Zebra Ranch Production Manifesto

PRODUCTION 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

Zebra Ranch Production Manifesto

JIM DICKINSON (It Doesn't Get More Complete than This) Thanks Pete Hoppula (People Think I'm compulsive) Ackn: Jim & Mary Dickinson

JIM DICKINSON

SINGLES & EP'S

Jim Dickinson@Everything2.com

Jim Dickinson (1940/41* — ) is a prolific musician, songwriter and producer who grew up with the Delta traditions of jug band music and the Blues. Born James Luther Dickinson in Little Rock, Arkansas, he spent the first nine years of his life in Chicago, Hollywood and all points in between before putting down roots in Memphis. After attending Baylor University as a student of theatre, one of his earliest recordings was as singer and pianist on the Jesters' "Cadillac Man", a hallowed rockabilly single released on Memphis' Sun Records.

A longtime staple of the Memphis music scene, Dickinson helmed sessions for successive generations of cult heroes spanning from Screamin' Jay Hawkins to The Cramps to The Replacements, additionally lending his keyboard talents to recordings from Ry Cooder, the Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Sam and Dave, Los Lobos, Steve Vai and many others. Dickinson began his career during the mid-'60s, emerging as a sought-after session player through recordings with everyone from Petula Clark to Arlo Guthrie to the Flamin' Groovies.

In 1971, Dickinson appeared on the Stones' classic Sticky Fingers, and that same year collaborated with Cooder on Into the Purple Valley, the first in a series of solo albums and soundtracks with the famed guitarist. In 1972, Dickinson issued his first solo LP, Dixie Fried (produced by Tom Dowd), which was widely acclaimed by critics as a definitive statement in contemporary Memphis Delta blues. Around that time he also formed local band Mud Boy and the Neutrons, with whom he has recorded over a career spanning two decades. He was also a member of the Dixie Flyers session group, alongside Jerry Wexler.

Much of Dickinson's reputation rests on his 1974 production of Big Star's Third/Sister Lovers, the pioneering Memphis power-pop group's abortive final masterpiece - a record which both literally and figuratively captures the sound of a band falling apart. The album was not issued in anything close to its intended form until 1992 (Rykodisc), and its status as an underground classic nevertheless assured through years of unauthorized releases. His work with former Big Star frontman Alex Chilton continued on 1979's disastrous Like Flies on Sherbert; the hipster cachet of both projects made Dickinson a sought-after producer among a new generation of bands.

Throughout the 1980s his credit appeared on albums from the likes of Jason and the Scorchers, Chris Stamey, Green on Red, Mojo Nixon, True Believers, Toots Hibbert and most notably, The Replacements, whose 1987 release Pleased to Meet Me included their song "Alex Chilton." Dickinson remained active in the years to follow, working with the likes of Primal Scream, Mudhoney, and Rocket from the Crypt.

In the celluloid realm, Dickinson has scored or contributed his musical talents to many films, including Gimme Shelter, Crossroads, Streets Of Fire, The Long Riders, Stroker Ace, Paris, Texas and Brewster's Millions. Despite his illustrious career, Dickinson is still unable to read music, having suffered from a "multiple sight" condition since childhood.

Personal Notes: I met Jim Dickinson in the spring of 1992 at Ardent Studios in Memphis. I was there in the capacity of publisher and quasi-manager for an artist named Tommy Hoehn, and we had hired Dickinson to produce five of Hoehn's songs with a bevy of talented session players from Memphis and Nashville. I remember my first impression of Jim rather vividly: he was rather heavy-set at the time, with long unkempt black hair and a beard. He looked like a roadie from the Black Crowes, wearing Birkenstocks, smoking pot like a chimney, and - well, having a European sense of hygiene.

When he entered the studio, it was like God had shuffled into the room. His reputation preceeded him by miles, and all the artists there to record were a little awe-struck. The only people not terrible impressed by his presence were Jody Stephens and John Fry at Ardent, since Jim and them had a long history of working together. When recording began, Jim's talent and experience were immediately evident. His direction and ear for "the sound" was amazing, and it was thrilling to watch him work. He knew exactly what he wanted and exactly how to make it happen.

As he gave instructions to the AMS Neve mixing board engineer, Jim would often lie on the floor of the control room on his back, smoking a joint while positioned equally between the monitors, describing which elements of the mix needed to be raised or lowered as he reviewed each subsequent track of the song that was being recorded. I had never watched a music producer work quite like this before, and it struck me that the truly artistic elements of creating art are often achieved in ways that fall outside the traditional paradigm of businesslike behavior.

I can't say that I got to know Jim very well, as he was there to do his job and get paid, and very little else. Still, I quickly developed a respect for him and his methods by watching him work, and the studio master of the songs that Jim mixed were nothing short of incredible. I will never forget sitting there observing him work one afternoon as I held and examined the master tapes of several Big Star songs from Third/Sister Lovers that had been brought out of the Ardent archives, and thinking to myself, I am one lucky son of a bitch!

Epigraph: "When I was a painter, my most successful paintings I left outside and let them get rained on. The ones that weren't so successful I just gave away, but my most successful ones rotted, returned to leaves and twigs. I'm just interested in decomposition. I want to be buried in New Orleans, because it's the only place in America that lets you rot." - Jim Dickinson

Jim Dickinson@Everything2.com

DOWN IN MISSISSIPPI'S: Jim Dickinson, Mississippi Producer, Billy Wayne Posey, Klansman, Civil Rights Murderer, have died...

Jim Dickinson has died

I’m sad to report that Jim Dickinson has died.  Oxford folks have known him for years, playing around town (including at the Hoka) and in recent years as the piano player for Thacker Mountain radio.  He’s nationally known as a session player, producer, and recently as the father of Cody and Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars. Here’s the Commercial Appeal account:

Iconic Memphis musician and producer Jim Dickinson has died.

The 67 year-old Dickinson passed away early Saturday morning in his sleep, according to his wife Mary Lindsay Dickinson. Dickinson had been in ill health for the past few months, and was recuperating from heart surgery at Methodist Extended Care Hospital. “He went peacefully,” said Mary Lindsay.

Just last weekend, a tribute concert, headlined by John Hiatt, had been held in Dickinson’s honor at the Peabody Skyway, to help defray his medical costs.

A third generation piano player, Dickinson was born in Little Rock, Ark., but raised in Memphis. During the course of his colorful half-century career, Dickinson built a reputation as a session player for the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan, a producer for Big Star and the Replacements, a sometime solo artist, and patriarch of a small musical dynasty that includes sons Cody and Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars.

Dickinson’s health woes began following a high-profile performance with Elvis Costello at the Beale Street Music Festival in May. After a physical exam revealed serious cardiac issues, Dickinson was immediately sent into surgery where doctors at Methodist Le Bonheur Hospital in Germantown put in a pair of stents, then sent him home to rest up for bypass surgery.

Dickinson seemed in good health and spirits when The Commercial Appeal caught up with him at his Coldwater, Miss., home in late May, to talk about the release of his new album of classic pop standards, Dinosaurs Run in Circles.

However, just before he was to celebrate the CD release with a show at Huey’s on May 31, he had to be rushed back to the hospital with complications. He remained there before finally undergoing triple bypass surgery on June 24. Two days later he went into cardiac arrest. He was revived and spent several weeks recuperating in a cardiac intensive care unit.

Late last month, Dickinson was relocated to a rehabilitation facility; family and friends and physicians had hoped for a slow but eventual recovery that did not come.

“He just never did really get a break,” says Mary Lindsay. “He had so many different things go wrong with him. Every time he would work so hard to get better, something else would happen. It was a long drawn out experience the last few months.”

Dickson’s wife says her husband was in a good place mentally and spiritually at the end. “He had a great life, and he was a consummate family man. He loved music and his family. And he loved Memphis music, specifically.”

The family says there are no immediate plans for a memorial.

–Bob Mehr

Below is an interview of Jim talking about being a record producer.

I don’t ordinarily post music videos, but here’s his cover of “Down in Mississippi,” which he memorably performed at last year’s Neshoba County Fair.

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Klansman Billy Wayne Posey, participant in civil rights murders, has died

The Clarion-Ledger has a Jerry Mitchell story about Posey:

The 73-year-old Posey died Thursday of natural causes, according to friends. That leaves four living suspects in the June 21, 1964, killings of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner. …

Posey came within one vote of being indicted by that same Neshoba County grand jury that indicted Killen, with a deciding vote against indictment cast by his relative. In a 2007 series, “Buried Secrets,” The Clarion-Ledger revealed three potential new witnesses against Posey.

In a 2000 statement, Posey told investigators there were “a lot of persons involved in the murders that did not go to jail.”

He did not name those people.

Posey admittedly was among those who pursued the trio that night, was there when they were killed and helped haul their bodies to the dam to bury them.

But the statement could never be used against Posey in state court because he was given immunity.

Then-Neshoba County Deputy Cecil Price told authorities prior to his 2001 death that he told Posey in 1964 he had just jailed the three civil rights workers and asked Posey to get in contact with Killen, who helped to orchestrate the killings.

Klansman Billy Wayne Posey, participant in civil rights murders, has died