[msb-alumni] Detroit's Sir Mack Rice, 'Mustang Sally' writer, dead at 82

From: Steve <pipeguy920@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <msb-alumni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2016 13:56:46 -0400

BlankDetroit's Sir Mack Rice, 'Mustang Sally' writer, dead at 82 Brian McCollum
, Detroit Free Press Pop Music Critic Detroit soul stalwart Sir Mack Rice, who
wrote 'Mustang Sally,' 'Respect Yourself' and other enduring R&B hits, died
Monday in metro Detroit. He was 82. A onetime member of the Detroit group the
Falcons in the late '50s and early '60s ' featuring longtime friend and future
solo star Wilson Pickett ' the Mississippi-born Rice went on to make his
name primarily as a songwriter, funneling tunes to artists associated with
Memphis' Stax Records. 'Mustang Sally' was the best known among them: Originally
called 'Mustang Mama,' a title later tweaked at the urging of Aretha Franklin,
the song was recorded by Rice and hit No. 15 on the R&B charts in 1965.
A year later, Pickett's cover version took off and became the song's signature
interpretation. 'Respect Yourself' became a hit for the Staple'Singers in
1971 (and Bruce Willis in 1987), while other Rice tunes were picked up by
artists such as Johnnie Taylor ('Cheaper to Keep Her'), Rufus Thomas ('Do the
Funky Penguin Part 1') and Albert King ('Cadillac Assembly Line'). A
long-forgotten 1964 composition, 'Detroit, Michigan,' was covered by Kid Rock
on
the
2012 album 'Rebel Soul,' and performed by Rock at halftime of that year's
nationally televised Detroit Lions Thanksgiving game. "It was a tribute to
Detroit's
women,"'Rice'told the Free Press at the time. "Our beautiful girls. In his
later
years, Rice put together a band of Detroit-area musicians'and became a
regular at local festivals and events such as the Woodward Dream Cruise. He
moved from Detroit to Bloomfield Hills in 2011. Rice died of complications
from Alzheimer's disease, Memphis paper the Commercial Appeal reported Monday
night. He's one of Detroit's hidden treasures. Sir Mack Rice is the name
behind "Mustang Sally," one of the most enduring'songs in pop and soul history.
As a member of the Falcons in the late '50s 'a group that spawned Wilson
Pickett, Joe Stubbs and Eddie Floyd ' Rice cut'his teeth singing doo-wop. But
it
was his knack for songwriting that helped him soar. "Mustang Sally,"'brought
to national attention by Pickett in 1966, tops a list of Sir'Mack compositions
that includes "Respect Yourself," "Cheaper to Keep Her" and'"24-7 Man. After
a stint in Memphis during the '70s, Sir Mack now runs a Detroit asphalt'company
and small record label, performing occasionally at festivals'nationwide.
He has a solo record with IN-FI'Records due June 16 (2000). On his lack of name
recognition compared to Motown's stars: "I came up with'them, but we went
another way. (The Falcons) cut records at Berry (Gordy's)'studio. But you know,
the songwriters stay in the dark all the time. Around Memphis, my'name
was big because of Stax Records, but in Detroit nobody knows who did'these
songs. On the origins of "Mustang Sally": "It was written as a joke, really.
I wrote'it as 'Mustang Mama' ...Aretha played keyboards on the demo track. I
was'singing 'Ride, Sally, ride,' and Aretha said, 'Why don't you call it
"Mustang'Sally"?
Aretha and my wife didn't particularly like the tune. I'm a big'critic of
myself; sometimes you write something and don't think it's good'enough. But it's
been carrying me ever since. On the song's endurance: "I don't knock it, but I
can't tell you why it's'lasted. (Laughs.) It's a good old funky song. It
got to be a slang thing, and'then it went crossover.... You can go in a club
now, and hear any white band'playing it.

****
'Mustang Sally' author 'Sir' Mack Rice dies Bob Mehr, The (Memphis) Commercial
Appeal MEMPHIS The author of Mustang Sally , the co-writer of Respect Yourself
, soul legend, and Stax Records stalwart "Sir" Mack Rice died Monday night at
his Detroit home from complications of Alzheimer's Disease. Rice's death
was confirmed by family friend Pat Lewis in a statement to the Stax Museum of
American Soul Music. He was 82. Though he lived in Detroit for more than
60 years, the city that produced Motown, it was Memphis and Stax Records that
would become a creative home for Rice. He would pen hits for Stax artists
including Rufus Thomas ( The Funky Penguin, Pt. 1 ), Albert King ( Cadillac
Assembly Line ), Johnny Taylor ( Cheaper to Keep Her ), and the Staple Singers
( Respect Yourself ). "I was completely in awe of him," said Scott Bomar of
Memphis R&B band the Bo-Keys, who worked with Rice starting in the late '90s.
"He was like this mythical songwriting giant he'd written Mustang Sally and
Respect Yourself and all these songs that were lesser known but just as amazing
like Money Talks and Tina the Go-Go Queen . "He was a real spiritual person,"
added Bomar. "He had a real kind spirit, a very kind man and thoughtful human
being. And that came through in his songs. When he saw human suffering or
injustice it affected him and his way of working through it was to write a song
about it. He was writing songs in an era when a song actually had the ability
to
change people's hearts and minds. And something like Respect Yourself
is a message song and it resonated with a lot of people. Born Bonny Rice in
Clarksdale, Miss., in 1933, as a teen he was an avid fan of the "race" music
of the 1940s Charles Brown, Amos Milburn, T-Bone Walker but he had no
aspirations to play. Eventually, one of his Clarksdale running buddies, a young
Ike
Turner, took him under his wing. "Ike was trying to teach me to play piano, but
I wasn't interested," recalled Rice in a 2007 interview with The Commercial
Appeal. "Sir" Mack Rice performs Feb. 17, 2007, at the Cadillac Palace Theatre
in Chicago. (Photo: Jim Newberry, Special for The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal)
His family headed north for Detroit in 1950. In high school, Rice joined his
first singing group, the Five Scalders, winning a couple of talent contests.
But after graduating, he was drafted into the Army and served several years in
Germany. When he returned to Detroit in 1955, his mother mentioned an ad
in the newspaper placed by a group looking for new members. The group Rice
would
join was the Falcons, and it would feature two singers who later figured
prominently in the Stax story as well: Wilson Pickett and Eddie Floyd. The
Falcons enjoyed some success over the years, with hits like You're So Fine and
I Found Love, before Pickett left to go solo in 1963. Afterward, Rice and Floyd
kept going as a duo for a couple of years, touring the South heavily.
Eventually,
Floyd split for D.C. and Rice began toying with the idea of writing songs. "I'd
written a few things with the Falcons, but none of the hits," he noted.
"But I had a few ideas. One of Rice's ideas was a "joke song" about Ford's new
sports car. Originally titled Mustang Mama , it was soul queen Aretha Franklin
who played piano on Rice's original demo who suggested the song's now famous
title, Mustang Sally . In 1966, white R&B-pop group the Rascals made the newly
rechristened Mustang Sally the b-side to their multimillion-selling smash Good
Lovin' , helping open Rice's eyes to a career as a writer. "Until then,
I wasn't writing for a living. I was writing for a feeling," he said. "But that
kinda started me getting into the groove. Although Rice had scored a small
R&B hit with his own version of the song for the Mercury/Blue Rock label it was
session producer Andre Williams who gave him the nickname "Sir" Mack the
definitive version came with Wilson Pickett's rendition, recorded in Muscle
Shoals, Ala . "He's the one that caused that song to be as big as it was,"
said Rice. Through his connection with Pickett who cut a series of hits at Stax
during the mid-'60s Rice's path began to draw closer to Soulsville. Steve
Cropper had been working with Pickett and also had begun collaborating with
Rice's old Falcons bandmate Eddie Floyd the pair had sired the hit Knock on
Wood . It was while promoting the track in Detroit in 1966 that Cropper first
crossed paths with Rice, who was soon brought into the Stax fold. Although
Rice would cut a handful of solo singles for Stax over the years, his main
focus
was writing for others. He began commuting regularly from Detroit to Memphis
starting in 1967. Compared to his previous label experiences, the communal
spirit that Rice found working at Stax was something of a shock. "Isaac Hayes
and David Porter cut a tune of mine called Hold It, Baby for Sam and Dave,"
said
Rice. "That was my first break. I never thought I'd get one on Sam and
Dave 'cause they was hot as fire. But David and Isaac, them guys was not a
selfish production team. Somebody like me could come in with some material,
and they would cut it. They would always reach out. That surprised me. "We had
unity at Stax, and a love we had for each other. Whites and black, got along
like brothers and sisters, 'cause we had women working there, too. Rice
remained
with Stax until the very end, when bankruptcy consumed the label in the
mid-'70s; in fact, he was one of the company's last full-time employees. After
the demise of Stax, Rice would reunite with Cropper at the guitarist's TMI
studio. Although he never recaptured the chart success of his Stax days, Rice's
catalog of songs have endured. Mustang Sally and Respect Yourself have
been covered several hundred times by an array of artists that include everyone
from B.B. King to Lynyrd Skynyrd, Buck Owens to Bruce Willis. In the early
'90s, Rice resumed recording, putting out a series of solo albums, his last
coming in 2006. He continued to perform playing at the Stax Musuem and Ponderosa
Stomp in New Orleans until his illness forced him to retire. Plans for services
are pending. Follow Bob Mehr on Twitter: @BobMehr

[msb-alumni] Detroit's Sir Mack Rice, 'Mustang Sally' writer, dead at 82

Other related posts: