Goodbye Jimmy Reed

“You won't amount to much, the people all said
'Cause I didn't play guitar behind my head
Never pandered, never acted proud
Never took off my shoes, throw 'em in the crowd
Goodbye Jimmy Reed, goodbye, goodnight
Put a jewel in your crown and I put out the lights

    “Goodbye, Jimmy Reed,” Bob Dylan

James Mathis “Jimmy” Reed (1925-1976) grew up in the small, unincorporated community of Dunleith, Mississippi, picked up the guitar at a young age, learned to play the harmonica (harp) from Eddie Tayler, and earned money busking (street performing) as a teenager. Soon after moving to Chicago he joined the navy during World War II.  After being discharged, he married his hometown sweetheart Mary (whom he called Mama Reed) and got work in an Armour meatpacking plant while getting occasional work as a session player at Chicago’s Chess records and sideman in Jim Brim’s Gary Kings along with future Blues legend Albert King. Brim’s band played clubs in Gary and Chicago, many owned or financed by policy bosses.  During this time Reed met Jimmy Bracken, who along with Gary partner Vivian Carter, founded Vee-Jay Records with a loan from a Gary pawnbroker involved in the numbers racket.  When Chess Records expressed no interest in him as a solo artist, Reed signed the Vee-Jay, along with a Gary doo wop group called the Spaniels, and recorded the label’s very first single.  From the beginning Reed’s songs, such as “High and Lonesome” and “You Don’t Have to Go,” charted on Billboard’s Rhythm and Blues top ten.  “Goodnite, Sweetheart” by the Spaniels did even better and enabled Vee-Jay to become an industry powerhouse that paved the way for Motown a decade later.

 

Known to be a heavy drinker and somewhat uncomfortable in a recording studio, Reed initially had to be kept under lock and key before sessions to ensure he’d be sober.  He’d have Mama Reed, who co-wrote many of his songs, by his side.  She sang background and sometimes could be heard whispering lyrics to him.  In 1957 Reed had a crossover hit with “Honest I Do” and followed that up with “Big Boss Man,” “Bright Lights, City Lights,” and others.  His soulful voice and unique guitar and harp stylings were a pronounced influence on many 60s British bands, including the Rolling Stones and the animals; both bands covered his songs, as did Elvis Presley, the Grateful Dead, and Hank Williams, Jr., among others. Suddenly in demand, Reed toured with various headliners and blues revival shows until the ravages of alcoholism and untreated epilepsy led to his death at age 51.

In 1991 Jimmy Reed was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with LaVern Baker, the Byrds, Tina Turner, John Lee Hooker, and The Impressions (with Jerry Butler and Curtis Mayfield, who recorded “For Your Precious Love on Vee-Jay Records). Christgau’s Record Guide states: “At his best—on Vee-Jay in the '50s—Reed sang with the languid self-assurance of a man who never ran for the bus because he wanted to spend the fare on a glass of wine, and the unindustrious shuffle rhythms of the Vee-Jay band ambled right along behind.”

 

“Goodbye Jimmy Reed” appears on ageless icon Bob Dylan’s 2020 album “Rough and Ready Ways.”  Considering himself like Reed a vagabond troubadour armed with a guitar, harp, and songs to sing, Dylan paid his mentor the ultimate compliment, comparing their lives, according to Douglas Brinkley of the New York Times,” in a high-octane showstopper that honors the Mississippi bluesman with dragon-fierce harmonica riffs and bawdy lyrics.”  Here’s the concluding verse:

God be with you, brother, dear
If you don't mind me asking, what brings you here?
Oh, nothing much, I'm just looking for the man
Need to see where he's lying in this lost land
Goodbye Jimmy Reed, and everything within ya
Can't you hear me calling from down in Virginia?