Blues All Day Long: The Jimmy Rogers Story

433 Pages·2014·4.739 MB·English

by  Wayne Everett Goins, Kim Wilson

"Great work. Long, long overdue."
—Taj Mahal
THE
JIMMY ROGERS
STORY
BLUES
A L L D A Y
LONG
Wayne Everett Goins
Blues All Day Long
Music in AMericAn Life
A list of books in the series appears
at the end of this book.
Blues All Day Long
T h e J i m m y r o g e r s s t o r y
Wayne Everett Goins
Foreword by Kim Wilson
universiTy of iLLinois Press
Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield
© 2014 by the Board of Trustees
of the University of Illinois
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
1 2 3 4 5 c p 5 4 3 2 1
∞ This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Goins, Wayne E., author.
Blues all day long : the Jimmy Rogers story /
Wayne Everett Goins ; foreword by Kim Wilson.
pages cm. — (Music in American life)
Includes bibliographical references, discography, and index.
ISBN 978-0-252-03857-0 (hardcover : alk. paper) —
ISBN 978-0-252-08017-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) —
ISBN 978-0-252-09649-5 (e-book)
1. Rogers, Jimmy. 2. Guitarists—United States—Biography.
3. Jazz musicians—United States—Biography. I. Title.
ML419.R613G65 2014
787.87’1643092—dc23 2014007477
[B]
For my father, William Earl Goins,
who gave me the gift of music.
They called him Bill.
For “Uncle Jimmy” Jones, my first blues guitar hero.
I still hear that Fender Jaguar.
For Uncle John Lewis Goins, who gave my dad
the first real guitar I ever owned. Oh, look at what you did.

contents
Foreword by Kim Wilson ........................................ix
Acknowledgments.............................................. xiii
Introduction ........................................................1
Part i. from Minter city to
Madison street (1924–1960)
1. Money, Marbles, and Chalk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
2. Chicago Bound ...................................................27
3. Chess Moves...................................................... 53
4. Headhunters and Wolfmen .....................................76
5. The World’s in a Tangle..........................................98
6. Blues Leave Me Alone .......................................... 118
Part ii. rising from the Ashes
(1970–1989)
7. Walkin’ by Myself ...............................................139
8. Shelter from the Storm .........................................157
9. Gold Tailed Bird................................................. 181
10. Feelin’ Good .....................................................208
11. Out on the Road.................................................237
Part iii. fathers and sons
(1989–1997)
12. Changing Lanes .................................................263
13. That’s All Right..................................................291
14. Long Gone .......................................................310
Coda: The Last Time............................................317
Notes .............................................................319
A Selected Jimmy Rogers Discography .......................351
Bibliography.....................................................365
Index .............................................................375
foreword
Kim Wilson
Jimmy Rogers—oh, man. It’s so hard to tell you what he meant to me. Was he
my father? My uncle? Big brother? I don’t know. Maybe he was all of them. One
thing’s for sure, though—he was definitely my hero. When you were around him,
everything seemed to flow in an effortless, natural kind of way. And his music
was just like his personality—with Jimmy, there was no need for rehearsal. He
struck me as a really nice cat. Despite whatever he’d been through, he was al-
ways a happy, confident, and generous guy. I think it’s because he knew where
he stood in the grand scheme of things, which obviously was as one of the most
important players in the history of the blues—not just in Chicago, but the world.
You don’t know how good it felt the first time he turned and looked at me with
that Cheshire cat grin of his, sweat dripping down his face, and said to me,
“Muthafucka, you can play that shit!”
When you first meet someone like this, they are like gods to you, and you’re in
awe of them. But then you get to know them and they become more like family.
It becomes like a big party. You play jokes on each other. You laugh, and you cry
together—from laughter. We did a lot of great gigs, and the whole time we were
out there I never heard one negative thing out of him. Jimmy was a fun-loving
guy, and sometimes he was an instigator, which he loved when it came to getting
me in trouble! I was like a son to him—he’d say that to me all the time. We also
were drinking buddies, and whenever I’d go to the bar, he’d get a smile on his face