Guitar Slim

Eddie "Guitar Slim" Jones (born December 10, 1926 in Greenwood , Mississippi , † February 7, 1959 in New York City , New York ) was an American blues guitarist. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame counts his most famous hit The Things That I Used to Do among the 500 songs that shaped rock 'n' roll .

Life

After serving in the Second World War , Jones began playing in clubs in the New Orleans area . His role models were T-Bone Walker and Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown .

His extravagant shows soon made him famous: he wore brightly colored suits and dyed his hair appropriately; he ran around in the audience with his guitar, accompanied by an assistant who had to pull along the 100 meter long amplifier cable; Sometimes he would climb on the assistant's shoulders or play outside the club, stopping the traffic. He experimented with distorted guitar, a sound that was picked up again a decade later by rock stars like Jimi Hendrix .

Around 1950 he adopted the stage name "Guitar Slim". In 1951 he made his first recordings. He had his first hit in 1952 with Feelin 'Sad , which was also recorded by Ray Charles . In 1954 The Things That I Used to Do appeared on Specialty Records , a blues standard to this day. Other hits included It Hurts To Love Someone and Down Through The Years . His band on tour and in the studio was led by bassist Lloyd Lambert .

Jones was a heavy drinker and notorious womanizer. The excessive consumption of alcohol bothered him. In 1959 he contracted pneumonia, from which he died in connection with alcohol at the age of 32 during a tour. He was buried with his guitar in Thibodaux , Louisiana , where he had last lived. One of his sons took over his father's musical legacy and performed as Guitar Slim, Jr.

In 2007 Jones was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame .

Web links

• Guitar Slim at Allmusic (English)
• Guitar Slim at Discogs (English)
• Guitar Slim biography (English)