On showing me his version of Shake Your Money Maker, I asked ‘Is that on Elmore’s version Jim?’ “Hell no, that comes from the Fleetwood Mac version. With Dan Stuart singing, Dickinson playing drums without sticks but those paint stirring things from the hardware store instead. Over-dubbing the backing vocals on GOR’s Zombie for Love, Jim said “make it sound like one of the black extras for the cheap horror movies: Eye’s a S-s-s-s-ombie/Eye’s a S-s-s-s-om-beee”. On over-dubbing the solo on GOR’s Morning Blue: “Come on Chuck, grow up, play something cohesive!” How happy Jim was when Dylan started performing Across the Borderline in concert? “Bob Dylan singing MY words!” Out of nowhere someone lowers a basket from a rooftop on a fishing pole with a bag of weed in it. where you hold a ten dollar bill out the window and a kid runs off with it. Green On Red picking Jim up at LAX back in 1986 or so, to take him to the studio. ![]() Gives me faith it can still be done this late in the game, Chuck.” “Yeah, you’re right this Johnny Dowd record is DANGEROUS. She was wrong, but I said, “Yeah, well, it’s like he’s always in the room.” I told the truth. Just the other day a Radio 6 DJ accused Jim Dickinson of producing my last record. Jim had been a constant presence in my life. With my band, we backed Jim on a live record. I made several records with Jim, including two-and-a-half Green On Red slabs, and the odd session Jim hired me for. “Sure, I used to go out and do the hand claps with the band.” It was all part of our extended education. (Tina the Go Go Queen was on there.) Or Black Oak Ark sessions Jim produced back when Ardent was still 8 track. Might be scratchy vinyl of Kerouac recitations, or Mac Rice demo’s on 7” reels he’d cribbed from Stax. Often in the morning of a session-and Jim was old school: he was punctual-Jim would play music to inspire us. Every session, every van journey, was a history lesson with Jim. Makes sense that Jim once wanted to teach history. And made you feel your work was important. A tangle of contradictions, his gruff exterior never hid his huge heart.Īs a producer, when he sensed that Green on Red lacked faith in ourselves, fearing it was all hollow, a scam, Jim said, “ Never let anybody make you feel bad about what you’re doing”. Dark-but he refused to work Saturdays so he could watch his Memphis Wrestling on TV. He believed making records was a fight of Light vs. Jim was also a dedicated man, dedicated to the art of record producing and to his family. Corny as it sounds, he was like a father to me. ![]() Casually picking up every one of the 15 guitars laying and playing a half riff. ![]() And Ry Cooder coming by and sharing a chat with us. The people that stopped by the sessions were unreal. Or maybe you know him as the man who played those three notes of tack piano on the Stone’s Wild Horses. Still producing!”ĭickinson: you might know him as the guy who produced Big Star’s 3rd, or the guy on the back of the “Paris, Texas” soundtrack rolling what looks like a round of duct tape across the keyboard of a Steinway grand piano (they opened tuned that piano, by the way. They were preparing for a benefit show for Jim and Luther sent me a text, “Dad woke up at midnight after sleeping all day, and started barking orders. I reached out to his son Luther last week to see how Dad was doing. ![]() Jim’s health hadn’t been good for some time. But the memories that swirl tonight under the ceiling fan aren’t sad at all. But his music, his spirit? Well, hell, you know how this sentence ends…. You can burn out but that doesn’t mean you can’t get lit again. Never, NEVER, stop rolling! Don’t answer the phone in the studio, it could be the company telling you to stop! Don’t let anybody make you feel bad about what you’re doing. (PICTURED: Left to right: David Hood, CP, Calvin Russell, Jim Dickinson, Roger Hawkens)
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