Guitar Slim
| Guitar Slim | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Eddie Jones |
| Born |
December 10, 1926 Greenwood, Mississippi, United States |
| Died | February 7, 1959 (aged 32) New York City, United States |
| Genres | Blues, electric blues, New Orleans blues, R&B, rock and roll |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instruments | Guitar, electric guitar, vocals |
Eddie Jones (December 10, 1926 – February 7, 1959), better known as Guitar Slim, was a New Orleans blues guitarist in the 1940s and 1950s, best known for the million-selling song "The Things That I Used to Do", produced by Johnny Vincent for Specialty Records. It is listed in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. Slim had a major impact on rock and roll and experimented with distorted overtones on the electric guitar a full decade before Jimi Hendrix.
Jones was born in Greenwood, Mississippi, United States. His mother died when he was five, and his grandmother raised him. In his teen years he worked in cotton fields and spent his free time at juke joints, where he started sitting in as a singer or dancer; he was good enough as a dancer that he was nicknamed "Limber Leg".
After returning from military service during World War II, he started playing in clubs around New Orleans, Louisiana. Bandleader Willie D. Warren introduced him to the guitar. He was particularly influenced by T-Bone Walker and Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. About 1950 he adopted the stage name Guitar Slim and became known for his wild stage act. He wore bright-colored suits and dyed his hair to match them. He had an assistant who followed him around the audience with up to 350 feet of cord between his guitar and his amplifier, and occasionally rode on his assistant's shoulders or even took his guitar outside the club, bringing traffic to a stop. His sound was just as unusual—he played his guitar with distortion more than a decade before rock guitarists did, and his gospel-influenced vocals were easily identifiable.
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