Here is Cub Koda, writing at AllMusic, on Jimmy Reed:
There’s simply no sound in the blues as easily digestible, accessible, instantly recognizable, and as easy to play and sing as the music of Jimmy Reed. His best-known songs — “Baby, What You Want Me to Do,” “Bright Lights, Big City,” “Honest I Do,” “You Don’t Have to Go,” “Going to New York,” “Ain’t That Lovin’ You Baby,” and “Big Boss Man” — have become such an integral part of the standard blues repertoire, it’s almost as if they have existed forever. Because his style was simple and easily imitated, his songs were accessible to just about everyone from high-school garage bands having a go at it, to Elvis Presley, Charlie Rich, Lou Rawls, Hank Williams, Jr., and the Rolling Stones, making him — in the long run — perhaps the most influential bluesman of all. (Continue Reading…)
The only video of Reed on YouTube is a poorly recorded public access appearance on public access television in Houston in 1975. It’s better than nothing. Reed is said to have influenced Slim Harpo. TDMB posted on Harpo last month.
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