I'm Not the One

Album: Brothers (2010)
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Songfacts®:

  • This is a track is from Brothers, the sixth album by American blues-rock duo, The Black Keys. The band comprises vocalist/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer/producer Patrick Carney, who went to Sheffield, Alabama to work on the album. They recorded 10 tracks during their time in Sheffield, including this one. From 1969-1978, the studio hosted Bob Seger, The Rolling Stones, Paul Simon, Rod Stewart and many other famous musicians. The appeal was the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, who was not only the house band, but the owners of the studio. In 1999, the Studio was opened under new management, and The Black Keys recorded there for 10 days in August 2009.
  • Mark Neill, who co-produced/engineered Brothers with Auerbach and Carney, told The Black Keys Fan Lounge about the recording of this song, which tells of a guy denying he did his girl wrong: "This was one of the first songs we cut. All the guitars and everything is direct on this. The guitars are sounding like organ. Beautiful, soul ballad. This has got really good background vocals by Nikki Wray and Dan. She's really good on this. She's not only a great singer but she's an absolute pleasure to be around.

    This song was recorded when there was a lot of paranormal activity playing up in the studio [Muscle Shoals]. They may not have been aware of it but during the overdub section and in the tracking section of this song, which were a week apart almost, every time this song was played something weird would happen in that room. The temperature would get cold, people would be sitting in a chair and the chair would start vibrating for no reason, next to another chair which was not vibrating. People were seeing people walking by, there's a window at the back in an area where they keep the piano in, and if you walk by that window from the left to the right you would walk into a wall. People saw multiple people in the tracking and the mixing walking by that window. Nikki [Wray] saw something, one of the guys in the Management saw two separately, just like a person walking right past the window clear as day."

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