Blues All Day Long: The Jimmy Rogers Story PDF
Preview Blues All Day Long: The Jimmy Rogers Story
"Great work. Long, long overdue." —Taj Mahal THE JIMMY ROGERS STORY BLUES A L L D A Y LONG Wayne Everett Goins Blues All Day Long Music in AMericAn Life A list of books in the series appears at the end of this book. Blues All Day Long T h e J i m m y r o g e r s s t o r y Wayne Everett Goins Foreword by Kim Wilson universiTy of iLLinois Press Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield © 2014 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 c p 5 4 3 2 1 ∞ This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Goins, Wayne E., author. Blues all day long : the Jimmy Rogers story / Wayne Everett Goins ; foreword by Kim Wilson. pages cm. — (Music in American life) Includes bibliographical references, discography, and index. ISBN 978-0-252-03857-0 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-252-08017-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-252-09649-5 (e-book) 1. Rogers, Jimmy. 2. Guitarists—United States—Biography. 3. Jazz musicians—United States—Biography. I. Title. ML419.R613G65 2014 787.87’1643092—dc23 2014007477 [B] For my father, William Earl Goins, who gave me the gift of music. They called him Bill. For “Uncle Jimmy” Jones, my first blues guitar hero. I still hear that Fender Jaguar. For Uncle John Lewis Goins, who gave my dad the first real guitar I ever owned. Oh, look at what you did. contents Foreword by Kim Wilson ........................................ix Acknowledgments.............................................. xiii Introduction ........................................................1 Part i. from Minter city to Madison street (1924–1960) 1. Money, Marbles, and Chalk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 2. Chicago Bound ...................................................27 3. Chess Moves...................................................... 53 4. Headhunters and Wolfmen .....................................76 5. The World’s in a Tangle..........................................98 6. Blues Leave Me Alone .......................................... 118 Part ii. rising from the Ashes (1970–1989) 7. Walkin’ by Myself ...............................................139 8. Shelter from the Storm .........................................157 9. Gold Tailed Bird................................................. 181 10. Feelin’ Good .....................................................208 11. Out on the Road.................................................237 Part iii. fathers and sons (1989–1997) 12. Changing Lanes .................................................263 13. That’s All Right..................................................291 14. Long Gone .......................................................310 Coda: The Last Time............................................317 Notes .............................................................319 A Selected Jimmy Rogers Discography .......................351 Bibliography.....................................................365 Index .............................................................375 foreword Kim Wilson Jimmy Rogers—oh, man. It’s so hard to tell you what he meant to me. Was he my father? My uncle? Big brother? I don’t know. Maybe he was all of them. One thing’s for sure, though—he was definitely my hero. When you were around him, everything seemed to flow in an effortless, natural kind of way. And his music was just like his personality—with Jimmy, there was no need for rehearsal. He struck me as a really nice cat. Despite whatever he’d been through, he was al- ways a happy, confident, and generous guy. I think it’s because he knew where he stood in the grand scheme of things, which obviously was as one of the most important players in the history of the blues—not just in Chicago, but the world. You don’t know how good it felt the first time he turned and looked at me with that Cheshire cat grin of his, sweat dripping down his face, and said to me, “Muthafucka, you can play that shit!” When you first meet someone like this, they are like gods to you, and you’re in awe of them. But then you get to know them and they become more like family. It becomes like a big party. You play jokes on each other. You laugh, and you cry together—from laughter. We did a lot of great gigs, and the whole time we were out there I never heard one negative thing out of him. Jimmy was a fun-loving guy, and sometimes he was an instigator, which he loved when it came to getting me in trouble! I was like a son to him—he’d say that to me all the time. We also were drinking buddies, and whenever I’d go to the bar, he’d get a smile on his face
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