Kickin’ Back With Some Great Southern Rock
“Rock was born in the South, so saying ‘Southern Rock’ is like saying ‘Rock Rock.’” — Duane Allman
“Heard It in a Love Song” by the Marshall Tucker Band
“Heard It in a Love Song” was written by Marshall Tucker drummer Toy Caldwell and became a Top 20 hit in 1977. Singer Doug Gray told the Morning Call that he didn’t like the song at first.
“Well, it was kind of strange. I put off singing that song for a year because, here I was thinking to myself, ‘That’s just too simple of a song for Marshall Tucker to put out there,’ with all these other complex songs that we’ve got out. I went to everybody and I just said, ‘Look man, I just don’t want to sing this song. I just don’t think it’s up to par.’ And it took a year. I used every excuse in the book — Oh, ‘I’m gonna be gone, I’m sick, I don’t feel good,’ you know?
“So it finally got to the point where the record was coming out. So they said, ‘OK, we got the track. You got to come put the vocal on it.’ I put the vocal on it, they put the thing out, and four weeks later it was starting to chart.
“Even though I didn’t want to sing that song — I thought it was too soft of a song. But yet, every night, people want to hear it. And if we didn’t do it, they’d beat us up.”
