embodied the spirit of independence in Memphis music, and he became a godfather and an inspiration for several generations of Memphis artists — musical, literary, and cinematic.
Jim was raised on rock and roll, and rock and roll was what he preached — both the music and the attitude. More than simply defiant, Jim was ever questioning, challenging the status quo and digging for a deeper understanding — of actions, of interpretations, of decisions. A musician —he sang, played piano, guitar, and lots more — he was also a record producer, a songwriter, and creator of movie scores. Jim was about thinking outside the musical staff, but in tune.
Jim was a student of history and of the theater, both of which dovetailed with his growing up in Memphis. He was of the generation that was directly and immediately influenced by Sam Phillips, Elvis Presley, and Sun Records—a generation Jim called the “witnesses,” the Memphis audience who felt the tremors and aftershocks of rock and roll’s quake. With the Jesters, Jim recorded one of the last rocking records for Sun, “Cadillac Man,” shouting the vocals and pounding the piano.
Sun engineer Bill Justis brought him to Nashville for an album session. There, Jim began his lifelong affair with the studio, exploring its possibilities in the documentation and manipulation of recorded sound. In the mid-1960s, he fell in with the nascent Ardent Studio in Memphis, honing his skills as an engineer and songwriter. He was instrumental in the 1960s blues revival, working with the surviving original blues musicians on live shows and in the studio; he studied their techniques and their attitudes, and became close friends with Furry Lewis, Johnny Woods, and several others.
Through playing sessions around town, he became part of a group that Jerry Wexler invited to Miami to be the house band at his “Atlantic South” Criteria Studio. Calling themselves the Dixie Flyers, they backed a wide array of stars—Aretha Franklin on her Grammy-nominated Spirit In The Dark; Albert Collins, Carmen McCrae, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Hank Ballard among many.
Jim’s first solo album, Dixie Fried, was a thrilling blend of country, blues, and rock and roll, a fitting cap to his relationship with Atlantic.
Jim produced "Into the Purple Valley" and "Boomer's Story" for Ry Cooder. During that time Ry introduced Jim to Arlo Guthrie. Jim subsequently toured with Arlo and played piano on Arlo's "City of New Orleans." His blues connections were evident in the work with Cooder; when the Rolling Stones came south, Jim played piano on “Wild Horses.”
In 1972, after Atlantic, Jim joined with folk musician Sid Selvidge, blues-rocker Lee Baker, and puppeteer-percussionist Jimmy Crosthwait to form Mud Boy and the Neutrons.
Unlike the Stones, Mud Boy sought obscurity—and succeeded; aside from contributing occasional tracks to albums by others, they didn’t record until 1986, their 14th year as a group; only one more album followed, and not for seven more years. Their live performances were also infrequent, and legendary.
In 1974, Alex Chilton tapped Jim to produce songs he was creating in the wake of disappointment over the commercial failure of his Big Star albums. Bringing his accumulated knowledge from theater, recording, and history, Jim pushed the studio’s possibilities, creating the landmark Big Star 3rd album. The experimentation and rule-breaking continued in the next collaboration with Chilton, Like Flies On Sherbert, cementing Jim’s reputation for pulling art from chaos.
Artists from the margins sought him —
Though punk rock could have ostracized many classic Memphis musicians, Jim heard ways to meld the old with the new. On recordings with Tav Falco’s Panther Burns, a punkabilly band striving to be something a bit more organized, Jim added former Stax artists (especially hornmen Andrew Love, Ben Cauley, and Wayne Jackson), and also other great-but-hardly-working players.
From his youth, when he heard pianist Two-Ton Baker the Music Maker accompany himself while reading the news on the radio, Jim appreciated music’s potential to contribute color and emotion. This aspect was most evident in his work on movie soundtracks, often in collaboration with Ry Cooder. Their Paris, Texas soundtrack is a career highlight, a minimum of instruments and sound evoking a vast physical and emotional landscape.
For The Border soundtrack, Jim wrote lyrics to “Across the Borderline,” a song of hope that was soon recorded by Cooder, Willie Nelson, Bruce Springsteen, and Bob Dylan. (Bob Dylan made him part of the core recording band for his Grammy-winning album Time Out Of Mind, released in 1997.)
Beginning in 1989, Jim began performing, and soon recording, with his two sons—Luther on guitar and Cody on drums. As the kids immersed themselves in their father’s work, they began exploring the Mississippi and blues culture all around them, soon forming the North Mississippi All Stars, with Jim producing several of their albums. In the 2000s, he released a flurry of five newly recorded CDs, plus a spoken word album.
Jim Dickinson inspired other artists to stay in Memphis (and environs) while pursuing their international aspirations. He demonstrated that it was possible to create the music you wanted without conceding to coastal, industrial demands. In fact, those goals could be achieved more easily outside the company towns of Los Angeles and New York, where many of the greats often made questionable music and wound up deep in debt to the company store. Jim Dickinson remained a beacon for artistic integrity all his life, and beyond his untimely death in 2009. He wrote his own epitaph:
“I’m just dead, I’m not gone.”
and indeed, he remains an inspiration to this day.
The author of It Came From Memphis, The King on the Road, The Elvis Treasures and Can’t Be Satisfied: The Life and Times of Muddy Waters. He is also a 2011 Grammy Award winner for his liner notes for the Keep an Eye on the Sky box set chronicling the career of Big Star. He co-produced and co-directed a PBS documentary titled Muddy Waters Can’t Be Satisfied, based on his book.
What Others are Saying
I became friends with Jim in the 4th grade @ White Station school and rode my bike to his house every mth. To read Tarzan before it hit the drug store shelf. He started a gang called The Raber Gabers ,I think I’m the only one left. Our friendship never faded. I remember Bill Newport Jim and I recording in his bedroom in the 60s ,Jim on guitar bill on a nail leg &me singing into a miked mop bucket I thought I was Howlin Wolf .
Jim was a good friend of Greg Hiskey who I played music with for over 20 years. Jim produced the Neon Wheels lp and played piano on Rhythm Method’s “Run Run Rudolph” single Great man, gentle soul. RIP Jim Dickinson. Gone but not forgetten for sure!
Jim Dickinson died? Oh that is sad. My tribute, right now will be ‘Like Flies on Sherbert’, my farouvite Chilton solo album. I also have his ‘Free Beer Tomorrow’ and may give that a spin, I never could get hold of ‘Dixie Fried’on record here and see there was a CD re-release, might see if I can order one. Les Paul’s passing made Radio 4 news here in England.