Jerry Reed’s blue denim ensemble, mutton chop sideburns, turquoise necklace, wristbands, and red, white, and black belt buckle of an American eagle reek of the Disco Decade. “A Good Woman’s Love” was the celebrated claw picker’s 17th studio album, dropped in June 1974 on RCA Victor. The title cut [No. 12 C&W] and the Guitar Man’s own composition “Crude Oil Blues” [No. 91 POP, No. 13 C&W] were Top 20 hits on Billboard’s country chart. Although a decent seller [five weeks on the C&W chart, peaking at No. 28], the album signaled a downward trajectory in Reed’s fortunes until the anthemic “East Bound and Down” three years later. Of the LP’s 10 songs, “Everybody Needs Someone” was also penned by Reed, while he arranged “Oh Shenandoah” and “Rollin’ in My Sweet Baby’s Arms.” Propelled by a clavinet, Reed even did justice to Elvis Presley’s “Mystery Train.” Mentor Chet Atkins co-produced the proceedings with Reed, and the band included Atkins apprentice Paul Yandell, fiddle maestro Vassar Clements, and powerhouse drummer Larrie London. After being unavailable for 45 years unless you held onto the original vinyl, “A Good Woman’s Love” was finally reissued in January 2019 to digital outlets with minimal fanfare. Photography by Bob Jones / Sony Music Entertainment / Pandora
“Nobody can play like Jerry Reed.” Darrell Toney, baritone singer-acoustic guitarist for Terry Blackwood and the Imperials, swears in an exclusive interview that Reed overdubbed the 15-second gut string guitar solo on Elvis Presley’s cookin’ cover of “Talk About the Good Times,” the penultimate cut on 1974’s Good Times. Reed, also signed to RCA Victor, originally wrote and released the quasi-gospel barn burner yearning for days gone by “when a friend would meet you and a smile would greet you” on 1970’s Georgia Sunshine. His style is unmistakable starting at the 74-second mark. It’s pianist David Briggs and Master of Telecaster James Burton, who were tracking live with Elvis in Memphis’s Stax Studio, that you hear during the break on the rejected take three finally distributed on 1998’s Essential Elvis Volume 5.
Reed, who once unpretentiously reckoned his playing to “picking with my fingers and tuning that guitar up all weird kinds of ways,” has never been credited until now. Felton Jarvis, Elvis’s compadre and producer on the vast majority of his studio and live discography from 1966 through his untimely demise, took the basic tracks, cut on December 14, 1973, to Nashville the next month for sweetening without any further involvement from Elvis.
Reed was a Nashville resident inspired by rock and R&B who had earlier contributed to Elvis’s September 1967 [e.g. “Guitar Man”] and January 1968 [“U.S. Male”] RCA Studio B sessions at the behest of Jarvis. Neither of those Reed compositions reversed the Hillbilly Cat’s downward chart trajectory but were nonetheless artistic reawakenings after years buried in insipid Hollywood soundtracks.
Incidentally, Elvis’s third of four Reed renditions was “A Thing Called Love,” a rare gospel foray for the Atlanta-raised wild man [three years before his death from emphysema at age 71 “A Brand New Me” appeared on Jerry Reed ‘Live’! Still!]. In 1980 Jarvis, who had received a kidney transplant on Elvis’s dime but would soon succumb to a stroke, invited Reed to overdub Fender Telecaster on an electric remake of “Guitar Man,” attaining Elvis’s first posthumous number one.
The Imperials — Blackwood is the sole remaining original member who worked with Elvis from 1969 to 1971 — perform “Talk About the Good Times” to this day, including the Graceland Soundstage during Elvis Week. Toney knew Reed, has a 2006 instrumental guitar record on CDBaby called Jerry Reed…Revisited, and often appears onstage at the annual Reed tribute show in Nashville. Toney persuasively demonstrated Reed’s licks during our conversation and had researched Elvis’s sessions. Without any prompting he named Stax and was aware of drummer Ronnie Tutt, Briggs, and Burton playing on Elvis’s “Talk About the Good Times.” A couple of years before emphysema claimed his life at age 71 in 2008, Reed was one of the 140 participants who went on the record for Ken Sharp’s Writing for the King. Reed confirmed Toney’s account. I believe them.
Ironically, Elvis Presley’s 10-track “Good Times” became his worst-charting studio, live, or soundtrack album [No. 90 POP, No. 5 C&W] upon its March 20, 1974, bow. Pieced together from July and December 1973 sessions at Stax in Memphis [the summer results were dismal], Tony Joe White’s ”I’ve Got a Thing About You Baby” [No. 39 POP, No. 4 C&W] and “My Boy” [No. 20 POP, No. 14 C&W] were issued as A-sides. Besides Elvis’s jubilant rendition of Jerry Reed’s “Talk About the Good Times,” ”Loving Arms,” Danny O’Keefe’s “Good Time Charlie’s Got the Blues,” and “I Got a Feelin’ in My Body” are recommended picks. Dennis Linde of “Burning Love” fame contributed the latter gospel funk number. Photography by Ed Bonja / Sony Music Entertainment / Amazon
“What do you mean…..I ain’t no Elvis Presley!!!! Love ya, Jerry Reed.” The Guitar Man autographed this comical still also featuring singer-keyboardist-wife Priscilla Mitchell Reed [far left], famed Nashville slip-note session pianist Floyd Cramer [1933–1997], and a Stetson-sporting Felton Jarvis [1934–1981], best known as Elvis’s record producer for the majority of his 1966 to 1977 studio and live dates. The identity of the pretty lady next to Reed is uncertain [comment below if you know]. Cramer was on hand for Elvis’s debut RCA session in January 1956 that yielded the iconic “Heartbreak Hotel” and remained a mainstay through the Top 30 “U.S. Male” single 12 years later. Incidentally, Reed wrote the testosterone-fueled, talking blues ode and supplied the lead gut string acoustic guitar on the Elvis master. Image Credit: The Tony Frost Collection
RCA Victor producer Felton Jarvis, an unidentified gentleman [comment below if you know] and Jerry Reed are jovial in this circa 1972 candid where wide lapels ruled the day. Image Credit: The Tony Frost Collection
Songwriter-guitarist Jerry Reed gives insight on his four compositions waxed by Elvis Presley — “U.S. Male,” “Guitar Man,” “A Thing Called Love,” and “Talk About the Good Times” — on page 182 of Ken Sharp’s 2006 hardcover tome “Writing for the King: The Stories of the Songwriters.” Reed was one of the 140-odd interviewees for Sharp’s mammoth project a few years before his 2008 death from emphysema. Reed misremembers “A Thing Called Love” being waxed in Memphis and featuring his guitar overdubbed in Nashville. On the master take no guitars can be heard—only drums, bass, piano, an overpowering string section, the Imperials, and Elvis. Image Credit: Follow That Dream Records
Songwriter-guitarist Jerry Reed reveals that he overdubbed guitar on Elvis Presley’s December 1973 Stax rendition of “Talk About the Good Times” on page 183 of Ken Sharp’s 2006 hardcover tome “Writing for the King: The Stories of the Songwriters.” Image Credit: Follow That Dream Records
Retro pop culture interviews & lovin’ someone fierce sustain this University of Georgia Master of Agricultural Leadership alum. Email: jeremylr@windstream.net
Retro pop culture interviews & lovin’ someone fierce sustain this University of Georgia Master of Agricultural Leadership alum. Email: jeremylr@windstream.net
