Thursday, March 11, 2010

Re-Post: Jimmy Reed for Gypsy Rose Wine

Jimmy Reed in a very shiny suit.
One sided radio spot.
Jimmy Reed, before the toupee.
And a cool Supro Airline model guitar.
Notice the finger pick.
Since the link for this one came down back in October, I thought I'd repost it, along with some snazzy photos I've just uncovered. The radio spot is from the early 70's, Jimmy Reed doing an ad for Gypsy Rose Wine. The Gypsy Rose Wine (a fortified wine like MD 20/20, Night Train and Thunderbird) folks really understood their market. I remember hearing it at night on Butterball's show on WMBM out of Miami (where I first heard Slim Harpo, and just about every great R&B record of the era with a transistor radio pressed to my ear under the covers), and also on WLAC out of Nashville when the weather was really bad and the signal traveled all the way down the coast to Florida where I grew up. Jimmy gets some help from his son Jimmy Reed Jr. aka Boonie. For my money, Jimmy Reed was just about the greatest thing there ever was. He was more of a rock'n'roll, or in his own words--a pop singer than a bluesman, but what ever you call his music, he was as close to a genius as a moron can get. If you don't have all of Jimmy Reed's Vee Jay recordings, you really need to reassess your priorities in life.
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17 comments:

  1. Rockin' JeffMarch 11, 2010 at 5:44 PM

    You said:
    "If you don't have all of Jimmy Reed's Vee Jay recordings, you really need to reassess your priorities in life."

    I couldn't have said it better.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMarch 11, 2010 at 6:44 PM

    Interesting ad - sounds more like a documentary than a commercial. It sounds like two or three different people doing the voiceover at first, and everybody sounds so concerned and melancholy, you'd think Jimmy was ALREADY dead.

    ReplyDelete
  3. peterrockerMarch 11, 2010 at 6:52 PM

    Have a great song by Kevin Gordon called "Jimmy Reed Is The King Of Rock 'n' Roll"
    Happy to email it on request.

    peterrocker@aanet.com.au

    ReplyDelete
  4. The HoundMarch 11, 2010 at 8:03 PM

    "Have a great song by Kevin Gordon called "Jimmy Reed Is The King Of Rock 'n' Roll"
    Happy to email it on request.

    I'd love to hear it, email to this site, thanks....

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousMarch 11, 2010 at 10:12 PM

    This is probably the best tune you ever posted, although calling Jimmy a moron is not cool at all, in fact, fuck you.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The HoundMarch 11, 2010 at 11:32 PM

    " calling Jimmy a moron is not cool at all"

    sorry, but in my own peculiar lexicon, moron is a compliment, about the highest level of intelligence a human can aspire to....the rest of us are mere idiots, or worse....

    ReplyDelete
  7. UnknownMarch 12, 2010 at 10:11 AM

    the happiest day of my life was when I found a stack of Jimmy Reed LPs in a garbage can.

    I've been playin' the crap outta those rekkids for 35 years now!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. The HoundMarch 12, 2010 at 12:02 PM

    "the happiest day of my life was when I found a stack of Jimmy Reed LPs in a garbage can."

    That's funny, I found a copy of Jimmy's Found Love in a dumpster once, mint, maroon label original, I still play it all the time. In the same dumpster was a pile of Elmore James Fire and Fury 45's not to mention Lee Dorsey, Wilbert Harrison, Wild Jimmy Spruill, and about twenty great doo wop records including an unbroken mint copy of Desiree by the Charts on 78 RRM.
    Then there's the story about the guy who found the pile of Paramount test pressings in the trash, he got 'em just before the garbage truck arrived and sold 'em to Nick Pearls for 20k! I think that story was written up in 78 Quarterly #2 or #3.

    ReplyDelete
  9. The Imperial DogsMarch 12, 2010 at 2:32 PM

    Sid Griffin of Long Ryders/Coal Porters semi-fame has a song called "Jimmy Reed" on his 1997 solo album on his own UK-based indie, Prima Records. It's desitively worth hearing.

    ReplyDelete
  10. AnonymousMarch 13, 2010 at 12:43 PM

    I PAID for all my jimmy reed records, thank you very much, dumpster divers!

    ReplyDelete
  11. r. s. fieldMarch 16, 2010 at 6:24 PM

    "lef him alone...leave him kep on sleppin." - - Jimmy Reed

    from a story story told by Delbert McClinton about one time when he was riding in the back of an automobile with Jimmy. Jimmy's comment was to the driver (band member) who was tickling and otherwise tormenting his colleague who was asleep in the passenger seat (up front).

    Brilliant site here at the Hound. I love Jimmy and Slim Harpo equally.

    ReplyDelete
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  14. Jack March 13, 2011 at 6:23 PM

    Man, I drank a WHOLE lotta Gypsy Rose back in the day.

    It was the beverage of choice during my late teen years - 1965-67.

    Take it from one who's been there: Nothing goes better with a nervous breakdown than Gypsy Rose.

    It cost next to nothing (49 cents) to pull the plug on high motor functions - like good judgment and making sense.

    Thanks for the memory. All in all, I had a very fine time drinkin' Gypsy Rose wine.

    ReplyDelete
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  17. viagra onlineFebruary 8, 2012 at 11:36 AM

    Jimmy Reed was true genius! all his songs were pure magic!

    ReplyDelete