Monday, October 10, 2011

Jerry Reed - Lord Mr. Ford

The late, great Jerry Reed.  They don't make 'em like this any more.  I have a couple of Jerry Reed albums.  For my money - he was one of the best pure pickers of all time - from any genre or era.  I also have tons of Roy Clark records.  This record is called Lord, Mr. Ford, from 1973. 
I also read that Elvis liked Reed's original version of Guitar Man so much, that he wanted to (and did) record it verbatim.  That was in 1967, where I read recently that Reed's song hit the country charts (#53) with his self-penned "Guitar Man."   Elvis also coveted Reed's next single "Tupelo Mississippi Flash," a comic tribute to Presley.  Recorded on September 1, the song became his first Top 20 hit, going to #15 on the chart. In a remarkable twist of fate, Elvis came to Nashville to record nine days later on September 10, 1967, and one of the songs he became especially excited about was "Guitar Man."  On wiki - I read that "Reed recalled how he got tracked down to play on the Elvis session: "I was out on the Cumberland River fishing, and I got a call from Felton Jarvis (then Presley's producer).  He said, 'Elvis is down here. We've been trying to cut 'Guitar Man' all day long. He wants it to sound like it sounded on your album.'  I (Reed) finally told him, 'Well, if you want it to sound like that, you're going have to get me in there to play guitar, because these guys (you're using in the studio) are straight pickers. I pick with my fingers and tune that guitar up all weird kind of ways."
Jerry Reed also played guitar on Elvis Presley's "Big Boss Man."  Here is Lord, Mr. Ford.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrzE8DL6mZQ

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