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Posted by Carl Salad on 12-29-2008 at13:40:

  Old and Lonesome

Here's the original. Jimmy Reed singing "Cold and Lonesome."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMn_Lc2tGFQ

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Posted by Doctor Love on 12-29-2008 at18:09:

  RE: Old and Lonesome

I took the liberty to swap out Carl's original pic to the one you now see above because it wasn't the Jimmy Reed we all know and love. That was 'Lil Jimmy Reed', an impostor who's claim to fame was subbing for the genuine article when he was too drunk to take the stage one night.

It also irks me that Carl's link takes you to Jimmy's song but once again posts a pic of imposter 'Lil'. It makes mincemeat of Mr. Reed's legend, but I suppose my obviously plagiarized version of his song did that as well. Though I don't completely regret doing it 'cuz it turned out pretty good, I am still puzzled as to why I chose to do this. I believe we were short on material and I was desperate to come up with something cool. Since the Dogs at that time represented to me a kind of freedom to experiment with stuff the 77s wouldn't touch, I was curious to try and do a tribute (ok, 'ape') version of that song but make it my own somehow.

In the end, the tribute was there, but the 'my own' part wasn't. Jimmy's original song was fine, and I do regret changing the lyrics and title up. I should have also given him full credit, especially since he spent most of his life getting cheated out of royalties and having other bands like Led Zeppelin rip him off. (Check out "Bring It On Home" from Led Zeppelin II -- the second verse is totally copped from Jimmy's "Let's Get Together" off of his Just Jimmy Reed album cut in 1962)

The session for the song was hilarious as the guys were reticent to try and play blues of any kind, especially this type of low-down Delta-gone-to-Chicago stuff that Reed trafficked in. Fortunately, they did a great job. Derri claims this was the very first time he ever played blues of any kind on a recording. C'est la vie say the old folks, it goes to show you never can tell ....

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Posted by Carl Salad on 12-29-2008 at18:48:

  RE: Old and Lonesome

Thanks for that info, Mike. I've always loved your song and have recently fallen in love with Jimmy Reed too.

I had no idea that impostor Jimmys were running around. I'll be on the lookout.

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Posted by 77sfan on 12-29-2008 at20:45:

  RE: Old and Lonesome

Don't ever let anyone imposter yer jimmy.

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Posted by ciniree on 12-30-2008 at06:33:

  Glad it was remade

I really love that song, but had no idea it was written by someone else. I'm not really very up on that kind of thing.