Jimmy Reed rates as one of the most popular and significant bluesmen of the postwar era. No one, save for B.B. King, so effectively reached both black and white audiences in the Fifties and Sixties. His most popular songs are indelible in their simplicity and accessibility. They include such classics of the genre as “Big Boss Man,” “Bright Lights, Big City,” “Baby What You Want Me to Do” and “Ain’t That Lovin’ You Baby.” But that just scratches the surface of a very prolific artist who recorded extensively throughout his lifetime.
Wikipedia biography:
Jimmy Reed was born in Dunleith, Mississippi in 1925, learning the harmonica and guitar from Eddie Taylor, a close friend. After spending several years busking and performing in the area, Reed moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1943 before being drafted into the United States Navy during World War II. In 1945, Reed was discharged and moved back to Mississippi for a brief period, marrying his girlfriend, Mary "Mama" Reed, before moving to Gary, Indiana to work at an Armour & Co. meat packing plant.
By the 1950s, Reed had established himself as a popular local musician and joined the "Gary Kings" with John Brim, as well as playing on the street with Willie Joe Duncan. Reed failed to gain a contract with Chess Records, but then signed with Vee-Jay Records through Brim's drummer, Albert King. At Vee-Jay, Reed began playing again with Eddie Taylor and soon released "You Don't Have To Go", his first hit song. This was followed by a long string of hits. Reed maintained his reputation, in spite of rampant alcoholism. Sometimes, his wife had to help him remember the lyrics to his songs while performing. In 1957, Reed developed epilepsy, though the disease was not correctly diagnosed for a long time, as Reed and doctors assumed it was delirium tremens.
In spite of his numerous hits, Reed's personal problems prevented him from achieving the same level of fame as other popular blues artists of the time, though he had more hit songs than many others. When Vee-Jay Records closed down, Reed's manager signed a contract with the fledgling ABC-Bluesway label, but Reed was never able to score another hit.
The Rolling Stones have cited Reed as a major influence on their sound, and their early set lists comprised many of Reed's songs. The Rolling Stones recorded tracks like 'Ain't That Lovong You baby', 'The Sun is Shining' (also played at the Stones' 1969 Altamont concert), 'Close Together', 'Bright Lights Big City' and 'Shame Shame Shame" in 1963 as demos to offer to record companies like DECCA, and their February 1964 hit single "Not Fade Away" had as the B-side "Little by Little", a pastiche of "Shame, Shame, Shame". Their first album released in April 1964 featured their cover of Reed's "Honest I Do".
Reed's recordings of "Big Boss Man" and "Bright Lights, Big City" were both voted onto the list of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
Jimmy Reed died in Oakland, California in 1976, a few days short of his 51st birthday. He is interred in the Lincoln Cemetery in Worth, Illinois.
In 1991, Jimmy Reed was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Bluesharp.ca:
“
There's simply no sound in the blues as easily digestible, accessible, instantly recognizable and as easy to play and sing as the music of Jimmy Reed. His best-known songs -- "Baby, What You Want Me to Do," "Bright Lights, Big City," "Honest I Do," "You Don't Have to Go," "Going to New York," "Ain't That Lovin' You Baby" and "Big Boss Man" -- have become such an integral part of the standard blues repertoire, it's almost as if they have existed forever. Because his style was simple and easily imitated, his songs were accessible to just about everyone from high school garage bands having a go at it to Elvis Presley, Charlie Rich, Lou Rawls, Hank Williams, Jr., and the Rolling Stones, making him -- in the long run -- perhaps the most influential bluesman of all. His bottom string boogie rhythm guitar patterns (all furnished by boyhood friend and longtime musical partner Eddie Taylor), simple two-string turnarounds, countryish harmonica solos (all played in a neck rack attachment hung around his neck) and mush mouthed vocals were probably the first exposure most White folks had to the blues. And his music -- lazy, loping and insistent and constantly built and reconstructed single after single on the same sturdy frame -- was a formula that proved to be enormously successful and influential, both with middle-aged Blacks and young White audiences for a good dozen years.
”
Read more at: http://www.bluesharp.ca/legends/jreed.html
Tracks:
01 - The Sun Is Shining
02 - Honest I Do
03 - Down in Virginia
04 - Baby What You Want Me To Do
05 - Found Love
06 - Hush Hush
07 - Bright Lights, Big City
08 - Close Together
09 - Big Boss Man
10 - Aw Shucks, Hush Your Mouth
11 - Good Lover
12 - Shame, Shame, Shame
13 - I Ain't Got You
14 - Down in Virginia [alternate take]
15 - I'm Forty Upside Your Head
16 - Pretty Ring
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