NEWS CLIPS
Jerry Reed 1937-2008
BY MICHAEL ROSS
In the summer of 1969, bored to death in
suburbia, I tuned in to the Glen Campbell
Goodtime Hour. There I discovered that
Campbell was not merely a high-voiced,
helmet-haired purveyor of hit records, but
also an amazing fleet-fingered guitarist. Then
one night, a guest came on and played rings
around him—the guest was Jerry Reed. Reed
became a regular on the show, tearing it up on
a weekly basis, but to this day some only know
him as one of the coaches in the Adam Sandler
movie, The Waterboy, or as Burt Reynolds’
sidekick in endless re-runs of Smokey and the
Bandit. They remain unaware that he was one
of the baddest pickers of all time.
Atlanta-born Jerry Reed Hubbard started
playing guitar as a child and by the time he
was a teenager, he was playing at local nightclubs and bars. He eventually dropped out of
school to accompany country stars like Faron
Young and Ernest Tubb. At 16, a music publisher helped him secure a writing and recording contract with Capitol Records. While his
own records went nowhere, his songs were
covered by the likes of Gene Vincent and
Brenda Lee. Following a stint in the Army,
Reed moved to Nashville to further his career
as a songwriter, finding instant success in a
chart-topping hit: Porter Wagoner’s country
cover of his song, “Misery Loves Company.”
By this time, Reed had fully developed the
unique style that would land him constant session work in Music City. It was an approach
distinctive enough to warrant its own name:
“The Claw” (also the title of a Reed instrumental). It included elements inspired by his
childhood heroes: Merle Travis’ fingerpicking,
thumb and finger independence, and contrary harmonic motion; Earl Scruggs’ banjo
rolls and open strings; and Ray Charles’
funky rhythm.
His synthesis of these techniques went on
to inspire players like Brad Paisley, who said,
“Jerry Reed’s instrumentals are required
learning if you want to play country guitar,”
and Brent Mason, who said, “Reed called
himself a ‘guitar thinker,’ not a guitar player.
He would find new ways to play things, and
you can play his songs over and over and
hear something new inside them every time,”
along with countless others like Steve Wariner
and Chet Atkins.
Though Atkins produced Reed, and no
doubt influenced him as well, the guitar
legend always claimed that he thought
Reed was the better player. Or, as journalist Rich Kienzle once put it, “If (Merle)
Travis’ thumb and index finger picking style
was first generation, and Chet Atkins’ use
of thumb, index and middle finger was second, Reed’s use of his entire right hand to
pick was the wild, untamed and dauntingly
complex third generation.”
Reed’s first hit as a country artist was 1967’s
“Guitar Man.” It was quickly covered by Elvis
Presley, who discovered that if he wanted
the guitar on his version to sound like Reed
he had to hire the man himself. In 1970, the
swampy “Amos Moses” rocketed Reed up
the pop charts with a bona-fide crossover hit.
Around this time he recorded two incredible
instrumental records with Chet Atkins—Me &
Chet and Me & Jerry—that are shamefully out
of print today.
In 1974, Reed co-starred with friend Burt
Reynolds in W. W. and the Dixie Dancekings.
Although he continued to record, he became
known primarily as an actor. His brilliantly sinister performance as Bama McCall in 1976’s
Gator showed that it was more than friendship that kept Reed in the Smokey and the
Bandit series, which launched Reed’s hit “East
Bound and Down.”
Eighties releases like “She Got the Goldmine
(I Got the Shaft)” and “The Bird” cast Reed
in full comic mode, but the underlying music
was never less than soulful. Reed’s music
endures to this day; this decade has seen
“Amos Moses” featured on the Grand Theft
Auto: San Andreas soundtrack, and covered
by UK band Alabama 3.
The ever-modest Reed told interviewer Calvin
Gilbert in 2005, “I got to write hit songs, and
I got to be on phonograph records… I’m a
cotton mill boy, and I got to go to Hollywood.
Can you imagine that? God was good to
me—he let me love music.”
God was good to guitar lovers as well; he
gave us Jerry Reed.
