Alabama and Georgia Reginald D Hunter's Songs of the South

# Oh, I wish I was

APPLAUSE

# In the land of cotton

# Old times there are not forgotten

# Look away, look away

# Look away

# Dixie Land... #

When you think of American music,

what you're really thinking about is the South.

Blues, soul, jazz, and rock and roll -

they all emerged from the swamps, mountains,

cities and racial ferment of the southern states of America.

# He's leaving

# Leaving

# On that midnight train to Georgia

# Leaving on the midnight train

# Mm-hm, yeah

# Said he's going back... #

I was born in Albany, Georgia,

and I grew up in the post-civil rights era.

And even though segregation was officially over,

there were racial barriers that still had to be contended with.

# I'm goin' down south

# I'm goin' down south

# I'm goin' down south

# I'm goin' down south

# Where the chilly wind don't blow... #

By the time I swapped Georgia for Britain,

when I left America I hated the South.

Now I've returned to rediscover my homeland

through its most famous export.

Via the songs of the South, I will take a look

at where the South has been and try to get a sense, a little bit,

probably, maybe, of where the South is going.

Come with me.

# Alabama

# Your beautiful sunlight

# Your fields of sericea, potatoes and corn

# Alabama

# Your crimson-red clover

# All mingled around the old place I was born

# Alabama

# Your hills and your valleys... #

I'm heading off to Georgia, my home state.

And along the way, I'll pass through Alabama, my neighbouring state.

Now, these two states comprise part of what's known as the Deep South.

And in addition to the South's murderous racial past,

it has the reputation, equally deserved, for hospitality and Jesus.

# Alabama

# So sweet to my mem'ry... #

In the South, a lot of places, not much happens.

It gets hot in the summer, cold in the winter, that's about it.

But in spite of this, it has produced some of the finest

gospel, soul, rock and hip-hop the world has ever heard.

On this leg of my 5,000-mile adventure,

I'm going to explore a Deep South where white and black mixed in music

at a time when they didn't necessarily mingle in society.

In the '70s, Georgia and Alabama were an epicentre

for a southern rock explosion that produced great bands

like the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

As I grew up, southern rock took America by storm,

but it largely passed me by as I was too young,

so I want to find out what I missed out on.

Cullman, Alabama, was devastated by a tornado in 2011.

To raise money, the town hosts an annual festival

celebrating the South's unique rock heritage.

# Walk along the river

# Sweet lullaby

# It just keeps on flowing... #

-Southern rock, what is it about? What is it?

-Southern rock.

-What is it to you?

-Feel good.

-Feel good.

-Feel good.

-All over.

-All over?

THEY LAUGH

# I'm just walkin' down the road

# Early morning sunshine... #

I'm having some fun. But I ain't going to lie,

I was a little bit apprehensive, because, you know,

it's not the kind of place where a lot of black people are.

I hate to admit it, but I think my southern pride was a bit dormant

until I met these people here.

What makes southern rock different from any other kind of rock?

-It's just makes you feel...

-Mm-hm?

..Southern! I mean, home.

It's home. Sweet Home Alabama!

Whoo! Lynyrd Skynyrd!

HE LAUGHS

Hey, Alabama,

we are Lynyrd Skynyrd!

MUSIC STARTS

This is the unofficial anthem of the white South.

Everyone knows the song Sweet Home Alabama.

What I want to know is what it means to Skynyrd themselves.

# Big wheels keep on turning

# Carry me home to see my kin

# Singing songs about the Southland

# I miss Alabama once again

# And I think it's a sin, yeah... #

-It is an abundant pleasure meeting you both.

-Same here, man.

My name is Reginald Hunter. And I'm just passing through

and I'm going to ask y'all some quick questions.

Every movement is a reaction to something.

Southern rock, what is it reacting to?

-What was it born out of?

-I think...

Just at that time,

there was a lot of bands that came from the South at the same time.

So it was like a kind of a movement, I guess.

It just came to be the Allman Brothers and us

and Charlie Daniels.

And everybody had a hit song at the time.

So it was like the South was doing it.

Skynyrd may have flown the Confederate flag,

but southern rockers were not necessarily rednecks.

The scene mixed black and white music

in a time when the South went all hippy.

At the time we were doing it,

it came from the West Coast, you know.

It was LA music, and everybody from California was happening.

And then it kind of moved...

They had to come up with it.

Rock music with country and blues mixed into it.

So they had to come up with a tag for it. "Oh, southern rock."

Did it feel like a movement at the time, or they tell you afterwards?

Yeah, they tell you afterwards.

Sing, everyone.

# Sweet home Alabama

# Where the skies are so blue

# Sweet home Alabama

# Lord I'm coming home to you... #

Here I come.

Alabama!

# Oh... #

The song Sweet Home Alabama, it resonates around the world

-with people who ain't never even set foot in Alabama.

-Yeah, sure.

What's that about? Why does that song resonate so much with people?

God, I don't know.

You know, I think it's the mystique of the South, you know.

What's that about? You know, where's this at?

Everybody can relate to their home through that song, like,

they want to go home somewhere. It makes them think about their home.

Skynyrd is from Jacksonville, Florida, so I've had had people go,

"Why don't you say, 'Sweet Home Florida?'"

It didn't have the ring, baby!

The two weeks I've been doing this, I've been trying to figure out

what's this "home" theme in southern music?

It's a recurrent "going home, I want to get back to the rolling hills,

"the blue skies", that sort of thing.

And it seemed to me that even people who don't have a home

that they really miss,

they miss the fact that they don't have a home that they miss.

THEY LAUGH

-That's true.

-We're kind of that way. We live on this.

-Both of you, thanks a million.

-Thank you, brother. Appreciate it.

Another time, another time. Shake 'em up tonight.

The Confederate flags are out in force tonight,

but these new Southerners seem a pretty good bunch.

This is the South, baby. For better or for worse.

These are grit... Hey, listen.

Listen, these are grit-eating girls!

And they don't feel the way about guns the way you do!

We like guns!

REGINALD LAUGHS

When I think of Alabama,

more than any Civil Rights movement or...

Country music, I think of no money.

I think Alabama has been one of the poorest states in the union.

I think that all the things that come from not having enough

to cover your people's needs.

I think two things happen - I think people become inventive

and make their own fun and they make their own way and they make do.

But also the things that come out that are bad

when you are impoverished -

I think racism and segregation can take a particular hold...

..when there's no money.

# Happy, come on!

# Come on! Somebody help me now

# I'll take you there. #

My next stop is a place whose musical reputation made it

an oasis of hope during the segregation era in the 1960s.

# I'll take you there... #

# I'll take you there. #

Muscle Shoals is an unassuming

place off the banks of the Tennessee River about as far

from New York, Los Angeles and Nashville as you can get.

Some say it's the water, but Muscle Shoals has been a breeding ground

for some of the most creative music in American history.

Out of Fame studios came some great soul records -

all recorded by one man.

Rick Hall paired local black talent with local white session

musicians to great effect.

Good morning. Mr Rick Hall. My name is Reginald.

-Thank you for meeting me, sir.

-Nice to meet you.

-Thank you, sir.

Thank you. You blended black sound and white sound together in a time

when often they weren't allowed to be together in other places.

Tell me, what was that like?

You've got to know that

when we were cutting all these big hit records, most of them

were cut in the '60s and '70s and that was when the South was

burning down because of integration,

or lack of integration.

And we were cutting hit records with Wilson Pickett,

Land Of 1000 Dances in this studio...

..when George Wallace was standing on the schoolhouse door saying

segregation now, segregation tomorrow...

..and segregation forever.

We didn't abide by those rules.

We wanted to make sure that we got hit records and we were colour-blind.

Of all of Rick's successes, perhaps his most notable was

the reinvention of a young lady from Detroit.

Would you be good enough to describe the session in which you

and Aretha Franklin recorded I've Never Loved A Man?

Can you describe what it was like in the room?

Aretha was sitting over here at this piano. Singing.

The drummer was sitting in that booth here.

The horn players were approximately right here, facing the control room,

because I always wanted them to face me so I could talk to them.

Everybody was uptight - all the musicians were uptight,

I was uptight.

It was a very tense situation.

# You're a no good heart breaker

# You're a liar and you're a cheat

# And I don't know why

# I let you do these things to me. #

Aretha had had a recording contract for five years with CBS Records.

They were just doing her with light jazz stuff

and she couldn't get into it so she'd sing gospel music all of her life

and Wexler felt like if he came to here, he would get a little

more of the southern music that black people sang.

A key ingredient in the success of Fame were the white musicians

whose southern groove underpins the black singers - the Swampers.

We all grew up together - the blacks, whites.

Our favourite music was black music.

There was one station that all the young people listened to

and the music they played was everything from Ray Charles

and Chuck Berry to Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis.

A lot of times we didn't know whether it was white or black.

We just knew we liked it.

# When a man loves a woman

# Can't keep his mind on nothing else

# He'd change the world for the good thing he's found. #

Fame's success muddied the boundaries

between black and white music.

One of Rick's biggest hits came with the blind singer Clarence Carter.

Alabama was one of those places where the sooner you learned

who you were, and to learn where you were,

and how you were expected to do things, the better off you would be.

# I was born and raised down in Alabama

# On a farm way but in the woods

# I was so ragged folks used to call me Patches

# Papa used to tease me about it

# Cos deep down inside he was hurt cos he'd done all he could

# My papa was a great old man

# I can see him with a shovel in his hands, see... #

Clarence delivered Patches with such conviction,

you would be forgiven for thinking it was his life story.

In fact, the song had nothing to do with him.

Believe it or not, when I got ready to record the song,

-I didn't even know the lyrics.

-What?!

We had an engineer to stand beside me in the vocal booth...

-Let me try one more time, Rick.

-OK.

'And to whisper the words to me and then I was singing.'

-Oh, wow. That is amazing. That is amazing.

-Yeah, that's what I did.

I want to sing a song like that!

# But I would remember what my daddy said

# With tears in his eyes on his dyin' bed

# He said, Patches, I'm depending on you, son

# I've tried to do my best

# It's up to you to do the rest. #

The song Patches has particular significance to you.

My father and I lived the story of Patches.

And I didn't write the song but I produced the record on Clarence

and it was a number one record and it was about me and my father.

I felt like the hard times, the hardships, the digging

in the fields, making whiskey on the side, doing all the other things.

Whatever it took to make a living.

So, it was about hard times.

# Patches, I'm depending on you, son. #

On a personal level, thank you for standing tall back in the day.

Well, thank you, sir. I appreciate that because it meant a lot to me.

-It meant a lot to us.

-It still means a lot.

# Patches, I'm depending on you, son

# To pull the family through... # SONG FADES OUT

I'm heading to Birmingham, Alabama - sort of the Pittsburgh of the South.

This steel town has fell into hard times

but I'm on my way to meet one of its brightest, newest stars.

# Oh, she may be weary

# Young girls, they do get weary

# Wearing that same old shaggy dress

# But while she's getting weary

# Try a little tenderness

# I swear... #

Birmingham was once a byword for racial shame.

# You know she's waiting... #

But I am here to further my exploration of the interplay between

black and white music today with St Paul And The Broken Bones.

-Hello there.

-How you doing, Reg.

-Mr Paul Janeway.

-I'm going to call you Paul if that's all right.

-That's cool, that's cool.

You can come back with Reg, Reggie, whatever roll off your tongue!

-Good, all right.

-I guess the first question is why Otis Redding?

What does he mean to you?

Well, the biggest thing for me is my mum didn't let me

listen to anything but gospel music and a little bit of soul. That's it.

-That's all I could listen to.

-She allowed you a little bit of soul?

A little bit of soul.

Otis, Sam and a '70s group called The Stylistics.

And that was it. That was it.

And so when I heard Otis, I thought,

that's the way you are supposed to sound.

# You listen while I talk to you, now

# Tell you what we're gonna do now

# There's a new day going around, yeah

# Hot day putting me down now

# Move your body all around

# Shake! Everybody say the words now

# Shake, everybody say it a little loud! Shake! #

And she didn't realise when she gave you that little bit of soul,

she was giving you a gateway to hell!

Yeah, straight down. Busting the gates wide open.

I thought I was going to be a preacher.

And it ain't that much damn different to what I do now.

I mean it really isn't.

-With the following you got, that's your ministry.

-Yeah, it kind of is!

# When you try

# Try a little tenderness

# I've been blessed!

# I've got to, got to, got to

# Squeeze her, tease her, love her

# Try to tease her

# Try a little tenderness

# I've been blessed

# I got to, more, more, more... #

-So, do you still go to church?

-Well...

-Straight to hell!

You may not even have to die!

# Squeeze her, tease her, love her...

# Try a little tenderness. #

Paul Janeway, I got on with him pretty well.

I could tell that church background.

People who have that church background, like he and I do,

we can pick each other out like Gaydar!

It's just...

There's something about that latent Christianity,

especially if you've escaped the original gravity of it,

of your childhood.

It's just... I mean...

I could be chopping wood, he could be singing B-52 covers

but we would look at each other and go...

More than half of the population of Alabama regularly attends church.

It is the heart of the Bible Belt.

And the dignity and salvation offered by southern baptism

has been key to the region's music.

Talladega, Alabama. A southern town,

a regular sleepy old southern town.

The site for The School For The Blind

and also the beginnings for Clarence Carter

and The Five Blind Boys Of Alabama.

# Gonna lay down my burden

# Down by the riverside

# Way down... #

For 70 years, The Blind Boys Of Alabama have been spreading

the word of God.

Define for me what is gospel music, in your words.

Gospel music is just the good news.

The music that we sing that people know that no matter

what the problem is, no matter what you're going through,

there is a bright side somewhere,

and that's what makes the difference.

It's not about us. It's about the music.

The people in the South, they were depressed.

They were bound by Jim Crow laws.

They wanted to vent their feelings singing gospel music.

When we started out in 1944, the blacks couldn't go in certain places.

You know, you couldn't use the same water fountain,

you couldn't go to the same restaurants.

You were hungry, you wanted to find something to eat but you couldn't

go in the restaurant so you had to end up going to a grocery store.

We were determined to stick to what we wanted to do and get that

baloney and bread and eat it and be happy.

# I'm going to lay down my coat and shoes way down

# Down by the riverside

-# Way down

-Down by the riverside

-# Way down

-Down by the riverside... #

When you listen to gospel groups, let's say out of Pennsylvania

or New York or Ohio, do they have a different sound to you than,

say, gospel bands from Georgia or Mississippi or South Carolina?

They are all imitating the groups from the South.

-Well, let me ask you a question.

-Yes, sir.

How does it feel to be from the South living in the UK?

To be honest, I didn't get proud of being from the south

until I lived in the UK.

Sometimes you have to move far away from home

before you can fully appreciate it.

-After that, do you still like soul food?

-Yes, sir, I do.

You know what? You still black.

THEY LAUGH

It has been a pleasure. It has been a pleasure, sir. Thank you.

Georgia, home of peaches, some cat named Reginald D Hunter

and one of the South's truly eternal songs.

MUSIC: Rainy Night In Georgia.

# Hoverin' by my suitcase

# Tryin' to find a warm place

# To spend the night

# The distant moanin' of a train

# Seems to play a sad refrain

# To the night

# A rainy night in Georgia

# A rainy old night in Georgia

# Oh, it is rainin'

# All over the world

# All over the world. #

Tony Joe White's nickname is the Swamp Fox.

He is a true southern original

and they don't make them like him any more.

First time I heard the song proper,

I was away from home for the first time.

I started listening to the song and that line,

"I feel like it's raining all over the world" - it was raining

and my sister called me from France and I said,

"Are you getting wet?" And she said, "Why?"

I said, "Cos it's raining." She said, "It's not raining here."

And I had no idea.

I just assumed if it was raining here, it was raining everywhere.

-All over the world.

-All over the world, baby, all over the world.

But I still feel like that sometimes, especially when you...

You see, you know, a certain rain...

..it just has a feel about it that it is doing it everywhere.

You know? Like that one this afternoon,

you know, it came through, a little thunderstorm

that hit us and then took on off somewhere else.

But sometimes they just sit in all day

and when it would rain I wouldn't have to drive that truck

for the highway department that day so I would stay home

and play guitar and work on a tune.

But Rainy surprised me so much.

165 artists so far have cut it.

# But it's a rainy night in Georgia

# A rainy night in Georgia

# Lord, I believe it's rainin' all over the world. #

Brook Benton took Rainy Night to the top of the US R&B charts in 1970.

But with 165 different people, have you ever heard someone

do a version of it and think, "You ain't get it"?

Every song that has gotten cut, and this is the truth,

I've always dug it.

It's really been cool, man, all of it. Really good.

# Raining all over... #

I grew up in a town called Albany, Georgia.

It's referred to as the Good Life City.

It's near the Georgia/Florida border and I grew up in a town that

was segregated, but it was the '70s so it wasn't harshly segregated.

By then, people had learned how to self-segregate.

My Georgia, my South, was outside of my educational experiences

which were dominantly the black South.

And so there wasn't the pride

in the South that the white South seems to have.

When I left Georgia in '97, yeah, I was sick of it,

I was sick of the South.

I had the boredom that all young people have with the place

they grew up in and I also had a bit of shame about it.

What happened was I went away.

Many of the things that my friends in the rest of the world

appreciated about me were those things that Georgia made.

GOSPEL SINGING

It was in the Southern Baptist Church that gospel music was born

and, if you look very carefully, you can still find it

in its purist original form in the rural Deep South.

GOSPEL SINGING

This is the County Line Primitive Baptist Church

in Milledgeville, Georgia.

GOSPEL SINGING

# I want the Lord but not now... #

Gospel was born out of the call-and-response cadence

of field slaves doing slave labour.

It was codified by the black Baptist Church

and for those people who wonder why a lot of soul singers

sing so soulfully, this is soul in its most undiluted form.

It is that sauce that those performers get dipped in.

# I've been climbing over hills and mountains

# I'm going to drink from the Christian fountain

# You know we all got sons and daughters that morning

# We'll bring that old healing now

# And we're going to live on payer vows

# We're going to move on up a little higher... #

I grew up in a family of gospel music and gospel itself,

religion, spirituality, was big.

Two sisters who are born-again ministers.

-# I'm going to feast with the Rose Of Sharon now.

-Oh, yeah... #

I grew up with it, I grew up around it, I recognise it, I respect it

and appreciate it, even if at times I don't always feel it as they do.

# Always howdy-howdy and never goodbye. #

I'm torn being here and discussing it.

On the one hand, I feel compelled because it is dying out.

And in 20 to 30 years from now, it probably will be no more.

But then, on the other hand, I feel like I'm exploiting it.

# It's another day, journey

# Ah, yeah, oh

# It's another day journey

# I ain't gone

# It's another day journey

# I ain't gone

# Oh, thank God almighty

# I ain't gone... #

When my family sees this they're going to be like,

"And they picked YOU to do this? You?!

"You ain't been to church in ten years!" They going to be like that.

# Oh, amazing grace... #

There's an odd love because it's my family,

it's where I come from, and I was genuinely enjoying it

when I was inside participating in it because it reminded me of home.

# Oh, thank Lord almighty, I ain't gone. #

Practically all southern soul singers cut their teeth

in the sacred world of gospel

before crossing the line into secular music.

Sharon Jones was born in Augusta, Georgia

and is one of today's greatest soul singers.

Here she performs a gospel song, a spiritual from the cotton fields.

# I'm going to wade

# In the water

# I'm going to wade

# In the water

# I'm going to wade

# In the water

# I know that God

# Oh, yes, he will.

# Well, stepped in the water

# The water was cold

# I know that God

# Oh, yes, he will... #

Wade In The Water is a spiritual

that has its roots in the slavery era.

It was suggested that it was a secret song

of the Underground Railroad, a network of safe houses

and routes run by abolitionists to provide passage to slaves

to the free states of the North.

Wade In The Water is actually a piece of literal advice.

To avoid the oncoming bloodhounds that are on your trail,

one must wade in the water.

I remember my grandparents, they used to talk and I couldn't

understand a word they were saying but they knew what they were saying.

They would be in the kitchen and my...

She would go like, "Did you know...?"

SHE DEMONSTRATES THEIR INDECIPHERABLE SLANG

And they used to talk

and I think that's what I heard, that the slaves used to do a lot of that.

In the fields, they used to sing those songs.

# I know that God...

# Oh, yes, he will... #

Some of them sang that way to get a message across.

They always sang because they always feel

they are going to wade in the water.

They always feel that one day life is going to be better than this

and that life is going to come when they die and they go on up to heaven

and see Jesus when they cross that Georgian stream.

# My body but not my soul

# I know that God...

# Oh, yes, he will

# I'm going to wade

# In the water

# I'm going to wade

# In the water

# I'm going to wade

# In the water

# I know that God...

# I know that God...

# I know that God travels the water too. #

MUSIC: Nightswimming by REM.

# Nightswimming

# Deserves a quiet night... #

The sun makes its exit sometime after nine o'clock in the evening

and that low-hanging summer evening sun in the South, You can't beat it.

When the sun came out, it is porch and tea-time.

# The recklessness... #

In a modern shrinking world where everything can feel the same,

it's refreshing to be in a part of America where time stands still.

That's one thing I also miss about the South.

I miss skinny-dipping at night.

I have not had any pleasure that's quite like it.

But no matter how much you feel at home,

the South always has its own way of surprising you.

Athens, Georgia is 200 miles from where I grew up

but it could be a million.

This college town of 100,000 people is little-known but, musically,

it vies with London and New York as a harbinger of new wave.

I've come to meet the queen of the original Athens scene,

the B-52s' Cindy Wilson.

Miss Cindy Wilson, could you tell us about the Athens that you

and the B-52s started in? What was that scene like?

-What was the ingredients?

-Well, I can tell you, I can tell you.

-OK.

It was post the hippy era and all that had been playing out here.

We had... Athens was renowned...

You can look this up in the books about the biggest streaking record.

SHE LAUGHS

Is... Is that right?

I swear to God, it was the most naked people running through a city.

Of course, I was one of them.

'Georgia students say streaking is catching on

'and they boast of a massive streak-in

'planned for Thursday night...'

Was it significant, the Sex Pistols playing their first gig

in 1977 in the States here in Atlanta?

It was major. It was major.

# I am an antichrist... #

Back in '77, British punk had a short transatlantic adventure.

This is footage of the Pistols' first US gig here in Georgia.

These southern punks may not quite have nailed that Kings Road vibe

but the music clearly made an impression on the South.

The Sex Pistols were going against the whole grain of things

and it was great.

And everybody understood what was going on

and it made it ten times cooler.

It was... It was life-changing.

I would pay cash money to see y'all rehearse right after y'all saw them.

We were... We were...

We were weird the whole time. That give us extra go-ahead.

-"We can be weirder!"

-We can be weirder!

What inspired Love Shack?

I mean, I understand that there's not just one shack of love

that you're speaking about,

you're speaking about a collection of places.

Well, there is one love shack that comes to mind.

I think it was a Hawaiian hale that is a funky little shack

on the Daneville Highway.

MUSIC: Love Shack by the B-52s

# If you see a faded sign at the side of the road that says

-# 15 miles to the...

-Love Shack... #

It was like a black club, you know,

and you'd go out there and it would be fun.

THEY LAUGH

It was... And so, that was one, one love shack that was great.

You sound like a 1950s southern aristocrat.

"They were black down there but it was fun."

THEY LAUGH

-# Love Shack, baby, Love Shack

-Love, baby, that's where it's at

-# Sign says...

-Whoo!

-Stay away, fools

# Cos love rules at the lo-o-ove shack

# Well, it's set way back in the middle of a field

# Just a funky old shack and I've got to get back... #

Love Shack was on the Cosmic Thing album.

Cosmic Thing was kind of nostalgic, looking back at Athens

when we were having happier days in our career.

# The love shack is a little place where

# We can get together... #

The scene that The B-52s are credited with beginning, starting,

creating, what do you think about what came after?

Oh, it was amazing to see the chain reaction.

I guess people thought, "Well, if they can do it, we can do it!"

MUSIC: Everybody Hurts by REM

There was a lot of bands, you know... Pylon, Oh-OK.

Of course, REM. Such good people.

And that was amazing because they stayed in Athens

and made it happen from here.

# When your day is long... #

When I moved to Athens, Georgia, I was like,

this place is full of hippies

and bad brown food and crappy music,

and I did not want to live there.

# When you're sure you've had enough... #

What I didn't know at the time was that Athens, Georgia

was where The B-52s had come from and there was this nascent,

unbelievable scene of punk rockers

that were establishing themselves there

and what they were doing was very profound.

# Don't let yourself go... #

I found myself there and that was the beginning of my looking

for people to be in a band with.

# Cos everybody cries... #

REM were students of the University of Georgia.

Their college rock sound went global in the late '80s.

But if you look carefully around Athens,

you can still find traces of their southern inspiration.

Take this soul food joint.

-Mr Weaver D.

-Hey!

-How you doing?

Thank you so much, thank you for meeting me, for talking to me.

-Thank you for coming.

-Beautiful place you got here.

-All right.

-And it smells great.

-OK.

Let me ask you this.

How come when anybody talk about music in this area,

your name come up? You don't play no music, do you?

Uh-uh, I don't play, but I help.

-I feed all the musicians!

-THEY LAUGH

I guess they say they get their start here.

-They get their start here?

-The B-52s.

Tell us about the REM album.

Michael Stipe came in one day to talk to me,

and asked to use my title,

Automatic For The People, as their album title.

Automatic for The People, what's that about?

Meaning rated quick and efficient.

-That we try to be. Sometimes!

-THEY LAUGH

So that was sort of like a life-changing experience.

MUSIC: New Orleans Instrumental No. 1 by REM

And it just went on from there. We went to the Grammys in '94.

We received worldwide attention.

We were written up in Rolling Stone,

and a lot of other magazines around the world.

The album title,

they were stating that it came from a soul food restaurant.

Some people over in England, Melody Maker,

picked it up that it was Weaver D's Fine Foods.

And the people came from England, from miles around, from everywhere.

Just to see, you know, this place and to be a part of it.

-And to eat here.

-What's the special for the day?

Chicken pork chops, steak and gravy,

we always have whiting fish, tilapia fish.

We have a lot of vegetarian items, we have collard greens. Pork.

So many more. And we have fried okra.

-We may linger a bit while we're here.

-All right, automatic!

MUSIC: Georgia On My Mind by Ray Charles

I have to say that as I travel around the world,

if I meet someone new and I say I'm from Georgia,

I would say three out of five times they go...

# Georgia, Georgia on my mind... #

Then they'll ask, "Is Georgia on your mind?"

It makes me feel like I'm in Georgia every time someone says that to me.

# Georgia

# Georgia

# The whole day through... #

Like Louis Armstrong and Louisiana,

Georgia was slow in recognising Ray Charles as their favourite son.

# Keeps Georgia on my mind... #

It was only in the latter portion of Ray Charles's career

that Georgia began to recognise that, hey, you know what?

This is actually quite special.

And I know that we normally treat black people this way,

but we do ourselves a disservice in the eyes of others,

and even maybe ourselves long-term, if we don't recognise this man now.

# Keeps Georgia on my mind... #

The state in which Ray Charles was once fined for refusing to

play to segregated audiences proclaimed his version

of Georgia On My Mind its official song in 1979.

# Keeps Georgia on my mind. #

There are a number of things I feel about being back in Atlanta.

But I primarily feel hot.

In all the last 10, 15 years I've been coming back to Atlanta,

I usually come at Christmas. Or just after New Year's.

This is the first time I've been back when it's been properly summer.

And it's hot.

And I understand now, my body understands how it gained weight.

Just being cooped up because it was cold. It is hot.

And they say children gives a man purpose, but the heat does too.

That's what I predominantly feel, hot.

HE CHUCKLES

MUSIC: The Payback by James Brown

Atlanta is the capital of the South.

# Gotta, gotta pay back... #

With a conurbation of five million,

it's America's ninth biggest metropolis.

I have come to pay long overdue respect to one of my heroes.

-# I'm mad

-The big payback

# Gotta get back... #

-Hey, Karl.

-Reggie.

-Reginald Hunter, man.

-Good to see you, man.

Thanks for meeting me.

-Can you show me around?

-Absolutely.

-Let's do this.

So, where are we just now, Karl?

-We're actually inside of the Martin Luther King National Park.

-Ah.

His birth house is right around the corner.

And this is essentially where all of the activities related to

Dr King's legacy take place now.

Did I hear you say that this area is a national park?

-It's a national park.

-My.

Not quite like any national park I've ever seen.

Exactly, let's call it an urban national park.

An urban national park, all right.

# Hey

# Let me hit 'em, hit 'em

# Hey, hey, whoo! #

So this is kind of a classic example of what a dwelling would look like

for a middle class family back then, you know?

This is where he learned all the things

that he would later teach all of us.

Primarily, stability, home, self-esteem.

We thank Thee for this food, which we are about to receive

and we ask Thee to transform this food into life,

and our lives in service for Thee. Amen.

You consider the fact that he was born here, and that most of his work

was done within a four block radius of this house, stability is...

he was a rock for this neighbourhood and this entire country.

But specifically for Atlanta, you know?

And, see, this is what I'm starting to remember about

the homes of the South, and what I miss.

A true, good home ought to have a porch.

Sit out here in the front with a pipe

and some lemonade like Atticus Finch.

There you go.

Idyllic.

-You say Ebenezer's round this way?

-Yeah.

-Let's start walking again.

Let's take a look.

Martin Luther King was a major force in the advancement of civil rights.

During the segregation era,

he preached a gospel of non-violent protest from this Baptist church.

We're standing now in front of Ebenezer Baptist Church which is,

which is the home church for Martin Luther King Jr, wasn't it?

This is his place, this is where he did his thing.

CONGREGATION SING "AMEN"

Let us rise above the hurly-burly of everyday life.

And somehow get in tune with the infinite.

I do not know what the future holds for me.

But this I know, if Jesus leads me...

..I shall get home someday.

Musically, in the last 20, 30 years,

where's it gone from to what it is now?

-What sound's predominant, coming out of here?

-That's a good question.

Obviously, Atlanta is the home of some amazing hip-hop music.

But the roots of that come directly from the church.

So, you know, this whole relationship to Martin Luther King

is not just kind of a random one,

it's actually built around the idea that musicians were brought up

in the gospel tradition, which was extremely rigorous,

and then that led into the evolution of soul music

and James Brown kind of comes in here.

He also, coming from the church, turned soul music into funk music.

-Mm-hmm.

-And then we get an evolution of funk through the '80s,

'70s and '80s into hip-hop,

and southern hip-hop in particular, here in Atlanta.

-# Biddibahbahbah, biddibahbahbah, biddibahbahbah...

-Hey

-# Biddibahbahbah, biddibahbahbah, biddibahbahbah...

-All right

-# Biddibahbahbah, biddibahbahbah, biddibahbahbah...

-Hey

-# Biddibahbahbah, biddibahbahbah, biddibahbahbah...

-All right

-# Biddibahbahbah, biddibahbahbah, biddibahbahbah...

-Hey

-# Biddibahbahbah, biddibahbahbah, biddibahbahbah...

-All right

-# Biddibahbahbah, biddibahbahbah, biddibahbahbah...

-Hey

# Biddibahbahbah, now check this out Let me hear you say whoa!

-# Whoa!

-Say yeah!

# Yeah!

-# Say whoa

-Whoa

-# Yeah

-Yeah

-# Whoa

-Yeah

-Whoa

-Yeah

-Whoa

-Yeah

-Whoa

-Yeah

BOTH: # I...

# Am everyday people... #

Arrested Development are the old school of Atlanta.

The first great southern hip-hop band

who developed as an alternative to LA gangster rap in the early '90s.

# Everyday people... # Don't stop!

-Speech, thank you, thank you for riding with me.

-No doubt.

What specifically separates southern hip-hop

from any other form of hip-hop?

It's a mixture of like the lows of African drums,

mixed with the melodies of gospel music.

If you talk about the South, the church has something to do with it,

because the church is like the pillar, down here.

So New York was, when they was doing hip-hop,

they was like, yo, we do not sing, we rap.

But when we was doing hip-hop, we wanted that singing.

Like, in hip-hop music, the Bronx is where the birthplace is.

So you got New York as sort of the backdrop by nature of hip-hop.

The fences, the brick.

The mortar, you know, that was the New York style.

We wanted to come with more of, like, OK, let's show the shacks.

You know what I mean? Let's show the dirt.

The grass, the nature, the old lady rocking in the rocking chair,

let's show that part, that hadn't been done.

-# See, I was resting at the park minding my own

-My own

-# Businesses as I kick up the treble tone

-The treble tone

-# On my radio tape player box, right

-Box, right

# Just loud enough so folks could hear it's hype, see?

-# Out of nowhere

-Nowhere

-# Come this woman I'm dating

-I'm dating

# Investigation maybe she was demonstrating

-# But nevertheless I was pleased

-I was pleased

# My day was going great, and my soul was at ease

-# Until a group of brothers

-Brothers

-# Started bugging out

-Bugging out

# Drinking the 40 oz, going the ... route

-# Disrespecting my black queen

-Black queen

# Holding their crotches and being obscene

# At first I ignored them cos see I know their type

# They got drugs, they got guns And yes, they want a fight

# And they see a young couple having a time that's good

# And their egos wanna test a brother's manhood

-# So they came to test Speech cos of my hairdo

-Dreadlocks

-# And the loud bright colours that I wear

-Boom!

# I was a target because I'm a fashion misfit

# Any outfit that I'm wearing brothers dissing it... #

Atlanta is considered a hub to hip-hop, no?

-At least in relation to LA and New York.

-It's THE hub right now.

You know what I'm saying, you got 2 Chainz, you got Luda,

you got so many different artists coming out of here, that...

TI, so many people, Outkast, of course.

That have done so well over here

that they've defied the style of hip-hop in present day.

That 808, those 808 kicks and snares, that low bass tones,

that's all Atlanta style, that's not a New York style.

MUSIC: Southern Hospitality by Ludacris

# We drop bows on 'em, drop bows on 'em

# When we, oh, oh

# We drop bows on 'em, drop bows on 'em

# When we throw dem bows

# Dirty south mind blown, dirty south bread

# Catfish fried up, dirty south fed

# Sleep in cot-pickin' dirty south bed

# Dirty south gurls gimme... #

My trip culminates with an encounter with a true superstar.

Ludacris has graduated through the 21st century

from international hip-hop artist to mega film star.

Atlanta, being the hub of hip-hop,

as far as you know the history of hip-hop and stuff,

how did Atlanta come to be that for hip-hop?

I think the South, we've been kind of fighting for a long time,

same way we come from ancestors

that fight in terms of the civil rights movement

and all these different things, so fighting for our respect.

So I think the better way to say it is that, right now,

we are making our extreme contribution

and everyone is taking notice.

So with that being said, it's just a lot of...

the South got something to say, as Andre 3000 from Outkast will tell it.

There's a lot of talent down here,

there's a lot of individuals that are hustlers

and we going to get our music out there one way or another

and we demand our respect,

from not only the rest of the country but the rest of the world.

# Afro American, afro thick

# Overall country, overall jeans

# Overall Georgia, we overall clean

# Southern hospitality we overall mean

# Overall triple... #

Being a part of the Atlanta hip-hop scene, how much community is there?

I think there's more camaraderie, Southern hospitality,

down here than there is in any other part of hip-hop.

By that I just mean, I feel like more artists are working together,

calling each other, doing songs together, in the South,

especially in Atlanta, Georgia, than anywhere else.

We know you're stronger together than you are separated.

It goes into the apartheid,

it goes into the civil rights movement, you know what I'm saying?

There's power in numbers and when you come together, you move mountains.

Martin Luther King taught us that, you know? Malcolm X taught us that.

So that's how deeply rooted, I would say, and as crazy as it sounds,

I think that has a lot to do with the camaraderie.

-Ludacris. Pleasure.

-Thank you, sir.

-Much respect.

-Very much.

SCREAMS

MUSIC: Can't You See By The Marshall Tucker Band

I've just recently come off of meeting Speech

from Arrested Development, and Ludacris.

And I share something with them.

We are heirs of a black struggle

that enabled us to be as free as we are.

When I put myself in the mind of the segregationists,

that wanted no equality,

I look at, from their point of view, where they made a mistake.

First of all, allowing black people church.

The means of self-expression.

Most of my life, I've used the anger and the hurt from white racism,

I've used that.

And when I was at the Rock The South concert,

I was looking at those people, many of whom were nice to me,

many of whom I could look in their eyes

and see a little bit of trepidation about the history that was in them,

that was in me too.

And how to reconcile that with the present.

And to be honest, there's a part of me that doesn't want to let that go.

But I also know that I don't progress,

and the South doesn't progress, if we don't let that go.

# I'm gonna buy a ticket, now

# As far as I can

# Ain't a-never comin' back... #

I don't want to be all fake for TV and come back

and tell you I'm proud of the South as a result of doing this.

But I'm sure that that's coming.

Because the anger and the shame is gone.

My name is Reginald D Hunter.

And I said it the best I can say it tonight.

# Can't you see?

# Can't you see?

# What that woman

# She been doing to me

# Oh, Lord... #

Next time, I take a trip from Memphis to New Orleans

through the birthplace of the blues along the mighty Mississippi.

Anybody can have the blues. You know?

But can't no anybody live the blues.

# Lord, I can't stand

# Can't you see?

# What that woman

# She been doing to me

# Can't you see?

# I'm gonna take a freight train

# Down at the station, Lord

-# What that woman

-Ain't a-never comin' back

# Can't you see?

# Gonna ride me a southbound now

# All the way to Georgia, Lord... #