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.
Here are some of my favorites in honor of his birthday!
One of the songs on my dad’s list was “Baby What You Want Me To Do.” Elvis did this at a few of his concerts. I love the groove of this one …
Another one that Elvis covered was Jimmy’s “Big Boss Man”
The guitar lick from Jimmy’s “Shame, Shame, Shame” seems like one that I always heard my dad playing when he was warming up …
Another favorite is “Bright Lights, Big City”
The Stones covered this great one – “Ain’t That Lovin’ You Baby”
The Blues Brothers covered Jimmy on one of their albums, doing a cool version of “I Ain’t Got You”
Jimmy died of respiratory failure just 8 days before his 51st birthday on August 29, 1976. He was inducted posthumously to the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980. He was certainly a “Boss Man of the Blues”
Happy Birthday, Jimmy!
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 