Barry Beckett, (b. February 4, 1943 - d. June 10, 2009) Muscle Shoals Studio producer and keyboard player
June 23, 2009, Nashville TN, from Steve Buckingham by way of Bob Lefsetz
This is Steve Buckingham in Nashville. Our friend, Bob Kirsch, sent me the many statements about Barry Beckett that you posted.
I am going to forward all of these to his sons, Mark and Matthew. Diane, his wife, doesn’t do email but I will make sure she gets a copy of all the wonderful things everyone has said about Barry.
Barry had been scheduled to play Wurlitzer and B-3 with me three years ago on a Joan Osborne album I was producing. It was that week that Barry had the first of a series of strokes that he never really recovered from.
Two weeks ago Diane asked Eddie Bayers, Michael Rhodes and me to come see Barry for what we all knew would be the last time. Needless to say, it was very emotional.
I am helping Diane, Mark and Matthew put together a memorial service for Barry. It will be at the Musicians Hall of Fame in Nashville and I will let you know the date so you can post it.
By the way, I have heard from so many people about Barry’s death. Paul Simon called from his tour in New Zealand to offer his condolences. I asked him to call Diane, Barry’s wife of over 43 years, which he did.
Thanks Bob for keeping some of us “in touch.”
The following is something I wrote on the night I was told Barry had died.
Eddie Bayers just called me and Barry died about 30 minutes ago. Barry Beckett was one of the greatest studio keyboard players in history and a hell of a guy. If you listened to Rhythm & Blues, Bob Dylan’s “Slow Train Coming
I first met Barry in 1976 in Muscle Shoals, Alabama when I was still playing sessions and hadn’t yet started producing. Barry and the other members of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section…Roger Hawkins, David Hood and Jimmy Johnson…were already legends, having played on records for everyone from Wilson Pickett to the Rolling Stones.
Barry moved to Nashville a few years after I did. The first country artist I produced in Nashville was Tammy Wynette and the first musician I called to play on the session was Barry. I have a great picture of Tammy, Barry and all the other musicians together in the studio. We all look so young…and, sadly, three of those in the photo are no longer with us.
Barry and I worked together a number of times over the following years and even co-produced some artists together. As so many of the other musicians have recalled, the image of Barry holding a cigarette in one hand, elbow on one knee, toothpick in his mouth…staring at the keyboard, waiting to lay just the right 5 or 6 notes in the perfect spot…is indelibly stamped in our memories.
A week ago today, I went to see Barry for the last time with Eddie Bayers and Michael Rhodes. Eddie and Michael played drums and bass on hundreds of Barry’s productions as well as for me. We all consider ourselves lucky to have had him as a mentor…and, especially, a friend.
I will close with this one story. Barry and a group of us studio musicians and producers loved trains. Every year we would charter a steam engine and several cars and go on all day excursions out of Chattanooga. The cars were the old, luxurious types built in the 1930s. The last car on the train had a platform out back and we all wanted to spend time sitting out there, watching the tracks disappear behind us. This is where Barry would park himself for the entire day, except when it was time to eat. One afternoon I was sitting on the back platform with Barry who, typically, had his elbow on one knee and was holding a cigarette…staring at the tracks. Finally he said: “Buck…listen to that rhythm” (He was referring to the clickety-clack of the steel wheels on the rails). Barry continued, “That’s a deep pocket (groove)…let’s remember that the next time we’re in the studio.”
Believe me…there are a lot of things I remember about Barry Beckett.
Steve Buckingham
Nashville…June, 2009
“Gammy-winning producer Steve Buckingham began his career in music by playing beach music in Virginia and the Carolinas, eventually becoming a session musician, working out of Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Muscle Shoals, AL. The session work led Buckingham to try his hand at producing, and in 1978 his production of “I Love the Nightlife” was a huge hit for Alicia Bridges.
Following a move to Nashville, Buckingham served as vice president of A&R for Columbia Records for ten years before leaving to become senior vice president of Vanguard and Sugar Hill Records.
But it is Buckingham’s successful stint as a producer that is his claim to fame, and working with artists like Martin Taylor, and others, he has placed singles in the Top Ten of several radio charts, including the pop, country, R&B, jazz, adult contemporary, Americana, bluegrass, Christian, Hispanic, Triple A, and dance lists.” ~ Steve Leggett, All Music Guide
You Gotta Serve Somebody, Bob Dylan with Barry Beckett on organ
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Connie Anderson
steve, do you remember a family from socal who visited you and your parents in summer 65? your dad had once been married to my dad’s sister in ohio and you had a half sister, Dolores. our names were ed and lill anderson, then me, connie and my brother, ron…with red hair. i remember looking at your centars photo album and going to the pool where i think you were a life guard. i saw you on oprah several years ago and was not suprised you made a living in the music world. then lately i looked you up online and see you look very much like your mother. i would just love to catch up letting you know how my life has been. peace, connie.