Guitar Slim
Encyclopedia
Eddie Jones better known as Guitar Slim, was a New Orleans blues
guitarist
, from the 1940s and 1950s, best known for the million-selling song, produced
by Johnny Vincent at Specialty Records
, "The Things That I Used to Do
". It is a song
that is listed in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
, Mississippi
, United States
. His mother died when he was five, and his grandmother raised him, as he spent his teen years
in the cotton fields. He spent his free time at the local juke joint
s and started sitting in as a singer or dancer; he was good enough to be nicknamed "Limber Leg."
military service, he started playing clubs around New Orleans
, Louisiana
. Bandleader
Willie D. Warren
introduced him to the guitar, and he was particularly influenced by T-Bone Walker
and Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown
. About 1950 he adopted the stage name
'Guitar Slim' and started becoming known for his wild stage act. He wore bright-colored suits and dyed his hair to match them, had an assistant follow him around the audience with up to 350 feet of cord between amplifier
and guitar, and would occasionally get up on his assistant's shoulders, or even take his guitar outside the club and bring traffic to a stop. His sound was just as unusual — he was playing with distorted
guitar more than a decade before rock guitarists did the same, and his gospel-influenced vocals were easily identifiable.
He got together with Muddy Waters
in Los Angeles
, California
for some lively playing.
hit in 1952 with "Feelin' Sad", which Ray Charles
covered
. His biggest success was "The Things That I Used to Do
" (1954). The song, produced by a young Ray Charles, was released on Art Rupe
's Specialty Records
label. The song spent weeks at number one on the R&B charts and sold over a million copies, soon becoming a blues standard
.
He recorded on a few labels, including Imperial, Bullet, Specialty, and Atco. The recordings made in 1954 and 1955 for Specialty are his best.
, and then died of pneumonia
in New York City
at age 32. Guitar Slim is buried in a small cemetery in Thibodaux, Louisiana
, where his manager, Hosea Hill, resided.
, Albert Collins
and Frank Zappa
were influenced by Slim.
Stevie Ray Vaughan
recorded a cover version
of "The Things That I Used to Do
".
One of Slim's sons bills himself as Guitar Slim, Jr.
around the New Orleans circuit, and his repertoire is heavily reliant on his father's material.
New Orleans blues
New Orleans rhythm and blues refers to a type of R&B music from the U.S. city of New Orleans, Louisiana, characterized by extensive use of piano and horn sections, complex syncopated "second line" rhythms, and lyrics that reflect New Orleans life....
guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
, from the 1940s and 1950s, best known for the million-selling song, produced
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
by Johnny Vincent at Specialty Records
Specialty Records
Specialty Records was an American record label based in Los Angeles. It was originally launched as Juke Box Records in 1946, but later renamed by its owner Art Rupe when he parted company with a couple of his original partners...
, "The Things That I Used to Do
The Things That I Used to Do
"The Things That I Used to Do" is a blues song written by Guitar Slim and his 1953 recording of it in New Orleans, was arranged and produced by a young Ray Charles. It was released on Specialty Records in 1954 to become a bestseller...
". It is a song
Song
In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...
that is listed in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
Early life
Eddie "Guitar Slim" Jones was born in GreenwoodGreenwood, Mississippi
Greenwood is a city in and the county seat of Leflore County, Mississippi, United States, located at the eastern edge of the Mississippi Delta approximately 96 miles north of Jackson, Mississippi, and 130 miles south of Memphis, Tennessee. The population was 15,205 at the 2010 census. It is the...
, Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. His mother died when he was five, and his grandmother raised him, as he spent his teen years
Adolescence
Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and mental human development generally occurring between puberty and legal adulthood , but largely characterized as beginning and ending with the teenage stage...
in the cotton fields. He spent his free time at the local juke joint
Juke joint
Juke joint is the vernacular term for an informal establishment featuring music, dancing, gambling, and drinking, primarily operated by African American people in the southeastern United States. The term "juke" is believed to derive from the Gullah word joog, meaning rowdy or disorderly...
s and started sitting in as a singer or dancer; he was good enough to be nicknamed "Limber Leg."
Recording career
After returning from World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
military service, he started playing clubs around New Orleans
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
. Bandleader
Bandleader
A bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music....
Willie D. Warren
Willie D. Warren
Willie D. Warren was an American electric blues guitarist, bass player and singer. In a long career, he worked with Otis Rush, Al Benson, Little Sonny Cooper, David Honeyboy Edwards, Baby Boy Warren, Guitar Slim, Freddie King, Jimmy Reed, Morris Pejoe, Bobo Jenkins and Jim McCarty...
introduced him to the guitar, and he was particularly influenced by T-Bone Walker
T-Bone Walker
Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker was a critically acclaimed American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who was one of the most influential pioneers and innovators of the jump blues and electric blues sound. He is the first musician recorded playing blues with the...
and Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown
Clarence Gatemouth Brown
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown was an American musician from Louisiana and Texas. He is best known for his work as a blues musician, but embraced other styles of music, having "spent his career fighting purism by synthesizing old blues, country, jazz, Cajun music and R&B styles"He was an acclaimed...
. About 1950 he adopted the stage name
Stage name
A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...
'Guitar Slim' and started becoming known for his wild stage act. He wore bright-colored suits and dyed his hair to match them, had an assistant follow him around the audience with up to 350 feet of cord between amplifier
Amplifier
Generally, an amplifier or simply amp, is a device for increasing the power of a signal.In popular use, the term usually describes an electronic amplifier, in which the input "signal" is usually a voltage or a current. In audio applications, amplifiers drive the loudspeakers used in PA systems to...
and guitar, and would occasionally get up on his assistant's shoulders, or even take his guitar outside the club and bring traffic to a stop. His sound was just as unusual — he was playing with distorted
Distortion
A distortion is the alteration of the original shape of an object, image, sound, waveform or other form of information or representation. Distortion is usually unwanted, and often many methods are employed to minimize it in practice...
guitar more than a decade before rock guitarists did the same, and his gospel-influenced vocals were easily identifiable.
He got together with Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield , known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues"...
in Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
for some lively playing.
Recordings
His first recording session was in 1951, and he had a minor rhythm and bluesRhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
hit in 1952 with "Feelin' Sad", which Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
covered
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
. His biggest success was "The Things That I Used to Do
The Things That I Used to Do
"The Things That I Used to Do" is a blues song written by Guitar Slim and his 1953 recording of it in New Orleans, was arranged and produced by a young Ray Charles. It was released on Specialty Records in 1954 to become a bestseller...
" (1954). The song, produced by a young Ray Charles, was released on Art Rupe
Art Rupe
Arthur N. "Art" Rupe is an American music industry executive and record producer. He started Specialty Records, noted for its rhythm & blues, blues, gospel and early rock and roll music recordings, in Los Angeles in 1946.-Career:Born in the Pittsburgh suburb of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, Rupe...
's Specialty Records
Specialty Records
Specialty Records was an American record label based in Los Angeles. It was originally launched as Juke Box Records in 1946, but later renamed by its owner Art Rupe when he parted company with a couple of his original partners...
label. The song spent weeks at number one on the R&B charts and sold over a million copies, soon becoming a blues standard
Blues standard
A blues standard is a blues song that is widely known, performed, and recorded by blues artists. The following list identifies blues standards and some of the blues artists that have recorded them...
.
He recorded on a few labels, including Imperial, Bullet, Specialty, and Atco. The recordings made in 1954 and 1955 for Specialty are his best.
Death
His career having faded, Guitar Slim became an alcoholicAlcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
, and then died of pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
at age 32. Guitar Slim is buried in a small cemetery in Thibodaux, Louisiana
Thibodaux, Louisiana
Thibodaux is a small city in and the parish seat of Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, United States, along the banks of Bayou Lafourche in the northwestern part of the parish. The population was 14,431 at the 2000 census. Thibodaux is a principal city of the Houma–Bayou Cane–Thibodaux...
, where his manager, Hosea Hill, resided.
Influence
Buddy GuyBuddy Guy
George "Buddy" Guy is an American blues and jazz guitarist and singer. He is a critically acclaimed artist who has established himself as a pioneer of the Chicago blues sound, and has served as an influence to some of the most notable musicians of his generation...
, Albert Collins
Albert Collins
Albert Collins was an American electric blues guitarist and singer whose recording career began in the 1960s in Houston and whose fame eventually took him to stages across the US, Europe, Japan and Australia...
and Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
were influenced by Slim.
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stephen Ray "Stevie Ray" Vaughan was an American electric blues guitarist and singer. He was the younger brother of Jimmie Vaughan and frontman for Double Trouble, a band that included bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton. Born in Dallas, Vaughan moved to Austin at the age of 17 and...
recorded a cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of "The Things That I Used to Do
The Things That I Used to Do
"The Things That I Used to Do" is a blues song written by Guitar Slim and his 1953 recording of it in New Orleans, was arranged and produced by a young Ray Charles. It was released on Specialty Records in 1954 to become a bestseller...
".
One of Slim's sons bills himself as Guitar Slim, Jr.
Guitar Slim, Jr.
Guitar Slim, Jr. is an American New Orleans blues guitarist and singer. Over his lengthy playing career, Slim Jr., has worked with various blues musicians...
around the New Orleans circuit, and his repertoire is heavily reliant on his father's material.