Jimmy Reed

[Shawn]

I see that emusic has quite a bit of Jimmy Reed available, I've always been curious but never collected any of his recordings. Any recommendations for specific albums, your favorites, etc?

[paul secor]

Blues Masters: The Very Best of Jimmy Reed (Rhino) is a very good collection of some of the best of his classic VeeJay recordings.

[jostber]

Soundwise as well as great music:

http://store.acousticsounds.com/browse_det...?Title_ID=14089

[AllenLowe]

I love Jimmy Reed and did a song on my CD as something of a reference/tribute - the Rhino is very good, and Charly has put out 5 volumes of the VeeJay, which can usually be gotten pretty cheap - great stuff, but do not listen to while operating heavy machinery -

[jlhoots]

Jimmy Reed: The Best Of The Vee-Jay Years (Shout! Factory)- 18 cuts , 1 CD

[DMP]

I'd go with the Rhino (should be easy to find) only because I'm not familiar with the Shout Factory. Collectables also recently released an 18 track "best of" - they had previously put out many of the individual Vee Jay albums, but those seem to have disappeared. Can't imagine you'd go wrong with any of the CD's mentioned.

[Peter Friedman]

I only have one CD by Jimmy Reed, but it's a good one.

Jimmy Reed - Bright Lights, Big City - Vee Jay/Hall Of Fame

[Peter Friedman]

I only have one CD by Jimmy Reed, but it's a good one.

Jimmy Reed - Bright Lights, Big City - Vee Jay/Hall Of Fame

[JSngry]

Allow me to go against the grain here...

I know the Vee-Jay material is "the best". I know. Archetypical.

But...

I have a thing on Paula (Paula PCD-8) that's a collection of the unedited performances that originally came out in highly edited form on ABC-Bluesway. You cna hear why ABC edited these things so much, because Reed is quite often...loaded like a mofo, and maybe/probably the band is too.

But that's ok, because when this motherfucker comes in some uncountable portion of a bar late and howls, yeah that's right, HOWLS, "Turn me AWN like a TV and cut me off like a radee...o", I want it to last as long as a possible, no matter what commercial protocols & niceites of the time get overturned.

And "Tribute To A Friend", well, hey.... Ain't nothing like that on Vee-Jay.

Excuse me. I been clipping my toenails and getting buck-barefeeted & listen at him play these blues.

[AllenLowe]

what's the name of that Paula collection?

[JSngry]

Jimmy Reed

Simple as that. OOP now, I think, it's a 1991 issue, but I'm sure that it, or the material on it, have gotta still be out in some form.

I got my copy for, like, $5.99 at some truck stop maybe 6-7 years ago, so...god only knows where you can find it.

[Shawn]

Thanks for all the recommendations, I'll pick some of those up.

[JSngry]

Hey, readily available!

http://product.half.ebay.com/Jimmy-Reed_W0...141532QQtgZinfo

[JSngry]

Honey, your legs so big, they look like Willie Mays' bseball bat.

[JSngry]

Oklahoma got the oil, baby, Texas got the money to buy it with.

[paul secor]

Allow me to go against the grain here...

I know the Vee-Jay material is "the best". I know. Archetypical.

But...

I have a thing on Paula (Paula PCD-8) that's a collection of the unedited performances that originally came out in highly edited form on ABC-Bluesway. You cna hear why ABC edited these things so much, because Reed is quite often...loaded like a mofo, and maybe/probably the band is too.

But that's ok, because when this motherfucker comes in some uncountable portion of a bar late and howls, yeah that's right, HOWLS, "Turn me AWN like a TV and cut me off like a radee...o", I want it to last as long as a possible, no matter what commercial protocols & niceites of the time get overturned.

And "Tribute To A Friend", well, hey.... Ain't nothing like that on Vee-Jay.

Excuse me. I been clipping my toenails and getting buck-barefeeted & listen at him play these blues.

Call me "Archetypical", but it's undeniably true - I'll take the Vee-Jay Reeds any time, where sounds like he just has a buzz on, over the Bluesways, where he sounds flat out drunk and the band's not as sympathetic. Haven't heard the unedited versions of the Bluesways - I would bet that his sometime manager, Al Smith, had something to do with Paula getting the unedited tapes. Heard one of the Bluesways back when, and have no real desire to relive that listening experience.

[Harold_Z]

Hey, readily available!

http://product.half.ebay.com/Jimmy-Reed_W0...141532QQtgZinfo

Thanks Jim - I just scored. I have the bluesway lps but I can't resist the au naturel aspect of this.

[JSngry]

I think these complete takes actually reduce the perceived "problems" with the backing bands that the editing created. Not to say that it makes anything go any smoother, because....nah, that just ain' gonna happen. But here, the slop, where it exists, is in place from start to finish and it actually hits a groove of its own.

Yeah, start with the Vee-Jay stuff. But just know that there's this little bit of...MESS awaiting that reaps rewards of its own.