Jimmy Reed talked about going to New York
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Listen to how musical this guy's speaking voice is. Laid-back Louisiana bluesman Jimmy Reed, popular in the 1950's and '60's, recorded for the Vee-Jay label. In 1965 Vee-Jay released a "Great Moments Preserved" reissue series in which some of its top R&B artists each got a greatest hits album where, before each cut, the artist would talk briefly about it. Here's Jimmy Reed answering his long-time artists & repertoire director Calvin Carter about his 1958 hit "Going to New York," followed abruptly by the song itself. I've tried to transcribe his comments.
"Yeah, I remember that song. That's a song I had done said…I said, well… I said I'm going to go to New York. I know I'm going to have to go later. Sooner or later. I said so I'm going to try my best to see can I can make it up so I go to New York to buy something. So it wind up with that sound coming out to my "I'm Going to New York." I said I don't care what anybody says. I'm not going to rob and steal. I ain't going to kill nobody to get to New York, and I said, but I'm going to New York. I'm going if I have to walk. I'm going to go to New York."
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Comments (13)
After I had posted this yesterday, a few of you commented about my newly grey play button. I soon realized that for me every button in all of Mog that should have been red was grey. For some reason the problem vanished overnight.
great post! i love the background stories that make a song come more to life!
Jimmy Speaks! Sounds like they recorded in the same echo chamber they did the records in..That's the blues alright.
Charley, what you say is evidence that Vee-Jay's strategy with those albums worked, to show the light bulb of an idea next to its result. His recreating his original train of thought is a work unto itself in my opinion.
Cody, I bet you're right about the locale. Sorry about the non-mint surface noise.
What noise? My ears have a filter for that.
So do mine, actually.
It pays when you listen to a lot of old records..conversely, when I hear an early 80's synth sound all my filters break down and I run from the room screaming.
The synth often sounds as if it has all of the bad qualities of the organ and the piano, but none of the good qualities. Surface noise from old reissued 78s confirms that the recording is actually from the period when that music was current and that the musicians were marinated in the spirit of that time, and which later revivalists can't fully recreate. Another view is that a partially clothed body often looks more erotic than a naked one.
talk to me Jimmy!
very nice Spike, gotta have the surface noise, it's the icing on the cake!
If the term sui generis wasn't invented for Jimmy Reed, it should have been. How many other blues guys can you recognize within five seconds? Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf....um, having a little trouble here. Maybe Slim Harpo. God, I could listen to him for days on end....
Righto, mates! Fellow Louisianian Slim Harpo had a similarly unfrenzied voice like Jimmy Reed, both influencing and covered by Mick Jagger. I also like Reed's minimalist harp style.
Sometimes I wish I'd grown up speaking an exotic regional English and not the nondescript style I'm stuck with. My non-expert theory is that people like me drop fewer consonants than any of the regional types who include the inhabitants of Buckingham Palace. I imagine folks who live, for instance, in rural northern Scotland (Baudolinoland?) drop as many consonants as anyone in the English-speaking world. I would have a hard time understanding their pronunciation but they wouldn't have trouble understanding mine.
Great post, I always enjoy listening to these blues guys speak, I love the way they ramble and you have to really concentrate to keep up.
From the very small amount I've read about Jimmy Reed, I seem to remember that he liked a drink. His playing and his voice seem to reflect this, I love his relaxed and laid back approach. No frills, just great blues
Exactly. His spoken syntax can be unusual in a poetic way. Relaxed singing beats exaggerated emotional singing, to these ears at least.