 31 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 Greatest Drummers of All Time. “Jerry Wexler, the producer who coined the very term ‘rhythm & blues,’ called Roger Hawkins ‘the greatest drummer in the world.’
