One of the true innocence of the age for me was right about the time I moved away from Ava. Things had not been going well, I think I had used up my welcome. So, the days and months preceding the move were filled with thoughts on how I was going to get out of there. I even wanted to move with my cousins to California and talked to them about it. Of course they thought I was deranged. Right about that time, the radio was so important to me and a place where literally, I could find my only friend. You have to remember, I was only 15 and music was music, it didn't matter. Jerry Reed brought "Amos Moses" into my life and Amos stayed a while. Sure, it was corn pone country crud but there was a certain thing about the song. It had a swagger to it. And that little "chunka chunka" guitar was played with precision. "When You're Hot, You're Hot" came along right after my parents decided to move away from the farm. What a joyous noise and celebration that song was to me. I also noticed that this guy was a great guitar player, tutored by Chet Atkins and later, we found out that as an actor, he was a heck of a guitar player. "Smokey and the Bandit" was a fun movie and two of the reasons to watch it were a young Sally Field and Jerry Reed with his stupid dog in the cab. He made me laugh and in those dark and dreary hours, he made me smile, so if for no other reason, thanks Jerry. He was a regular on the Glen Campell Goodtime Hour. He wrote "Guitar Man" and "US Male" for Elvis.Jerry died yesterday in Nashville from complications of emphysema. He was 71.
1 comment:
How the heck did I miss this? Maybe I've been working too hard lately, but I didn't see or hear a word of Reed's passing in the Nashville media. I would have thought they'd be flying the flags at half-mast down here this week.
Rest in peace, good ol' boy.
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