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Eddie Taylor
When you're
talking about the patented Jimmy Reed laconic shuffle sound, you're
talking about Eddie Taylor just as much as Reed himself. Taylor was the
glue that kept Reed's lowdown grooves from falling into serious
disrepair. His rock-steady rhythm guitar powered the great majority of
Reed's Vee-Jay sides during the 1950s and early '60s, and he even found
time to wax a few classic sides of his own for Vee-Jay during the
mid-'50s.
Eddie Taylor was as versatile a blues guitarist as anyone could ever
hope to encounter. His style was deeply rooted in Delta tradition, but
he could snap off a modern funk-tinged groove just as convincingly as a
straight shuffle. Taylor viewed Delta immortals Robert Johnson and
Charley Patton as a lad, taking up the guitar himself in 1936 and
teaching the basics of the instrument to his childhood pal Reed. After
a stop in Memphis, he hit Chicago in 1949, falling in with harpist
Snooky Pryor, guitarist Floyd Jones, and -- you guessed it -- his old
homey Reed.
From Jimmy Reed's second Vee-Jay date in 1953 on, Eddie Taylor was
right there to help Reed through the rough spots. Taylor's own Vee-Jay
debut came in 1955 with the immortal "Bad Boy" (Reed returning the
favor on harp). Taylor's second Vee-Jay single coupled two more
classics, "Ride 'Em on Down" and "Big Town Playboy," and his last two
platters for the firm, "You'll Always Have a Home" and "I'm Gonna Love
You," were similarly inspired. But Taylor's records didn't sell in the
quantities that Reed's did, so he was largely relegated to the role of
sideman (he recorded behind John Lee Hooker, John Brim, Elmore James,
Snooky Pryor, and many more during the '50s) until his 1972 set for
Advent, I Feel So Bad, made it abundantly clear that this quiet,
unassuming guitarist didn't have to play second fiddle to anyone. When
he died in 1985, he left a void on the Chicago circuit that remains
apparent even now. They just don't make 'em like Eddie Taylor anymore.
-Written
by Bill Dahl
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