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Paul Rodgers: That's How Strong My Love Is (from The Royal Sessions concert)
Last edited Tue Nov 9, 2021, 02:25 PM - Edit history (1)
Rodgers did this 2014 album to pay homage to the soul and R&B that influenced him. He recorded the songs at a famous Memphis studio, and the proceeds went to charity, as explained in part of the Goldmine article I'm going to excerpt below this video.
From Goldmine, May 17 2014, "Rock and roller Paul Rodgers takes a turn as a soul man":
https://www.goldminemag.com/articles/rock-roller-paul-rodgers-takes-turn-soul-man
-snip-
The music, which pays homage to the music of Stax/Volt, Goldwax and Hi Records, was recorded at the legendary Royal Studios in Memphis, Tenn., home of Willie Mitchell and Hi Records. Add in the participating musicians and you get the full musical hat trick. Rodgers was backed by a dream team of musicians, including The Rev. Charles Hodges (Hammond B3), Michael Tolls (guitar), LeRoy Hodges Jr. (bass), “Hubby” Archie Turner (Wurlitzer), Steve Potts, James Robertson Sr. (drums), The Royal Horns and The Royal Singers. Together, they recorded 10 classic tunes from the Stax, Volt, Goldwax and Hi Records era.
-snip-
The sessions were produced by Perry Margouleff, who had crashed an event at the Stax Museum and met Willie Mitchell’s son, Boo, who in turn invited him to record an album. Perry immediately called Paul Rodgers.
-snip-
GM: “How Strong My Love Is,” which was famously done by Otis Redding, I heard you did that track in one take.
PR: It was one take. Actually, none of them were a lot of takes, to be honest with you. I approached that one with some trepidation. It is a very big song by Otis, and it is deeply passionate, and it depends on a real connection between everybody playing it. We talked about it and we discussed it, and we settled on a key. Michael Toles kicks it off, and we just launched into it, and it just built and built into this fantastic climax. Then we got a signal from The Rev. Charles Hodges on the Hammond, he’s the MD [Musical Director], and it went WHOP! down to a whisper. And then we built it back up again. All of that was done in the moment, on the fly. When we finished, we went, “Wow, let’s go check that out.” We went back into Perry’s neck of the woods, the control room, and there were a lot of smiles in that control room. We listened, and we were pleased with it, and we knew we were not doing that again. It was a one-take thing.
PM: It was great to do this, because all of these musicians are on records that I have loved for years. I love Paul’s work, as well. To be able to put all of those people together and to orchestrate a recording session for them is a dream come true for me. You never know how the chemistry is going to work. I told Paul when we first went down there, “Let’s not have any big expectations. Maybe these guys are older and they don’t play as well as they used to, or maybe we won’t get along with them ... who knows.” When we went down there and everybody was nice and they played so good, a lot of tension was relieved right off the bat. I knew we were not going to have to worry much. Right from the first couple of notes when they started recording there was an amazing vibe, and we were smiling the whole time. The theme of the whole thing was that everyone had such good energy. I set the situation up, but I didn’t tell them who was coming in to sing. I didn’t want anyone to be anticipating, or expecting or have any preconceived ideas about anything. I said, “Let’s just do this.” Once they played together with each other in the room, the mutual respect was there. They were like a bunch of kids in a candy store; they were having fun. Like Paul puts it — it was a musical conversation and they were all sharing their thoughts together.
-snip-
GM: The proceeds from this record are being donated to a Memphis music program.
PR: Every day we would get in the car, and we would drive from our very swish hotel, and we would drive into this area which was economically challenged. There was a lot of derelict buildings and trash piled up. Right in the middle of all this is a beautiful studio where Boo Mitchell is keeping the flag flying. We talked about how this music has given us so much and in some ways, just by doing this, in a way, we are still taking from it.
Perry said to me that we should give any profit that we make from this and give it back to Memphis. We shook on it and since we financed this, we could do that. The next question was how we would do that. We looked around, and it turns out that the Stax Museum has a school for music, and we decided to direct any funds we make to there. If felt good to do that, because then we could just really enjoy the process and we could really revel in this great music, made by these great musicians, made in this fantastic studio.
-snip-
The music, which pays homage to the music of Stax/Volt, Goldwax and Hi Records, was recorded at the legendary Royal Studios in Memphis, Tenn., home of Willie Mitchell and Hi Records. Add in the participating musicians and you get the full musical hat trick. Rodgers was backed by a dream team of musicians, including The Rev. Charles Hodges (Hammond B3), Michael Tolls (guitar), LeRoy Hodges Jr. (bass), “Hubby” Archie Turner (Wurlitzer), Steve Potts, James Robertson Sr. (drums), The Royal Horns and The Royal Singers. Together, they recorded 10 classic tunes from the Stax, Volt, Goldwax and Hi Records era.
-snip-
The sessions were produced by Perry Margouleff, who had crashed an event at the Stax Museum and met Willie Mitchell’s son, Boo, who in turn invited him to record an album. Perry immediately called Paul Rodgers.
-snip-
GM: “How Strong My Love Is,” which was famously done by Otis Redding, I heard you did that track in one take.
PR: It was one take. Actually, none of them were a lot of takes, to be honest with you. I approached that one with some trepidation. It is a very big song by Otis, and it is deeply passionate, and it depends on a real connection between everybody playing it. We talked about it and we discussed it, and we settled on a key. Michael Toles kicks it off, and we just launched into it, and it just built and built into this fantastic climax. Then we got a signal from The Rev. Charles Hodges on the Hammond, he’s the MD [Musical Director], and it went WHOP! down to a whisper. And then we built it back up again. All of that was done in the moment, on the fly. When we finished, we went, “Wow, let’s go check that out.” We went back into Perry’s neck of the woods, the control room, and there were a lot of smiles in that control room. We listened, and we were pleased with it, and we knew we were not doing that again. It was a one-take thing.
PM: It was great to do this, because all of these musicians are on records that I have loved for years. I love Paul’s work, as well. To be able to put all of those people together and to orchestrate a recording session for them is a dream come true for me. You never know how the chemistry is going to work. I told Paul when we first went down there, “Let’s not have any big expectations. Maybe these guys are older and they don’t play as well as they used to, or maybe we won’t get along with them ... who knows.” When we went down there and everybody was nice and they played so good, a lot of tension was relieved right off the bat. I knew we were not going to have to worry much. Right from the first couple of notes when they started recording there was an amazing vibe, and we were smiling the whole time. The theme of the whole thing was that everyone had such good energy. I set the situation up, but I didn’t tell them who was coming in to sing. I didn’t want anyone to be anticipating, or expecting or have any preconceived ideas about anything. I said, “Let’s just do this.” Once they played together with each other in the room, the mutual respect was there. They were like a bunch of kids in a candy store; they were having fun. Like Paul puts it — it was a musical conversation and they were all sharing their thoughts together.
-snip-
GM: The proceeds from this record are being donated to a Memphis music program.
PR: Every day we would get in the car, and we would drive from our very swish hotel, and we would drive into this area which was economically challenged. There was a lot of derelict buildings and trash piled up. Right in the middle of all this is a beautiful studio where Boo Mitchell is keeping the flag flying. We talked about how this music has given us so much and in some ways, just by doing this, in a way, we are still taking from it.
Perry said to me that we should give any profit that we make from this and give it back to Memphis. We shook on it and since we financed this, we could do that. The next question was how we would do that. We looked around, and it turns out that the Stax Museum has a school for music, and we decided to direct any funds we make to there. If felt good to do that, because then we could just really enjoy the process and we could really revel in this great music, made by these great musicians, made in this fantastic studio.
-snip-
The album was followed by a single concert, for PBS's Front And Center series, which the video above is from.