Storied session musician Spooner Oldham has reflected on his experiences playing with soul icon Aretha Franklin during the early stages of her career.
Speaking in a recent interview with Vulture, he shared his memories of the now-infamous studio session that spawned Aretha's breakout track I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You). The track — which ended up reaching No 9 in the Billboard 100 and became the title track of Franklin’s 1967 breakthrough — all started with Oldham playing around with a five-note riff on a Wurlitzer electric piano.
"The demo I heard had no keyboard," Oldham said. "We’re all musicians sitting around scratching our heads, “What are we gonna do with that? I don’t know what to do.” And that was the first song of a one-week booked session with Aretha at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. So this is song one, day one, and I’m thinking, This could be over, this could all be over right now. So I said a little prayer to God, and then I sort of noodled that part."
Oldham's long-time collaborator Dan Penn and guitarist Chips Moman spotted their bandmate noodling away, and the rest is history. He continued: "Dan and Chips both said, "Spooner's got it". The rest of the band looks around at me, and I turn it up a little bit, play it again. Then they join in, and here we go.
"You could feel it get off the ground, you know?"
A legend of modern American music, Oldham has appeared on countless iconic albums stretching across several decades.
As well as being a trusted collaborator of Aretha's, the Alabama native played organ on Wilson Pickett's track Mustang Sally, added a crucial Southern touch to Bob Dylan's '80s gospel days, and worked with Neil Young extensively over the years.
Besides his creative talents, the 83-year-old has a glowing reputation for being easy-going and well-liked. Perhaps that's why he was able to get I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You) off the ground — after all, the studio environment it was created in was highly dysfunctional.
"Never Loved A Man was “kind of a strange song”, bassist David Hood later reflected, referencing the passing around of a bottle of vodka and the combustible presence of Franklin's husband and manager Ted White that day. Speaking to the Guardian, Hood recalled White firing two horn players for "making passes at my wife". Ultimately, Oldham saved the day.
“Spooner came up with this great little lick, and everyone fell in line with that, started playing, and that saved the song," Hood said. "It was minutes after that we did the horn parts."
According to Oldham, "That’s one of the few that I felt like, It’s gonna be good, she’s gonna be big, she’s gonna do great. We’re onto something different here. A lot of the records I play on, I don’t know how well they do, but that one, I felt that before I left the building."
