We all have times where we struggle to keep our eyes open in the middle of day, but according to the National Institutes of Health, true narcolepsy --
which afflicts approximately one in 2,000 Americans -- is more than just a bit of yawning and a fantasy about taking a nap under your desk.
Jim Dickinson
Mojo Nixon
'ELVIS' VIDEO
634...SOMETHING ELVIS CALL...
1989RT @mrjyn #youtube #video - http://bit.ly/3yekAo ---if @mrjyn uploaded a #mojo #nixon song, you know i #love JD...cuz I sho do hate me some comedy rock...Dash Riprock and Mojo Nixon may be the two stupidest bands I know....but Jim, having recorded both of them, at least found a way to cash in...) via @mrjyn
Memphis music icon Jim Dickinson...died peacefully in his sleep on Saturday, August 15. The 67 year old musician was recovering from triple bypass surgery.
MAKE SURE TO WATCH the incredible JIM DICKINSON 10-part interview Playlist HERE: http://www.youtube.com/user/#grid/use... FROM THE YouTube Channel HERE: http://www.youtube.com/user/Stagehand... OF THE Recording Website Stagehandspace HERE:DESCRIBED THUSLY:
"Mississippi-based producer and musician Jim Dickinson has worked on hundreds of recordings over a career in music spanning five decades. In that time, he has worked at some of the most legendary studios in the southern United States (Ardent, Muscle Shoals and Sun), and contributed to a veritable whos who of the past fifty years of rock, blues and soul from playing keyboards for Aretha Franklin, Ry Cooder, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan to producing records for artists like Big Star, Green on Red, The Replacements, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, as well as dozens more."
ABOUT WHICH I SAY THIS:
'If not for this Decalogue of DICKINSON...(After finding my tag list way too fucking long for YouTube's Tag Limit, in a very Dickinsonian mode, I'm improvising and using the Tags as my personal tribute, instead of the two paragraphs I just deleted)
R.I.P.
You Will Never Be Replaced...Here 'tis:
Jim Dickinson JAMES LUTHER PIANO Dixie Fried North Mississippi Allstars nma cody mary mudboy neutrons world boogie Jungle Jim Voodoo Tiger 67 hernando memphis R.I.P. chilton Tav jerry lawler
"furry lewis" "beale street" "saturday night" "free beer tomorrow" replacements jats "Like Flies On Sherbert" "Wild Horses" "rolling stones" "bob dylan" Ardent "Muscle Shoals" Sun phillips dewey sam "cadillac man" "dan penn" stax american "chips moman" "jerry lee lewis" "Aretha Franklin" "Ry Cooder" Dylan lanois eggleston Phineas newborn calvin elvis "Big Star" twitter.com/mrjyn "stanley booth" nichopoulouzo "willy deville" obit #obituary #dead #death #mort furry lewis LEE beale street LOUISE free beer tomorrow jats Flies Sherbert Wild Horses rolling stones bob dylan Ardent Sun phillips dewey sam Cadillac penn stax moman Aretha Cooder eggleston Phineas newborn Big StaR twitter.com/mrjyn stanley booth
I'll be updating this frequently...
Besides Stanley Booth, there are not very many people I can think of besides me, more qualified to keep you informed.
~ nichopoulouzo
THIS IS THE FIRST ARTICLE I READ, SO I'M INCLUDING IT...FROM 'THE EXAMINER' I THINK:
Dickinson was a sought after session musician who played piano on numerous albums including The Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers, Aretha Franklins Spirit In The Dark, and Bob Dylans Time Out Of Mind. His production work on the Big Star album Third/Sister Lovers, recorded in 1974, but not released until 1978, made him an in-demand producer for many of the new bands who would soon top the college alternative charts in the 80s. In addition to The Replacements, Dickinson also produced Jason & The Scorchers, Willy DeVille, John Hiatt, and Houston favorite Joe King Carrasco.
Jim Dickinson also fronted a band called Snake Eyes and recorded several solo albums including the 2006 album Jungle Jim And The Voodoo Tiger featuring his sons Luther and Cody: North Mississippi Allstars.
Keep Refreshing for Updated Links AND Check out my BLOG
for Elvis-Week Posts...after I've finished being bummed out.
MY CONNECTION BELOWTHAT'S THE DIRECTOR'S UP THERE
Make It Stop!produced by
The Most of Ross Johnson
[originally produced by Jim Dickinson for 'Like Flies on Sherbert' 1979]
SPECIAL JAPANESE INTRODUCTION QUOTE!
"
Maybe some of the strange times, but he, in a sloppy manner, in which it is his feeling, was that, like him, it's pure rock!"-- JAPANESE FAN ON 'BARON Of LOVE'
Like the kin of Jerry Clower, Jerry Lewis, and Jerry Lee Lewis passing a coffin on Percodan, Ross Johnson's "BARON OF LOVE (PT. 2), the video [special abbreviated version] from Alex Chilton's LP, "LIKE FLIES ON SHERBERT" is his Ross Johnsonest release yet!
This PANTHER BURNS' cluster-fuck alumni helped foment Memphis's 1970s 'cult of no personality' scene, which brought together a horde of shut-ins, and provided 'art damage' therapy, propagated by Tav Falco and his Unapproachable's.
Tav used a tool borrowed from the infamous cult leader chest: quasi babble-speak on top of dissonant musical accompaniment.
The cult called 'PANTHER BURNS,' named after an apocryphal [also cultic ] legend--unverified and orally passed from Plantation to cotton field--where 'you know who' thought they saw 'you know what' ON FIRE [!], smack dab in Mississippi's Delta.
This cult consisted of Alex Chilton [guitar], Tav (Gustavo)Falco [vocals, Silvertone guitar], Jim Dickinson [guitar *not sic], Eric Hill [synthesizer], and our man of the hour--the reason we're here! The greatest one-handed, beer-gulping timekeeper since the man from Munchen held a metronome and a Weierstrass while simultaneously yodeling--Ross Johnson [stand-up drums]!
LIKE FLIES ON SHERBERT ['LFOS'], recorded at Sam Phillips Studios, 1979; mixed the following year; released as a pipe-dream on Sid Selvidge's Peabody label; one year later on Aura; and finally by Patrick Mathe's French, New Rose, wherein it has grown into the greatest cult record of 'em all--in my opinion.
The album is divided among Chilton originals and Nashville Bar Band covers [think of a Lower Broad band-rider which includes Dexamyl and a keg of Schnaaps].
The only non-LX vocal track on 'LFOS' (although LX makes known the spirit of the recently departed Baron, Elvis in this tallboy-fueled, extempore-eulo-billy, seance/monologue, through his use of ribbons of a/b guitar feedback), this 'Flies,' was remastered by Dickinson, who says it's as good as it's going to get--which in Memphis means "ROSS JOHNSON will forever be remembered for "Baron Of Love (Pt. 2)"! *Orig track from Alex Chilton's 'Like Flies on Sherbert' produced by Jim Dickinson From Ross Johnson's Goner Records' self defecating 25-year retrospective autobiographically titled 'Make It Stop!The Most of Ross Johnson'.
[some of the content of this review may have been taken directly from other sources, where it may have been mechanically manipulated into its current state by the author. The author is not responsible for any over-three word strands which may still may remain in tact--thank you.]
i think this is by Andria Lisle, but i'm not sure: WHICH ONE DO YOU THINK IS BETTER?What do Alex Chilton, Jim Dickinson, Tav Falco, Peter Buck, Monsieur Jeffrey Evans and Jon Spencer have in common?They’ve all lent their talents to the skewed genius that is Memphis drummer/ranter/raconteur extraordinaire Ross Johnson.
Johnson’s name may only be familiar to a cult of faithful followers, but he’s one of the true heroes of the Southern alt and punk rock underground. From his days riding shotgun with Chilton, to his efforts helping found the Panther Burns to his work with outfits like the Gibson Bros. and ’68 Comeback, Ross has been a dedicated soldier in the trash rock trenches for four decades – while creating a catalog of truly brilliant and bizarre solo recordings on the side.
This January, Goner Records, will release Make It Stop!: The Most of Ross Johnson. This career-spanning collection includes 20-plus tracks, covering Ross’s solo sides and numerous all-star collaborations from 1979 to 2006. It’s a wild, wooly, sonic and lyrical journey that’s sure to take its place among the more outré anthologies in your CD collection.
Ross' mostly spontaneously composed songs – which concern his fraught relations with women, booze, and the very nature of being a Southerner -- are part deconstructionist roots music, part absurdist comedy. Imagine a cross between Hasil Adkins and Sam Kinison, or Charlie Feathers and Albert Brooks, or Kim Fowley and Jerry Clower, and you’ll get the picture (please forgive the groping hybrid comparisons, but as you’ll find out, Ross is rather hard to define). Call it southern fried outsider art or rockabilly psychosis, but once you get a glimpse of Ross’ twisted vision, you’ll never look at the world the same way again.
But Johnson’s story is more than that of just an unhinged rock and roll hellion. An Arkansas native and son of a respected newspaper editor, he moved to Memphis as a teen, just in time for the city’s mid-60s garage band boom. He got his foot in the music scene as a one of the few original and enthusiastic fans of hometown pop group Big Star. Johnson then went on to write for the legendary Lester Bangs at Creem, under the memorable alias of Chester the Conger Eel. He soon befriended Alex Chilton, helped introduce punk rock to Memphis, and later became a notorious imbiber/MC/ringleader as a founding member of Tav Falco’s Panther Burns. Since then he’s spent time thumping the tubs for a variety of wild outfits from the Gibson Bros. to the Ron Franklin Entertainers --- all the while maintaining his alter-ego as a mild mannered librarian at the University of Memphis.
Make It Stop! is a treasure trove of material that collects a variety of out-of-print, hard-to-find, and previously unreleased selections from Ross’ colorful career, including singles, album and comp appearances for labels like Peabody, Sympathy for the Record Industry, Sugar Ditch, and Loverly.
There is of course his legendary vocal debut, “Baron of Love Pt. II,” one of the highlights of Alex Chilton’s famed Like Flies on Sherbert album.
Also, included are solo tracks ranging from 1982’s infamous “Wet Bar” – which was featured on the companion CD to Robert Gordon’s book It Came from Memphis – to early-‘90s cult classics like “It Never Happened” and “Nudist Camp,” down to the recent acoustic nugget, “Signify,” a ridiculously raw self-confessional that will have you laughing and crying simultaneously.
The disc also unearths some never-before-heard (and suitably insane) tracks Ross recorded with R.E.M.’s Peter Buck amid a drunken haze sometime in early 1983.Credited to(Amazingly, when the tapes were discovered in late 2007, Buck had total recall of the sessions and the songs; Ross has no recollection of recordings whatsoever).Our Favorite Bandsongs like “Rockabilly Monkey-Faced Girl” and “My Slobbering Decline” represent some of Buck's first work outside of R.E.M.
[HEY, THAT'S ME],
Also included is Ross’ work with a couple mid-‘90s groups he fronted like Adolescent Music Fantasy – dig the band’s twisted take on “Theme From ‘A Summer Place’”. Ross and multi-instrumentalist Tim Farr stir things up as The Young Seniors – check their brilliant cover of Bobby Lee Trammell’s “If You Ever Get It Once” and a revamp of The Gentrys’ hit “Keep on Dancing,” which Ross mutates into a meditation on the embarrassing nature of “ass whoopings.”
Further highlights include a handful of team-ups between Ross and fellow garage cult icon, Monsieur Jeffrey Evans (Gibson Bros., ’68 Comeback). The duo essays everything from the freaky holiday anthem “Mr. Blue (Cut Your Head on X-Mas)” to a souped-up take on “Farmer John,” with equal parts guitar distortion and manic glee.
Make It Stop! comes packaged with a handsome 16-page color booklet, featuring Ross' own hilarious biographical essay, as well as tributes from acclaimed author Robert Gordon ("It Came From Memphis," the Muddy Waters bio "Can’t Be Satisfied"), MOJO writer Andria Lisle, and pop culture critic John Floyd.
Once the proverbial needle drops on this collection you’ll be – as Gordon notes in his liners – “seduced then debauched” by Ross’s “rivulets of rage, humor, and words words words.”
Don’t say we didn’t warn ya’.
Zebra Ranch Production ManifestoPRODUCTION MANIFESTO
The unretainable nature of the present creates in Man a desire to capture the moment. Our fears of extinction compel us to record- to re-create- the ritual ceremony. From the first hand-print cave painting to the most modern computer art, it is the human condition to seek immortality. Life is fleeting. Art is long. A record is a "totem," a document of an unique, unrepeatable event worthy of preservation and able to sustain historic life. The essence of the event is its soul. Record production is a subtle, covert activity. The producer is an invisible man. His role remains a mystery. During the recording process there is an energy field present in the studio- to manipulate and to maximize that presence- to focus on the peculiar "harmony of the moment" is the job of the producer. Music has a spirit beyond the notes and rhythm. To foster that spirit and to cause it to flourish- to capture it at its peak is the producer's task.
- Jim Dickinson
Genius At Work
Memphis musician Jim Dickinson
dies at 67
Use this link for Twitter:http://bit.ly/Ahyek
Career of artist, producer touched four decades, many lives
The North Mississippi Allstars have lost their father, Bob Dylan has lost a “brother,” rock and roll has lost one of its great cult heroes and Memphis has lost a musical icon with the death of Jim Dickinson.
The 67-year-old Dickinson passed away early Saturday morning in his sleep. The Memphis native and longtime Mississippi resident had been in failing health for the past few months and was recuperating from heart surgery at Methodist Extended Care Hospital.
“He went peacefully,” said his wife, Mary Lindsay Dickinson, adding that her husband remained in good spirits until the end. “He had a great life. He loved his family and music. And he loved Memphis music, specifically.”During the course of his colorful half-century career, Dickinson built a worldwide reputation as a session player for the likes of Dylan and The Rolling Stones, a producer for influential groups including Big Star and The Replacements, a sometime solo artist and the patriarch of a small musical dynasty through his sons, Cody and Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars.
Just last weekend, a tribute concert headlined by singer-songwriter John Hiatt and featuring a host of Memphis musicians was held at The Peabody Skyway to help defray Dickinson’s medical costs.
Dickinson’s earthy musical approach resonated with his peers: Bob Dylan, who was a longtime friend and collaborator, acknowledged him as a “brother” while accepting a Grammy award for 1997’s Time Out of Mind; The Rolling Stones, ever wary of outsiders, brought Dickinson in to add his soulful piano touch to their classic Sticky Fingers ballad “Wild Horses.”
As a producer, Dickinson was a studio alchemist in the tradition of such great Memphians as Sam Phillips and Chips Moman, for whom he worked. Dickinson was willing take on any role, acting as a protector, parent or prankster for his artists — thus helping him forge creatively rewarding relationships with difficult talents including Alex Chilton, Paul Westerberg and Ry Cooder.
Dickinson’s reach and impact on Memphis music over the last four decades is significant; perhaps more than anyone, he was uniquely connected to the city’s historic past and its present.
In addition to being one of the key forces behind the rise of Memphis’ Ardent Studios, Dickinson’s deconstructionist roots-rock band Mud Boy & the Neutrons proved a seminal influence on several generations of local acts.
Dickinson remained busy during his final years, continuing to produce local artists, including the breakthrough CD for Memphis roots chanteuse Amy LaVere, as well as several projects for his sons. He’d also been writing and performing with a crew of musicians half his age in the garage bands Snake Eyes and Trashed Romeos in recent months.
Born in Little Rock on Nov. 15, 1941, and briefly raised in Chicago before settling in Memphis, the young James Luther Dickinson came up in a musical hothouse, influenced by his piano-teacher mother and mesmerized by the sounds permeating from the radio.
“There was something about the voice coming out of the box that got me. That’s where it all started,” Dickinson recalled in his final interview, given to The Commercial Appeal in May.
As a student at White Station High School, Dickinson formed his first band, The Regents; he later had the distinction of singing on The Jesters’ 1966 garage-rock nugget “Cadillac Man,” the final release on Sun Records.
After a stint in college in Texas, Dickinson returned to the Bluff City, where he began a career as a session player, eventually forming The Dixie Flyers, a group that became house band for Atlantic Records, and backing artists such as soul queen Aretha Franklin and R&B belter Little Richard.
In 1972, Dickinson released his first solo record, the cult classic Dixie Fried. The LP would prove the apotheosis of a kaleidoscopic musical vision he dubbed
“world boogie.”Significantly, starting in the mid-’70s, Dickinson made an almost seamless transition from working with mainstream major label acts to punk and indie artists. Beginning with his work on the seminal Big Star album Third/Sister Lovers, Dickinson’s “anything goes” aesthetic made him a favorite choice to produce numerous alternative acts in the ’80s and ’90s.
Despite his connections, Dickinson never sought the trappings of fame, instead preferring to live on a sprawling thatch of land in rural Coldwater, Miss., that he dubbed Zebra Ranch, which housed a pair of trailers that served as his home and studio.
A gifted raconteur, musical philosopher and cultural historian, Dickinson was a veritable treasure trove of pop arcana and profound theory, capable of finding the cosmic and literal connections between deejay Dewey Phillips and former Mayor Willie Herenton, wrestler Sputnik Monroe and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
For Dickinson, there was some sense of artistic closure late in life. His final album, Dinosaurs Run in Circles, released in May, brought him back to his earliest love: the pop and jazz-flecked standards from his childhood radio days. Several of the tracks were recorded from his mother’s original sheet music.
Dickinson’s health woes began following an appearance playing with British rocker Elvis Costello at the Beale Street Music Festival in May. Though he’d long suffered from intestinal problems, a physical exam revealed Dickinson also had serious cardiac issues. A procedure to put two stents in his heart, a triple-bypass surgery and a prolonged stay in an intensive-care unit followed.
Last month, Dickinson was relocated to a rehabilitation facility; family and doctors had been hoping for gradual recovery, “but he just never did really get a break physically,” said his wife.
Luther Dickinson said the family has no plans for a public memorial and that the tribute show at The Peabody will stand as the farewell to their father.
“That was the best sendoff he could have ever wanted,”he said.
Although he achieved a modicum of commercial success in his lifetime, ultimately, Dickinson’s legacy won’t be measured in chart placements or platinum albums but in the profound impact his work had on listeners.
“Some of the records I’ve done, really obscure things, will be the ones that somebody will tell you saved their lives,” he once said.
What Dickinson understood was both the impermanence of his own life and the enduring power of the music he made. It’s a sentiment reflected in the epitaph he chose for himself: I’m just dead, I’m not gone.
Career highlights
1966: Cuts the song “Cadillac Man” for Sun Records, attracting the interest of his idol, Sam Phillips.
1969: Plays piano on “Wild Horses” for The Rolling Stones in Muscle Shoals, Ala.
1975: Produces Big Star’s dark masterpiece Third/Sister Lovers. It eventually is named one of Rolling Stone magazine’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.”
1986: Rowdy Minneapolis rockers The Replacements come to Memphis to record the critically-acclaimed Pleased to Meet Me with Dickinson producing.
1997: Plays on Bob Dylan’s Grammy-winning “comeback” album Time Out of Mind.
2009: Releases his swan song, Dinosaurs Run in Circles, a collection of old pop standards:
- Friends, family will host benefit for ailing star Jim Dickinson
- Jim Dickinson: A "new man' with new album of old-school songs
--Bob Mehr, 529-2517
Dickinson at work in the late 1970's. As a producer, Dickinson was a studio alchemist in the tradition of such great Memphians as Sam Phillips and Chips Moman, for whom he worked. (Courtesy of Ardent Studios)
Mud Boy & the Neutrons proved a seminal influence on several generations of local acts. From left: Sid Selvidge, Jim Dickinson, Jimmy Crosthwait and Lee Baker.
Photo: Alan Spearman / The Commercial Appeal
Jim Dickinson talks with his son Luther Dickinson at his Zebra Ranch Studio in Coldwater, Mississippi in October, 2003.
Photo: Alan Spearman / The Commercial Appeal
During the course of his colorful half-century career, Dickinson, seen here in 2003 with son Luther, built a worldwide reputation as a session player for the likes of Dylan and The Rolling Stones
Photo: Alan Spearman / The Commercial Appeal
Jim Dickinson with sons Cody and Luther at the Zebra Ranch Studio in Coldwater, Mississippi in October 2003.
Photo: Lance Murphey / The Commercial Appeal
Musician and producer Jim Dickinson listens to the new 5.1 surround sound mixing console at Young Avenue Sound recording studio with engineer Jennifer Lee in May 2006.
Prior to performing Jim Dickinson, left, carries a guitar and his son Luther, center, takes a mandolin onto the stage at the Raoul Wallenberg Shell at Overton Park in July 2001
Elvis Presley’s contributions to music and pop culture have influenced musicians for decades. His life and legacy have been the source of inspiration for more songs than can be listed here. In fact, there have been so many songs either about Presley or that simply mention him, that it is unlikely there will ever be a complete list. Of course, Wikipedia has made a significant dent in compiling one.
The cover of Elvis’ 1956 self-titled debut album has also had its share of influence in pop culture. Starting with The Clash’s London Calling in 1979, the album’s design and typography have been imitated and parodied so many times, it’s hard to keep up with, but at least one website is trying.
In memory of Elvis, here is a playlist simply titled, Ten Songs About Elvis:
More playlists to listen to:
Mississippi-based producer and musician Jim Dickinson has worked on hundreds of recordings over a career in music spanning five decades. In that time, he has worked at some of the most legendary studios in the southern United States (such as Ardent, Muscle Shoals and Sun), and contributed to a veritable whos who of the past fifty years of rock, blues and soul from playing keyboards for Aretha Franklin, Ry Cooder, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan to producing records for artists like Big Star, Green on Red, Mudhoney, Mojo Nixon, the Spin Doctors, The Replacements, Screamin Jay Hawkins, as well as dozens more.Audio TV Legendary Record Producer Jim Dickinson
