Song Lyric Sunday

Jim Adams has asked us to pick an artist who was born in September this week.

The fantastic blues singer Jimmy Reed was born today in 1925. He was born Mathis James Reed in Mississippi where he learned to play guitar and harmonica. He moved to Chicago in 1943 and was drafted into the Navy. After he was discharged a couple years later, he went back to Mississippi where he married his girlfriend and the moved to Indiana.

By the 1950’s he was a fairly well known musician and was signed to Vee-Jay Records, where he recorded many of his hits. Those hits influenced many artists including Elvis, The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, Bob Dylan and more. All of them have recorded covers of Jimmy’s songs.

My dad introduced me to Jimmy when I was working at my first radio job. He asked me to make him a cassette of some songs if they were in the station’s library. A couple of those songs were from Jimmy. He told me stories of how he and my Uncle Tom loved listening to Jimmy Reed and the they even played a couple of those at my high school graduation party.

To me, Jimmy is a blues pioneer. When people talk about the blues, Jimmy’s name comes up. He was posthumously inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. His music may not be for everyone, but I really dig it. It will always make me think of my dad and my uncle.

My favorite is Baby What You Want Me To Do. Nowhere in the song do the lyrics “baby what you want me to do” appear, although later cover versions often wrongly include the phrase in place of the original “baby why you wanna let go.”

You’ve got me runnin’
You’ve got me hidin’
You’ve got me run, hide, hide, run
Anyway you wanna let it roll
Yeah, yeah, yeah
You’ve got me doin’ what you want me
A-baby why you wanna let go

I’m goin’ up
I’m goin’ down
I’m goin’ up, down, down, up
Anyway, ya wanna let it roll
Yeah, yeah, yeah
You’ve got me doin’ what you want me
A-baby why’d you wanna let go

You’ve got me peepin’
You’ve got me hidin’
You’ve got me peep, hide, hide, peep
Anyway you wanna let it roll
Yeah, yeah, yeah
You’ve got me doin’ what you want me
So baby, why ya wanna let go

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Jimmy Reed

Baby What You Want Me to Do lyrics © Conrad Music