Jim Dickinson (1942 - 2009) R.I.P.
(PICTURED: Left to right: David Hood, CP, Calvin Russell, Jim Dickinson, Roger Hawkens)
Have faith in the process. Trust the producer. Listen to the songs. 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. You can burn out but that doesn’t mean you can’t get lit again. I’ve seen in happen.
- Jim Dickinson (1942 - 2009)
I just learned that Jim died. I’m punched in the chest.
Jim’s presence here may be gone. And it was a big presence. But his music, his spirit? Well, hell, you know how this sentence ends…. I’m sad. Deeply. But the memories that swirl tonight under the ceiling fan aren’t sad at all.
Jim’s health hadn’t been good for some time. I reached out to his son Luther last week to see how Dad was doing. 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. Still producing!”
Dickinson: 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. “It took days!”). Or playing with Dylan. Or maybe you know him as the man who played those three notes of tack piano on the Stone’s Wild Horses. Jim was a magnet. The people that stopped by the sessions were unreal. Sputnick Monroe? Sure. And Ry Cooder coming by and sharing a chat with us. Casually picking up every one of the 15 guitars laying and playing a half riff. Always searching.
He was a sensitive man. But full of mischief and fun. Corny as it sounds, he was like a father to me. I was definitely a student. I always feel his presence. He left his mark.
Jim was also a dedicated man, dedicated to the art of record producing and to his family. He believed making records was a fight of Light vs. Dark—but he refused to work Saturdays so he could watch his Memphis Wrestling on TV. A tangle of contradictions, his gruff exterior never hid his huge heart.
As 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” . He offered belief. And made you feel your work was important. It was clearly important to him. What a gift he gave us.
Makes sense that Jim once wanted to teach history. Every session, every van journey, was a history lesson with Jim. Often in the morning of a session—and Jim was old school: he was punctual—Jim would play music to inspire us. Might be scratchy vinyl of Kerouac recitations, or Mac Rice demo’s on 7” reels he’d cribbed from Stax. (Tina the Go Go Queen was on there.) Or Black Oak Ark sessions Jim produced back when Ardent was still 8 track. Back when Jim engineered. “Sure, I used to go out and do the hand claps with the band.” It was all part of our extended education.
I made several records with Jim, including two-and-a-half Green On Red slabs, and the odd session Jim hired me for. With my band, we backed Jim on a live record. Jim had been a constant presence in my life. A mentor. A friend. Just the other day a Radio 6 DJ accused Jim Dickinson of producing my last record. She was wrong, but I said, “Yeah, well, it’s like he’s always in the room.” I told the truth. “Jim was always excited about new music. He loved The Cramps. He never got old.
“Yeah, you’re right this Johnny Dowd record is DANGEROUS. Gives me faith it can still be done this late in the game, Chuck.”
Some of my favorite Dickinson memories:
Green On Red picking Jim up at LAX back in 1986 or so, to take him to the studio. Jim mentioned he’d like some weed. No problem. We took a slight detour to Alvarado St. where you hold a ten dollar bill out the window and a kid runs off with it. Out of nowhere someone lowers a basket from a rooftop on a fishing pole with a bag of weed in it.
Jim later said to me, “Boy, you guys. I have to say I was really impressed.”
How happy Jim was when Dylan started performing Across the Borderline in concert? “Bob Dylan singing MY words!”
On over-dubbing the solo on GOR’s Morning Blue: “Come on Chuck, grow up, play something cohesive!”
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”. With Dan Stuart singing, Dickinson playing drums without sticks but those paint stirring things from the hardware store instead.
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. It SMOKES over Elmore’s” . The immortal Jim Dickinson: Fleetwood Mac could smoke Elmore James.
The biggest honor (but I was mighty honored when he covered my songs) was that I was his first one in—calling me as soon as he got back from the Time Out Of Mind sessions. Sharing Dylan stories; Dylan needling Lanois: “Maybe if I took some more advice on how to sing I’d have a career by now.” On the passing of Sam Phillips: “They say God created all men equal. Still, I think God created Sam with just a little extra.” On tuning: “Tuning is a decadent European habit bordering on the homosexual.” Said with no malice, just his grin. And again on tuning but years later: “This auto tune is great. I’d run the drums through it if I could.”
On producing the Replacements: “Did you know Paul Westerberg wears make up?”
In the studio producing—David Hood and Roger Hawkins were the rhythm section—listening to those guys reminiscing about the Stones at Muscle Shoals. Hood: “Who was that chick with the camera that hung around?” And Hood again: “Jagger wore the same clothes five days in a row. Until Wexler showed up and Jagger came out of the hotel elevator wearing that white suit.”
Jim giving me a white label copy of Big Star’s Sister Lovers. There weren’t really cassettes back then. Ardent pressed up white label LP demos to try and get a deal for the cracked masterpiece that wasn’t to come out until years later. They even sprang for a tailored suit and sent Jim out to LA to play it for some A & R people out there. Jim showed up one day to a session wearing a colorful scarf and I asked where he picked it up. “That’s about all I have to show from Sister Lovers” . On the acetate he gave me he wrote in his inimitably crude style with a felt pen: “Big Star Sister Lovers—- produced by Jim Dickinson. Eng. John Fry. NOT 4 SALE.”
Rehearsing with Jim for a couple of gigs that later turned into the Thousand Footprints in the Sand live record, I asked, “Is that a major or a minor chord you’re playing there?”. Jim looked down studied his fingers at the keyboard and said, after a pause, “I don’t know, I just kind of float it.”
Once when Dan Stuart and I made the trek to Hernando for dinner at the Dickinson house: Jim said, “I was hoping you might be willing to go down in the basement and fuck with my kids”. And so we did. Went down there and fired up the Marshals and jammed with Luther and Cody on some thrash metal. When we resurfaced, Jim was really pleased. Just beaming. Jim and Mary did something right, because they raised two boys who are a couple of the kindest and most gentle men you’ll ever meet.
That was a long time ago. The dot where Memphis is on the map became a tunnel and a journey and a life’s work. And now the new heroes are the business men. It’s a mixed up shook up world. Indeed.
Don’t answer the telephone in the studio, it could be the company telling you to stop…
God bless Mr. Jim Dickinson. God blessed us with him.
—Chuck Prophet, Baja California, Mexico, August 2009
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I first heard of JD through my Dad playing me the Stones and Ry Cooder…..........I heard a lot more about him from you Chuck. Green on Red stories etc etc when we did that interview before Soap & Water came out…..........I remember buying that live album you did with him too. Its still somewhere around, probably at Sue`s place. Thanks for sharing those memories back then and now. Sounds like that all who met him went away enriched. RIP Jim Dickinson |
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Funny- when I picked him up at airport in SF I had a similar experience- i didn’t know what he looked like, all i knew was I’m picking up this famous record producer so I find this cat who looks the part- tall, slicked back hair, large sunglasses and an anvil case on wheels… Needless to say that wasn’t the guy- I eventually found him standing there, unshaven with a duffel and a pancho, and eager to cop a bag. I was supposed to pick up a keyboard for him- He opted for the cheaper model because it meant a bigger bag… Learned a lot on the session, and he gave me props for my bass playing- a major boost that I needed drastically at the time… My favorite quote- “I finally figured out the Lanois mystique after the Time Out of Mind sessions- Bad Engineering!” What are you doing in Baja? |
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Dad’s Epithaph- |
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Scoring weed was also high on the agenda for Jim when he came to London for the Barbican It Came From Memphis sessions. It might be the greatest honour of my life that I helped him get connected there. Or maybe it was sitting in and filming as he and Sid and Jimmy and Luther and Cody and Chris (he wouldn’t ever call it Mud Boy, cos Lee’s not there) jammed out their first rehearsal together for the next day’s show. Either way, punched in the chest it is, and it feels bad to know I won’t be breathing the same air as Jim Dickinson again. Thanks, Chuck. |
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I am honored to know of The Man Mr. Jim Dickinson. I first learned of him when he helped Beanland with their 1st release. I guess the word is produced it. Then I started to learn of how legendary he was and all the good things he did and people he helped. This was a great read that taught me even more. I am really honored and touched to have spent time in the south and got to know of this Legend of a man as well as his sons. With Love and Gratitude. |
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Thanks for the amazing quotes and stories. As a music fan, all I do is read about the man so these stories and quotes go a long way. My favorite quote is “Yeah, you’re right this Johnny Dowd record is DANGEROUS. Gives me faith it can still be done this late in the game, Chuck.” I suspect he’ll turn into a cult hero someday. Best, Raj |
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>Jim said, “Never let anybody make you feel bad about what you’re doing” . >He offered belief. This is what I’ve needed to hear since 1995! Well, it’s never too late, I suppose. It’s inspired me today to hang in a little longer on what I was doing. thanks for sharing that chuck |
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First time I saw Jim Dickinson play was in the mid 90s at the King Biscuit Blues Fest in Helena AR. He was playing a side stage with Luther & Cody, in an early version of the North Mississippi Allstars. After a couple songs, there was a struggle on stage over his piano they wanted to take away for the main stage. It escalated to lots of screaming back and forth and then they quit rather than give up that piano. And all that followed an amazing Junior Kimbrough set… |
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Sounds an amazing guy Chuck, wish I’d met him. I also had one of the Big Star 3rd album white labels although mine said just that ‘Big Star 3rd Album’. Never knew it wa supposed to be called Sister Lovers’ until it surfaced on Aura many moons later. Don’t worry though, the businessmen might appear to be running things but they are heroes to no one but themselves and their bank managers. We know the guys who wore the white hats and Jim, along with Les Paul was one of them. The business men wear the black hats! Without all of them there would be no Western! |
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Thanks for sharing… |
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Lovely piece, thank you. |
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I caught Jim many times in and around Memphis. He was always kind and always approachable after gigs. When Luther and Cody showed up at a gig Jim was supposed to play at Hueys midtown, I suspected that Jim was having more health problems. He did so much for Memphis music and never seemed tied to a particular genera or age. He was loved by this city and will be forever missed. |
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My wife and I first went to Dickinson’s Collierville house in 1972.It was midnight and raining.. we had only briefly met Jim at a gig we played in midtown. We drove up listening to the freshly released Dan Penn record “Nobody’s Fool”. Jill wouldn’t get out of the car. Luther was only 6 months old. I went in, we spent the entire night talking about the state of the record biz as it related to us. We retrieved Jill from the car at daybreak and Mary Lindsay fixed us breakfast. Jim and I spent much time in the slave quarters behind this house with his ancient ampex 8 track machine. This is where the last scene of William Eggleston’s “Stranded in Canton” takes place. Dickinson claimed that the “Giant rat of Sumatra” lived under his front porch. This is the same house where we brought Lash LaRue following a cowboy convention at the Peabody.. same house where we recorded Ry Cooder and Sleepy John Estes in the living room..a few houses and 15 years later.. we’re in Ardent B with Green on Red.. after 3 days.. Dickinson says to me..“I’ve never seen you become offended in the studio.. we’ve recorded sleazy porn soundtracks, midgets,wrestlers, giants and everything in between and this is the first time.”. He was referring to a Dan Stuart diatribe that had gone on in the studio. I lied to him and said that I was not offended but he knew that I had and let it go. Jim was considerate enough of the recording process to not interrupt it for any reason. The psychodrama is what we record not just the notes. This holiday, I have had some time to go back and find photographs from the past.. many memories have appeared.. and the Dickinson’s are in most all of them..He will be missed forever but forever will live through beyond us, who knew him well but through our children’s children, as they have no choice |
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Sometimes it’s necessary to be offensive, I guess. But then again, probably not. I do remember that day. I remember falling asleep on the couch with a comic book. Some days it was hard to get us to work. We were desperate. That was a tough record to make. Harder even to finish. But I do remember meeting you Mr. Lancaster. And I hope this finds you well. Joe Hardy and Jim had the patience of saints. Even though I suspect Joe was somehow entertained by all the shenanigans. Strange, when we started recording there, you couldn’t find one trace of Big Star in the studio. I think they were embarrassed by Alex to be honest. Heck, there’s nothing wrong with a little historical revisionism…. Proof that John Fry was a visionary. ... a renaissance man…. He somehow saw past it all and recognized the talent in Jim and Alex and Jody and too many others I’m leaving out. |
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CP Offensive is Ok.. makes folks re-evaluate their stance.. Which brings me to the point of my reply..John Fry is a visionary. I was thinking about John, his birthday was just a couple of days ago, to me, he has attained the historical status of a true record man, like some of the older guys.. Huey Meaux, Sam, Johnny V, Shelby S, etc. and an accolade he probably would not accept right now but nonetheless deserves for allowing all the crazy shit that went on there.. I don’t think they were embarrassed by Alex.. John didn’t hang any “record art” at the studio until recently.. I remember JLD being surprised when gold records and the like appeared. Anyway. hope the new year is good to you. I have a great place to record.. if you get to Florida panhandle come see us… any friend of Dickinson’s is always welcome.. call me Jim |
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Okay Chief, I stand corrected. But I do distinctly remember the platinum record for Disco Duck by Rick Dees and His Cast of Idiots hanging on the wall… Then again, the mind plays tricks. It’s possible I dreamed that up. Correct me if I’m wrong. I know somebody will(!) I must be confused. No one would turn against anyone in Memphis. Yeah right. The Memphis Mafia and Elvis come to mine. Just might take you up on that Florida visit. We play down there all the time. All good things, C |
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I saw the show at the mystic theatre in petaluma on the 22nd of this month.I was blown away at the energy and talet,I left feeling that i owned the band and Chuck alot more than the fifteen dollars i spent to see them.What a great night!I can’t wait to see you next time!Thank you all for sharing your gift with all of us.truely a pleasure…. |
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I guess I’ll pipe up late as usual. I mean shit, offensive diatribe about what exactly? About not acting like some grateful pilgrim when everyone is getting paid but the band? Fuck Lancaster, didn’t you wind up holding the Replacements hand for how much exactly a day? Everyone loves Memphis but Chuck and I had to go to Nashville to finally get a righteous kickback. Maybe I was pissed that someone expected me to fucking sing in tune like that matters one twit or maybe I was tired of a parade of over-all wearing apostles smoking my weed. Maybe my fucking heart was broke and I was trying to get that down on tape. It ain’t a game and there aren’t any rules. Last conversation I had with Alex was on a bus in Norway and we talked about everything except Jim, he knew I loved him and Alex felt otherwise. So fucking what, so fucking what! What we do is secret, maybe that’s what the diatribe was about! |
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