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I'm Just Dead, I'm Not Gone
I'm Just Dead, I'm Not Gone chronicles Jim Dickinson's extraordinary life in the Memphis music scene of the fifties and sixties and how he went on to play with and produce a rich array of artists, including Aretha Franklin, the Rolling Stones, Ry Cooder, Duane Allman, Arlo Guthrie, and Albert King. With verve and wit, Dickinson (1941-2009) describes his trip to Blind Lemon's grave on the Texas flatlands as a college student and how that encounter inspired his return to Memphis. Back home, he looked up Gus Cannon and Furry Lewis, began staging plays, cofounded what would become the annual Memphis Blues Festival, and started recording.
The blues, Elvis, and early rock "n" roll compelled Dickinson to reject racial barriers and spurred his contributions to the Memphis music and experimental art scene. He explains how the family yardman, WDIA, Dewey Phillips, Furry Lewis, Will Shade, and Howlin" Wolf shaped him and recounts how he went on to learn his craft at Sun, Ardent, American, Muscle Shoals, and Criteria studios from master producers Sam Phillips, John Fry, Chips Moman, and Jerry Wexler.
Dickinson is a member of the Mississippi Music Hall of Fame and an inaugural inductee of the Memphis Music Hall of Fame. He has received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Engineering and Production from the Americana Music Association, a Brass Note on the Beale Street Walk of Fame in Memphis, and a Heritage Marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail. This memoir recounts a love affair with Memphis, the blues, and rock "n" roll through Dickinson's captivating blend of intelligence, humor, and candor.
274 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 23, 2017
About the author
James Luther Dickinson
4 booksJim Dickinson was a legendary American musician, producer and recording artist. For much of his life he lived and worked in and around Memphis, Tennessee.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
March 17, 2017
As a tourist on the Dickinson Delta Musical Expedition, the decision of where to stop on your journey will be a difficult one. Baylor University? East Memphis? Muscle Shoals? West Memphis? Miami? Hollywood?
Where will you climb out of that "canary-yellow Ford Torino with racing stripes, a full race cam, and three on the tree" to walk around and stretch your legs a bit?
Linger. Take in the sights. But get ready to move again, because your road map is Jim Dickinson's long-awaited memoir I'm Just Dead, I'm Not Gone (University Press of Mississippi; with Ernest Suarez), and it is a Benzedrine-fueled romp with one hell of a soundtrack.
I first came to know of Dickinson as the pianist on "Wild Horses" off the Rolling Stones' 1971 album Sticky Fingers. I knew that he produced The Replacements' 1987 album Pleased to Meet Me at Ardent Studios.
But I knew little else until I jumped on the ride that is this book.
Though he was born in Little Rock and grew up mostly in the Berclair and East Memphis neighborhoods of Memphis, Dickinson's musical journey took him through the dusty notes of Texas blues as a student at Baylor where his interests lay in the theater arts, in drugs and alcohol, and in chasing down the ghosts of heroes and legends such as Blind Lemon Jefferson. "There was no doorway to the past," he writes. "No Rosetta Stone to unlock the blues' secrets." Yet, it was in chasing those specters that he came to know himself and what it was he was passionate about.
He spent his formative years in Texas and at then-Memphis State University avoiding the Vietnam draft and honing a craft he wasn't yet sure how to utilize. Like so many young men and hopeful musicians from his era, it was a folksy Jewish boy from Minnesota who would turn Dickinson's world on end. Bob Dylan completed what Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and Furry Lewis had begun. His education began in earnest at places such as the Plantation Inn in West Memphis and even closer to home. "I discovered a burgeoning bohemian scene at the Cottage Coffee House in Midtown. The Cottage served coffee, featured poetry readings, and flamenco guitar music. There was a chess game in the corner. It was a great place to hang."
Dickinson's book is a history of white-boy blues, folk, and rock-and-roll in Memphis. He paid his dues at the Cottage Coffee House, the OSO, and the Bitter Lemon and spending time with other misfits at Beatnik Manor. He conceived of the Memphis Folk Festival and the Memphis Country Blues Festival, both at the Overton Park Shell.
He made his bones recording with Larry Raspberry and the Gentrys at Chips Moman's American Sound Studios. It was the gig that opened his eyes to the possibility (the magic) of producing records. His big break came as a producer at Criteria Studios in Miami for Atlantic Records. It was there that he put together the house band the Dixie Flyers and recorded such acts as Aretha Franklin, Delaney & Bonnie, Sam the Sham, and Carmen McRae alongside industry legends Jerry Wexler and Tom Dowd.
Dickinson would later return to Memphis, where he was most at home, with jaunts to Los Angeles and New York as his talents were needed. What we learn from the journey is that it isn't so much the locations but the people who populate them. This singer/songwriter/producer/misfit knew everybody, and if you recognize half of the names, then you're probably in the book as well. A companion tome with bios and discographies of all the names Dickinson drops would serve the reader well. But no matter how many colleagues and compatriots he mentions, there's one that's the most important and that shines through chapter after chapter: Mary Lindsay, his wife and partner in crime. Their marriage was the one adventure that ever really mattered to him.
The adventure ends too soon. Dickinson died in 2009 at the age of 67 following triple bypass surgery. With him, he took a wealth of music history and knowledge, but what he left — the music, the stories, the rambling good times — will keep us entertained forever.
This review originally appeared in The Memphis Flyer.
Where will you climb out of that "canary-yellow Ford Torino with racing stripes, a full race cam, and three on the tree" to walk around and stretch your legs a bit?
Linger. Take in the sights. But get ready to move again, because your road map is Jim Dickinson's long-awaited memoir I'm Just Dead, I'm Not Gone (University Press of Mississippi; with Ernest Suarez), and it is a Benzedrine-fueled romp with one hell of a soundtrack.
I first came to know of Dickinson as the pianist on "Wild Horses" off the Rolling Stones' 1971 album Sticky Fingers. I knew that he produced The Replacements' 1987 album Pleased to Meet Me at Ardent Studios.
But I knew little else until I jumped on the ride that is this book.
Though he was born in Little Rock and grew up mostly in the Berclair and East Memphis neighborhoods of Memphis, Dickinson's musical journey took him through the dusty notes of Texas blues as a student at Baylor where his interests lay in the theater arts, in drugs and alcohol, and in chasing down the ghosts of heroes and legends such as Blind Lemon Jefferson. "There was no doorway to the past," he writes. "No Rosetta Stone to unlock the blues' secrets." Yet, it was in chasing those specters that he came to know himself and what it was he was passionate about.
He spent his formative years in Texas and at then-Memphis State University avoiding the Vietnam draft and honing a craft he wasn't yet sure how to utilize. Like so many young men and hopeful musicians from his era, it was a folksy Jewish boy from Minnesota who would turn Dickinson's world on end. Bob Dylan completed what Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and Furry Lewis had begun. His education began in earnest at places such as the Plantation Inn in West Memphis and even closer to home. "I discovered a burgeoning bohemian scene at the Cottage Coffee House in Midtown. The Cottage served coffee, featured poetry readings, and flamenco guitar music. There was a chess game in the corner. It was a great place to hang."
Dickinson's book is a history of white-boy blues, folk, and rock-and-roll in Memphis. He paid his dues at the Cottage Coffee House, the OSO, and the Bitter Lemon and spending time with other misfits at Beatnik Manor. He conceived of the Memphis Folk Festival and the Memphis Country Blues Festival, both at the Overton Park Shell.
He made his bones recording with Larry Raspberry and the Gentrys at Chips Moman's American Sound Studios. It was the gig that opened his eyes to the possibility (the magic) of producing records. His big break came as a producer at Criteria Studios in Miami for Atlantic Records. It was there that he put together the house band the Dixie Flyers and recorded such acts as Aretha Franklin, Delaney & Bonnie, Sam the Sham, and Carmen McRae alongside industry legends Jerry Wexler and Tom Dowd.
Dickinson would later return to Memphis, where he was most at home, with jaunts to Los Angeles and New York as his talents were needed. What we learn from the journey is that it isn't so much the locations but the people who populate them. This singer/songwriter/producer/misfit knew everybody, and if you recognize half of the names, then you're probably in the book as well. A companion tome with bios and discographies of all the names Dickinson drops would serve the reader well. But no matter how many colleagues and compatriots he mentions, there's one that's the most important and that shines through chapter after chapter: Mary Lindsay, his wife and partner in crime. Their marriage was the one adventure that ever really mattered to him.
The adventure ends too soon. Dickinson died in 2009 at the age of 67 following triple bypass surgery. With him, he took a wealth of music history and knowledge, but what he left — the music, the stories, the rambling good times — will keep us entertained forever.
This review originally appeared in The Memphis Flyer.
January 27, 2019
I haven't been this frustrated by a book in quite a while. On one hand, Dickinson's memoir was incredibly detailed and a thorough recounting of his early years and coming of age in Memphis. This high level of detail continued as he moved up the ladder in the music world world and gained momentum in Miami and the South working with Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd, the Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, and on and on - very cool stories and insights from all angles. However, as the 70's began and this started to become really interesting with Ry Cooder and Arlo Guthrie entering the picture everything seemed to stop. What I really wanted to learn about was Dickinson's work with Big Star and Alex Chilton. The production on Big Star's "Third" is magical and any kind of insight into his and Chilton's creative process on this record would have been golden. Sigh. I will say that although Dickinson's memoir meandered quite a bit, it was an enjoyable read and I have to respect that he included what he thought was most important.
December 17, 2017
I have to confess, I hadn't heard of Jim Dickinson before. I should have. I have surely heard some of his work, know some of it very well. But despite my wife calling me a walking talking Shazam and my kids accusing me of being a music snob for loving deep cuts, I did not know Jim Dickinson. But his book looked good, right up my alley, when I saw it on NetGalley, which graciously provided me with a review copy. Now, as a music lover and a lover of music history, I'm better for having read it.
Dickinson grew up in Memphis at the time Elvis Presley and Sun Records were inventing rock 'n' roll, Stax was defining soul music with Otis Redding and Co., and blues guitarists were being discovered or re-discovered by a younger generation, blues guitarists both young (B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf) and old (Furry Lewis, Bukka White, Memphis Minnie), acoustic and electric.
His memoir chronicles how the changing times and music influenced him to find a path in the arts, first trying to break into theater as a college student at Baylor in Texas, then in Memphis as the producer of theatrical and musical events (co-founding the original Memphis Country Blues Festival in 1966), trying to write novels, and finally focusing on music as a session player and record producer (along with recording some of his own stuff).
There is much made at the start about Dickinson not wanting this to be a "That's me with Ringo" memoir. So he spends a good half a book talking about his youth, when he was in and out of school, trying to find his way. This is really fascinating, especially when you get to see how a typical 50s-era southerner could morph into a beatnik-hipster-folkie type, searching out Blind Lemon Jefferson, learning what he could about other blues legends who had long been forgotten, and most of all learning how to play and produce from all the players in the vibrant Memphis music scene.
As interesting as it is, it started to feel like too much time, too much detail, spent on the formative years of a support player -- I don't know as much about the youth of John Lennon or Mick Jagger as I now do about Jim Dickinson. Then he gets to the point where he becomes a regular session guy for big name recording artists, first in Memphis, then in Miami, eventually in L.A.
That should be the heart of the book -- "How I helped record some of the great records of the 60s and 70s". A one-man Wrecking Crew (with a lot of help from his friends). But there are only glimpses -- how Jim got Gregg Allman to hit the high notes on Midnight Rider, how he negotiated with Dr. John to play piano on Wallflower, how he landed the career-making piano part on the Rolling Stones' Wild Horses, how legendary recording engineer Tom Dowd gossiped him out of his job at Atlantic Records.
But for every one of those juicy tales, there are five stories with no juice at all, just a list of session guys who played on this song or that record, this from the guy who didn't want to namedrop big stars, repeating over and over names of players you never heard of before. And it all seemed so hurried-- after the long, overly-detailed biography of his early years, the most important part of his career goes rushing by too quickly.
Nevertheless, as a music buff, and as a musician with a huge interest in country blues, I enjoyed delving into the life and career of someone who was so much a part of it, getting to understand how the times shaped him into a musician, how his career evolved through its heyday, and how Americana music as we know it today came together through the efforts of people like Jim Dickinson.
Dickinson grew up in Memphis at the time Elvis Presley and Sun Records were inventing rock 'n' roll, Stax was defining soul music with Otis Redding and Co., and blues guitarists were being discovered or re-discovered by a younger generation, blues guitarists both young (B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf) and old (Furry Lewis, Bukka White, Memphis Minnie), acoustic and electric.
His memoir chronicles how the changing times and music influenced him to find a path in the arts, first trying to break into theater as a college student at Baylor in Texas, then in Memphis as the producer of theatrical and musical events (co-founding the original Memphis Country Blues Festival in 1966), trying to write novels, and finally focusing on music as a session player and record producer (along with recording some of his own stuff).
There is much made at the start about Dickinson not wanting this to be a "That's me with Ringo" memoir. So he spends a good half a book talking about his youth, when he was in and out of school, trying to find his way. This is really fascinating, especially when you get to see how a typical 50s-era southerner could morph into a beatnik-hipster-folkie type, searching out Blind Lemon Jefferson, learning what he could about other blues legends who had long been forgotten, and most of all learning how to play and produce from all the players in the vibrant Memphis music scene.
As interesting as it is, it started to feel like too much time, too much detail, spent on the formative years of a support player -- I don't know as much about the youth of John Lennon or Mick Jagger as I now do about Jim Dickinson. Then he gets to the point where he becomes a regular session guy for big name recording artists, first in Memphis, then in Miami, eventually in L.A.
That should be the heart of the book -- "How I helped record some of the great records of the 60s and 70s". A one-man Wrecking Crew (with a lot of help from his friends). But there are only glimpses -- how Jim got Gregg Allman to hit the high notes on Midnight Rider, how he negotiated with Dr. John to play piano on Wallflower, how he landed the career-making piano part on the Rolling Stones' Wild Horses, how legendary recording engineer Tom Dowd gossiped him out of his job at Atlantic Records.
But for every one of those juicy tales, there are five stories with no juice at all, just a list of session guys who played on this song or that record, this from the guy who didn't want to namedrop big stars, repeating over and over names of players you never heard of before. And it all seemed so hurried-- after the long, overly-detailed biography of his early years, the most important part of his career goes rushing by too quickly.
Nevertheless, as a music buff, and as a musician with a huge interest in country blues, I enjoyed delving into the life and career of someone who was so much a part of it, getting to understand how the times shaped him into a musician, how his career evolved through its heyday, and how Americana music as we know it today came together through the efforts of people like Jim Dickinson.
July 15, 2022
James Luther Dickinson is a singular character in roots and blues and popular music. Born in 1941, Dickinson played in some strange little bands: The New Beale Street Sheiks, a jug band; The Katmandu (or Catmandu) Quartet; and the Dixie Fryers. Based for much of his life in Memphis, out of curiosity he attended one of Elvis Presley's concerts in 1956, and reports that the experience blew him, the teenage girl sitting directly next to him, and everybody else in the audience FAR AWAY. (For fictional corroboration, see Baz Luhrmann's new biopic "Elvis.") Dickinson was a session musician who played with or produced the Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, Ry Cooder, The Replacements, Alex Chilton, Big Star, Bob Dylan, and Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham. (And many others.) He resurrected the career of bluesman like Sleepy John Estes and Furry Lewis, and his sons did the same for R.L. Burnside. For this we should all be grateful.
"I'm Just Dead" is a memoir of the first 31 years of Dickinson's life. Jim's writing style is, shall we say, digressive - but in a good way - though when describing some of the seemingly countless recording sessions in which he participated, he tends to focus so much on minutiae it's really hard to keep track of what's going on. And those two reasons led me to deduct a star. Jim, I know you're dead and can't hear me, but I wish you'd written more, and I wish you'd slowed it down a bit when you got into the really cool session work in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
I urge the reader to buy any old Jim Dickinson albums you can find. Bear in mind that sometimes he recorded as Mud Boy & the Neutrons (I think those are my favorite Dickinson recordings). Likewise buy any North Mississippi All-Stars records, featuring Jim's two sons. This is wonderful music. Thank you, God, for James Luther Dickinson.
"I'm Just Dead" is a memoir of the first 31 years of Dickinson's life. Jim's writing style is, shall we say, digressive - but in a good way - though when describing some of the seemingly countless recording sessions in which he participated, he tends to focus so much on minutiae it's really hard to keep track of what's going on. And those two reasons led me to deduct a star. Jim, I know you're dead and can't hear me, but I wish you'd written more, and I wish you'd slowed it down a bit when you got into the really cool session work in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
I urge the reader to buy any old Jim Dickinson albums you can find. Bear in mind that sometimes he recorded as Mud Boy & the Neutrons (I think those are my favorite Dickinson recordings). Likewise buy any North Mississippi All-Stars records, featuring Jim's two sons. This is wonderful music. Thank you, God, for James Luther Dickinson.
January 8, 2018
Dickinson is an interesting character in the pantheon of American rock n' roll, a Memphis legend who walking in mainstream and underground camps, recording with the Stones, being highly respected by Dylan, but recording classic underground albums for Alex Chilton, Sonic Boom, Primal Scream and Kim Salmon. Dickinson has an interesting matter-of-fact style, that he blends in with these odd poems. The initial recollections of the early days of rock n' roll and the positive impact it had in the redneck, backwards South is really interesting, it's just when Dickison become a msuo that his stories become boring! LOL. The last few chapters however are quite sublime. I thought this would include his experiences working with the aforementioned underground acts, alas none of that is mentioned.
November 23, 2017
I like the part about going to find Blind lemon Jefferson's grave but most of it references people I never heard of. It's written in this I did this and I did that style that I find boring. Maybe if there is a book about Jim Dickinson written by someone else it would be good because there are a few good stories in his life.
August 18, 2021
This memoir put me in the middle of the Memphis music scene in the late ‘50s and 1960s. Dickinson’s path toward finding himself during the first 30s of his life reads like a storytelling session over many pints (and maybe other things) at a local watering hole.
It is incredible that the guy who plays piano on “Wild Horses” can conjure such magic on both the musical and literary keyboard.
It is incredible that the guy who plays piano on “Wild Horses” can conjure such magic on both the musical and literary keyboard.
April 5, 2026
This is a well written, informative look at Dickinson's young life. It's also a great window into Memphis after the heyday of Sun Records. But potential readers should be aware that the book ends before some of Dickinson's more famous projects with Alex Chilton and the Replacements.
January 18, 2018
A musical legend's memories.
Dickinson left a legacy of great music. This book is a must-read for any serious fan of American music in the 20th century.
Dickinson left a legacy of great music. This book is a must-read for any serious fan of American music in the 20th century.
January 6, 2022
A wonderful account of his life..
April 27, 2017
"This (rock n roll) music has come to symbolize freedom the world over and to illustrate the interracial brotherhood of man."-Jim Dickinson; words so truly spoken and relevant today.
It's pretty certain that Jim Luther Dickinson(Nov 15, 1941 - August 15, 2009) record producer, singer and instrumentalist isn't related to THE Bruce "Cowbell" Dickinson of SNL fame, but like Bruce, Jim did put his pants on one leg at a time and when he did he made gold records.
In his recent posthumously published autobiography, "I'm just dead I'm not gone", he tells his life story in Memphis and the Deep South.
He fronted such bands as the Memphis based Mud Boy and The Neutrons, produced Big Star's third album and worked with the likes of the Rolling Stones(Wild Horses), and his band the Dixie Flyers backed Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge among others. On the advise of Duane Allman, he even launched a solo career.
Bob Dylan considered Dickinson one of his closest friends. During his 1998 Grammy acceptance speech for his album, Time Out of Mind, Dylan acknowledged him as his "brother".
"Message from the last of the great barbarians:
The world of Otha Turner will pass away but it will not be gone. Like the scratches on the wall of some prehistoric cave, the recordings we leave behind are our immortality, our means of communicating with the future. This is an act of communion between you and us. Though we are separated by time and space as you listen, we are together.
....I will lift up my eyes unto the hills...- Psalm 121" -----from "I'm just dead I'm not gone"
Ode to Jim D. by the late great Sam Phillips:
"Shades of anticipation is the ever present glint in Jim D's eyes. Hearing strange noises that others let pass by. Music that makes you shout walk (yes those are the exact words, shout walk) the backs of gospel benches. Makes you moan, even cry. It could be - it may be - it is. Jim D's soul of sound bouncing of the sky"
In reading Jim Dickinson's memoir you'll discover the authenticity of himself and the music of Memphis.
Not sure if the world needs more cowbell, but it certainly needs more legends like Jim Dickinson.
It's pretty certain that Jim Luther Dickinson(Nov 15, 1941 - August 15, 2009) record producer, singer and instrumentalist isn't related to THE Bruce "Cowbell" Dickinson of SNL fame, but like Bruce, Jim did put his pants on one leg at a time and when he did he made gold records.
In his recent posthumously published autobiography, "I'm just dead I'm not gone", he tells his life story in Memphis and the Deep South.
He fronted such bands as the Memphis based Mud Boy and The Neutrons, produced Big Star's third album and worked with the likes of the Rolling Stones(Wild Horses), and his band the Dixie Flyers backed Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge among others. On the advise of Duane Allman, he even launched a solo career.
Bob Dylan considered Dickinson one of his closest friends. During his 1998 Grammy acceptance speech for his album, Time Out of Mind, Dylan acknowledged him as his "brother".
"Message from the last of the great barbarians:
The world of Otha Turner will pass away but it will not be gone. Like the scratches on the wall of some prehistoric cave, the recordings we leave behind are our immortality, our means of communicating with the future. This is an act of communion between you and us. Though we are separated by time and space as you listen, we are together.
....I will lift up my eyes unto the hills...- Psalm 121" -----from "I'm just dead I'm not gone"
Ode to Jim D. by the late great Sam Phillips:
"Shades of anticipation is the ever present glint in Jim D's eyes. Hearing strange noises that others let pass by. Music that makes you shout walk (yes those are the exact words, shout walk) the backs of gospel benches. Makes you moan, even cry. It could be - it may be - it is. Jim D's soul of sound bouncing of the sky"
In reading Jim Dickinson's memoir you'll discover the authenticity of himself and the music of Memphis.
Not sure if the world needs more cowbell, but it certainly needs more legends like Jim Dickinson.
March 30, 2017
I’M JUST DEAD, I’M NOT GONE
Jim Dickinson
(University Press Of Mississippi) www.upress.state.ms.us
ISBN: 978-1496810540, softback 288pp
Jim Dickinson was one of the great mavericks in American music and a major dude by any standards. Famously, he worked with The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Ry Cooder, The Replacements, Alex Chilton and many other luminaries, while his sons Luther and Cody, are the founding members of The North Mississippi All Stars. He was also a world-class storyteller, and this hugely entertaining memoir is full of ribald anecdotes and reminiscences about pretty much everyone who was anyone in southern musical circles interspersed with homespun philosophy and hipster poetry. Slightly shambolic but shot through with passion, it’s all unmistakably Dickinson-esque as he wittily explains how his family’s black yardman, WDIA, Dewey Philips, Furry Lewis, and Howlin' Wolf shaped him and how he went on to learn his craft at Sun, Ardent, American, Muscle Shoals, and Criteria studios from master producers like Sam Phillips, John Fry, Chips Moman, and Jerry Wexler. Like many other American boys in the 50s and 60s, the blues, Elvis, and early rock 'n' roll compelled Dickinson to reject racial barriers and spurred his contributions not only to Memphis music but also to the local experimental art scene. We shall not see his like again but this is a great, rollicking read.
Jim Dickinson
(University Press Of Mississippi) www.upress.state.ms.us
ISBN: 978-1496810540, softback 288pp
Jim Dickinson was one of the great mavericks in American music and a major dude by any standards. Famously, he worked with The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Ry Cooder, The Replacements, Alex Chilton and many other luminaries, while his sons Luther and Cody, are the founding members of The North Mississippi All Stars. He was also a world-class storyteller, and this hugely entertaining memoir is full of ribald anecdotes and reminiscences about pretty much everyone who was anyone in southern musical circles interspersed with homespun philosophy and hipster poetry. Slightly shambolic but shot through with passion, it’s all unmistakably Dickinson-esque as he wittily explains how his family’s black yardman, WDIA, Dewey Philips, Furry Lewis, and Howlin' Wolf shaped him and how he went on to learn his craft at Sun, Ardent, American, Muscle Shoals, and Criteria studios from master producers like Sam Phillips, John Fry, Chips Moman, and Jerry Wexler. Like many other American boys in the 50s and 60s, the blues, Elvis, and early rock 'n' roll compelled Dickinson to reject racial barriers and spurred his contributions not only to Memphis music but also to the local experimental art scene. We shall not see his like again but this is a great, rollicking read.
April 7, 2017
I have lived in Memphis since the early 60's. Loving the people, the music, and the twists and turns of what it is to call the mid-south home. Whenever talk turned to music it only took about 3 beats for Jim Dickinson's name to come up. A vast majority of the people named in the book are also known to Memphis music fans. The local studios are still busy today and "big name" players are still spotted on Beale St., The Orpheum, The Peabody, and other Memphis hot-spots. American Studios is now the site of a Dollar Store while Ardent on National is a childcare. New studios have sprung up to take their place many times over.
Dickinson lived and writes about the heady days of Memphis music. Music was made day and night and, it seemed, like everybody had some link to the industry. Who was working in the studios, what shenanigans were going on, and who might show up at parties was common currency. Lord, it was great fun, music, and some of the best days to be alive!
Jim tells the story the way it took place with a lot of grace and humor. Telling his own history he tells a vital part of the musical history of this area. His is but one of many stories that need to be told and is one of the best about the best. It is sure to hold your attention and is well worth the names and songs your memory has lurking back in the back with first kisses, your first beer with your buddies and all those things that mattered so much in that time of growing up.
Dickinson lived and writes about the heady days of Memphis music. Music was made day and night and, it seemed, like everybody had some link to the industry. Who was working in the studios, what shenanigans were going on, and who might show up at parties was common currency. Lord, it was great fun, music, and some of the best days to be alive!
Jim tells the story the way it took place with a lot of grace and humor. Telling his own history he tells a vital part of the musical history of this area. His is but one of many stories that need to be told and is one of the best about the best. It is sure to hold your attention and is well worth the names and songs your memory has lurking back in the back with first kisses, your first beer with your buddies and all those things that mattered so much in that time of growing up.
April 9, 2017
This is a wonderful read, as anyone who knows much about Dickinson would expect, with much eccentric musical and cultural wisdom dispensed in Memphis style. Docked a star because from the evidence of his memoir his music career ended after producing Ry Cooder's Into The Purple Valley. I NEEDED Panther Burns, Chilton, Replacements, Mojo, and '90s Memphis stories! Oh well--he did it his way. The companion CD of the same title is a blast!
April 30, 2017
Eccentric, loose-limbed, full of Memphis hoodoo, just like the man himself.
September 5, 2017
Great stories in this idiosyncratic memoir by a late Memphis music legend, little-known outside the music business, but a ubiquitous and essential presence in 50s and 60s rock 'n' roll recordings.
August 27, 2018
No way I could possibly review this right now; suffice it to say this one is going right next to Miles's autobiography on the "Bible shelf", just as I suspected it would...
May 23, 2019
Most of the musicians motioned in the book are personal favorites I don't care but it seems that many of these biographies are about drugs and drinking alcohol not PC Don't read if that offends you
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews