Roger Hawkins, drummer for Aretha Franklin, dies
Roger Hawkins, a studio drummer who was the often-uncredited rhythmic driving force behind dozens of R&B and rock hits of the 1960s and 1970s, including Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman,” Aretha Franklin’s “Respect,” the Staple Singers’ “I’ll Take You There” and Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock & Roll,” died May 20 at his home in Sheffield, Ala. He was 75.
His death was announced by the Muscle Shoals Music Foundation. He had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other ailments.
Hawkins spent most of his career in relative anonymity as a studio drummer, but he was a key force behind what became known as the “Muscle Shoals sound,” named for the Alabama town where he was part of a dynamic and versatile group that played on hundreds of recordings.
They changed their style to suit the music, from Wilson Pickett’s raw R&B to Seger’s Midwestern rock to the Staple Singers’ gospel-tinged soul to Etta James’s energetic “Tell Mama” and heartfelt “I’d Rather Go Blind.”
In Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the top 100 drummers of all time, Hawkins was ranked No. 31.
Besides Hawkins, primary members of the Swampers included Spooner Oldham (and later Barry Beckett) on keyboards, Jerry Johnson on guitar and David Hood on bass. They first worked out of Rick Hall’s FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals before breaking away in 1969 to create the Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in nearby Sheffield.
The musicians often created arrangements on the spot, building from casual musical sketches. On “When a Man
Loves a Woman,” Sledge’s No. 1 hit from 1966, Oldham opened with an organ part that came straight from a Sunday morning church hymn, as Hawkins tapped out a steady eighth-note pattern on his ride cymbal, with subtle snare-drum fills. They provided the blank canvas on which Sledge delivered his emotional plea: “When a man loves a woman / He’ll spend his very last dime / Tryin’ to hold on to what he needs.”
The gritty, spontaneous style of the Swampers, the name showed up in Lynyrd Skynyrd’s song “Sweet Home Alabama,” became as renowned, in its way, as Detroit’s Motown sound or the soul music from Stax Records in Memphis.
Jerry Wexler, an owner and producer at Atlantic Records, used the Muscle Shoals musicians on many of his label’s albums. The Rolling Stones recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in 1969 (but without Hawkins on drums).
In 1967, Hawkins and the Muscle Shoals musicians played on several of Franklin’s groundbreaking recordings, including “Respect,” “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You),” “Chain of Fools” and “Think.”
When Wexler didn’t like the original Alabama recording of “Respect,” he secretly flew Hawkins and several other musicians to New York to record the hit version.
The sound of Hawkins’s snare drum was somewhere between a slap and a rifle shot, and he was adept at using all parts of a drum kit, from bass drum to gentle cymbal strikes and feathered high-hat effects.Roger Gail Hawkins was born Oct. 16, 1945, in Mishawaka, Ind. Survivors include his wife since 2002, Brenda Grigg Hawkins; and a son from a previous marriage.