Willie Dixon

Willie Dixon
Willie Dixon's style of blues was one of the inspirations for a new generation of music, rock and roll. Willie Dixon's style of blues was one of the inspirations for a new generation of music, rock and roll.
Background information
Birth name	William James Dixon
Born	July 1 1915(1915-07-01) Vicksburg, Mississippi, United States
Origin	Chicago, Illinois, United States
Died	January 29 1992 (aged 76) Burbank, California, United States
Genre(s)	Blues
Instrument(s)	Double bass, guitar
Label(s)	Chess
Website	www.bluesheaven.com

William James "Willie" Dixon (July 1, 1915 – January 29, 1992) was a American blues singer-songwriter, many of whose songs became classics of the Chicago blues genre. He was also a noted bassist, arranger, and record producer for Chicago's premier blues label, Chess Records, in its heyday during the 1950s and early 60s.

Dixon wrote such blues hits as "Little Red Rooster," "Hoochie Coochie Man," "Evil," "Spoonful," "Back Door Man," "I Just Want to Make Love to You," "I Ain't Superstitious," "My Babe," "Wang Dang Doodle," and "Bring It on Home," performed by Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and Little Walter, and covered by countless others. His songs also greatly influenced a generation of younger musicians such as The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, The Doors, Bob Dylan, The Lovin' Spoonful, and many others.

Dixon also formed a direct link between the blues and rock and roll by working with early rock artists like Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley in the late 50s. Next to Muddy Waters, he is considered the most influential person in shaping the post-World War II sound of the Chicago blues.

Biography

Early life

Dixon was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi on July 1, 1915. His mother, Daisy, often created rhymes during casual conversation, a habit Dixon learned to imitate. At the age of seven, he became an admirer of a band that featured blues pianist Little Brother Montgomery. Dixon was further introduced to blues when he served time on prison farms in Mississippi as an early-teenager. He learned how to sing harmony as a teen as well, from a local carpenter named Leo Phelps. Dixon sang bass in Phelps' group, the Jubilee Singers, a local gospel quartet that regularly appeared on the Vicksburg radio station WQBC. Around this time Dixon began experimenting with songwriting by adapting poems he had written into songs, and even able to sell some of them to local music groups.

Dixon left Mississippi for Chicago in 1936. A man of considerable stature, at 6 feet six inches tall and weighing over 250 pounds, he took up boxing. He showed considerable talent in the sport, winning the Illinois State Golden Gloves Heavyweight Championship (Novice Division) in 1937. Dixon soon turned professional as a boxer and worked briefly as Joe Louis' sparring partner. After four pro fights, however, Dixon abandoned the boxing business after quarreling with his manager over a question of money.

At the boxing gym, Dixon met by fellow singer Leonard "Baby Doo" Caston with whom he would occasionally harmonize and helped him become serious about music as a career. He performed in several vocal groups in Chicago, and Caston built him his first bass, made of a tin can and one string. He also learned the guitar.

Career

Dixon began performing around Chicago and with Baby Doo, helped to form the Five Breezes, a group that blended blues, jazz, and vocal harmonies. Dixon's progress in learning to play the bass was halted when he resisted the draft during World War II as a conscientious objector and was imprisoned for ten months. After the war, he formed the group Four Jumps of Jive and then reunited with Caston, forming the Big Three Trio, who went on to record for Columbia Records.

Dixon signed to Chess Records as a recording artist, but began performing less and became more involved with the label. By 1951, he was a full time employee at Chess where he acted as producer, A&R talent scout, session musician, and staff songwriter. His relationship with the label was sometimes strained, although his spell there covered the years from 1948 to the early 1960s. During this time his output, and influence was prodigious.

Indeed, he once claimed "I am the blues." This may seem a little arrogant, but there is no doubt that he was one of the major influences on the genre, through his original and varied songwriting, live performances, recording, and copious production work. He later recorded on Bluesville Records.

He was also a producer for Checker Records in Chicago and is considered one of the key figures in the creation of Chicago blues. He worked with Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Otis Rush, Bo Diddley, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, Koko Taylor, Little Milton, Eddie Boyd, Jimmy Witherspoon, Lowell Fulson, Willie Mabon, Memphis Slim, Washboard Sam, Jimmy Rogers, and others. His double bass playing was of a high standard. He appears on many of Chuck Berry's early recordings, further proving his linkage between the blues and the birth of rock and roll.

Dixon is remembered mainly as a songwriter; his most enduring gift to the blues, lay in refurbishing archaic Southern motifs, often of magic and country folkways and often derived from earlier records such as those by Charlie Patton, in contemporary arrangements, to produce songs with both the sinew of the blues, and the agility of pop. British R&B bands of the 1960s constantly drew on the Dixon songbook for inspiration. In December 1964, The Rolling Stones reached #1 in the UK Singles Chart with their cover version of Dixon's "Little Red Rooster".

In addition, as his songwriting and production work started to take a backseat, his organisational ability was utilised, putting together all-star, Chicago based blues ensembles for work in Europe.

His health deteriorated in the 1970s and 1980s, due to long-term diabetes, and eventually his leg had to be amputated. Dixon was inducted at the inaugral session of the Blues Foundation's ceremony, into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980. He was also granted a Grammy Award in 1989 for his album, Hidden Charms.

Death and afterward

Dixon died of heart failure in Burbank, California on January 29, 1992 and was buried in the Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois.

Dixon was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the "early influences" (pre-rock) category in 1994. As the songlist below demonstrates, his work was covered by a varied range of artists, from the blues, to modern day rock music practitioners.

Actor and comedian Cedric the Entertainer will portray Dixon in Cadillac Records, a film based on the life of Leonard Chess, played by Adrien Brody. The film, set in 1950s Chicago, will also feature Beyoncé as Etta James, and Jeffrey Wright as Muddy Waters.

Songs

He wrote many famous blues songs, usually producing and playing double bass when they were first recorded. Some of these, and the extensive subsequent covers, include:

• "29 Ways" – Marc Cohn, Willie Dixon, The Blues Band
• "300 Pounds Of Joy" – Howlin' Wolf, Tom Jones & Jools Holland
• "After Five Long Years" – Willie Dixon
• "As Long as I Have You" – Led Zeppelin
• "Back Door Man" – Howlin' Wolf, The Doors, Grateful Dead, Shadows of Knight, Bob Weir
• "Big Boss Man" – Jimmy Reed, Elvis Presley, The Animals, The Grateful Dead
• "Bring It on Home" – Sonny Boy Williamson II, Led Zeppelin, Van Morrison, Dread Zeppelin, Johnny Thunders
• "Built for Comfort" – Howlin' Wolf, Canned Heat, UFO
• "Crazy For My Baby" – Little Walter, Charlie Musselwhite, Willie Dixon
• "Crazy Love" – Buddy Guy
• "Crazy Mixed Up World" – Little Walter
• "Close to You" – Muddy Waters, Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Doors
• "Dead Presidents" – Little Walter, The J. Geils Band
• "Diddy Wah Diddy" – Bo Diddley, Captain Beefheart, The Blues Band
• "Do Me Right" – Lowell Fulson
• "Do the Do" – Howlin' Wolf
• "Don't Go No Farther" – Muddy Waters
• "Don't Tell Me Nothin´" – Willie Dixon – used in the movie The Color of Money
• "Down in the Bottom" – Howlin' Wolf, Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings
• "Earthquake and Hurricane" – Willie Dixon
• "Eternity" – Grateful Dead
• "Everybody Needs Something" – Little Walter
• "Everything But You" – Jimmy Witherspoon
• "Everything's Got a Time" – Willie Dixon
• "Evil" – Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Canned Heat, Captain Beefheart, Monster Magnet, Derek and the Dominos, Gary Moore, Cactus, The Faces, Steve Miller, Koko Taylor
• "Flamin' Mamie" – Willie Dixon
• "Help Me" – Sonny Boy Williamson II
• "Gone Daddy Gone" - the Violent Femmes' Gordon Gano incorporated elements of "I Just Want To Make Love To You" into his track; the former was later covered by Gnarls Barkley
• "Grave Digger Blues" – Willie Dixon
• "Groanin' the Blues" – Willie Dixon, Eric Clapton
• "Hidden Charms" – Howlin' Wolf, Link Wray
• "Hoochie Coochie Man" – Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Shadows of Knight, Eric Burdon, The Nashville Teens, Dion, The Allman Brothers Band, Alexis Korner, Steppenwolf, Chuck Berry, Motörhead, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Healey, Manfred Mann
• "Howlin' For My Baby" – Howlin' Wolf, George Thorogood
• "I Ain't Superstitious" – Howlin' Wolf, The Yardbirds, Grateful Dead, Megadeth, The Jeff Beck Group, Chris Spedding
• "I Can't Quit You Baby" – Little Milton, Otis Rush, Willie Dixon, John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, Led Zeppelin, Gary Moore, Dread Zeppelin, Nine Below Zero
• "I Can't Understand" – Los Lobos (co-written with Cesar Rojas)
• "I Don't Make Sense (You Can't Make Peace)" – Willie Dixon
• "If the Sea Was Whiskey" – Chris Thile
• "I Got What It Takes" – Koko Taylor
• "I Just Want To Make Love To You" – Muddy Waters, The Animals, The Kinks, The Yardbirds, Shadows of Knight, Mungo Jerry, Grateful Dead, Foghat, The Rolling Stones, Etta James, Van Morrison, Paul Rodgers, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, April Wine, Robben Ford, Meat Puppets, Cold Sweat
• "I Love the Life I Live, I Live the Life I Love" – Muddy Waters, Willie Nelson
• "I'm Ready" – Muddy Waters, Humble Pie, Buddy Guy, Aerosmith, Long John Baldry, Eric Burdon, George Thorogood, Albert King
• "Insane Asylum" – Koko Taylor, Kathy McDonald and Sly Stone, Diamanda Galás, Asylum Street Spankers, The Detroit Cobras, Oxbow feat. Marianne Faithful
• "I Don't Play" – Robben Ford
• "I Got My Brand on You" – Muddy Waters
• "It Don't Make Sense (You Can't Make Peace)" – Styx
• "I Want To Be Loved" – Muddy Waters, The Rolling Stones
• "Let Me Love You Baby" – Buddy Guy, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jeff Beck, Muddy Waters, B. B. King
• "Little Baby" – Howlin' Wolf, The Rolling Stones
• "Little Red Rooster" – Howlin' Wolf, Sam Cooke, The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, Grateful Dead, The Doors, Luther Allison, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Big Mama Thornton, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
• "Love, Life & Money" – Johnny Winter
• "Mellow Down Easy" – Little Walter & His Jukes, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, The Black Crowes, Carey Bell, ZZ Top, Jimmy Reed, Holly Golightly
• "Million Dollar Baby" – Dizzy Gillespie
• "My Babe" – Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, Elvis Presley, The Everly Brothers, Spencer Davis Group, John P. Hammond, Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters, Othar Turner & The Rising Star Fire and Drum Band
• "My Baby's Sweeter" – Little Walter, Fleetwood Mac
• "My Captain" – Muddy Waters
• "My John the Conqueror Root" – Muddy Waters
• "Nervous" – Willie Dixon
• "Oh Baby" – Little Walter
• "One More Chance With You" – Little Walter
• "Pain In My Heart" – Willie Dixon, The Rolling Stones, Otis Redding, Grateful Dead
• "Pie in the Sky" – Willie Dixon
• "Pretty Thing" – Bo Diddley, Pretty Things, Canned Heat
• "Seventh Son" – Willie Mabon, Mose Allison, Bill Haley, Johnny Rivers, Sting, Climax Blues Band, Long John Baldry
• "Same Thing" – The Band
• "Sin And City" – Buddy Guy
• "Shake For Me" – Stevie Ray Vaughan
• "Sit and Cry (The Blues)" – Buddy Guy (co-written with Buddy Guy)
• "Spoonful" – Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, Shadows of Knight, Dion, Paul Butterfield, Cream, Canned Heat, Grateful Dead, Ten Years After, The Who, Etta James Salty Dog
• "Study War No More" – Willie Dixon
• "The Same Thing" – Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, George Thorogood, The Allman Brothers Band, Sue Foley, Marc Ford, Grateful Dead
• "The Seventh Son" – Willie Dixon
• "Study No More" – Willie Dixon
• "Third Degree" – Eddie Boyd, Willie Dixon, Eric Clapton, Leslie West
• "Tollin' Bells" – Lowell Fulson, Savoy Brown Blues Band, Robert Cray
• "Too Late" – Little Milton, Little Walter
• "Too Many Cooks" – Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, Mick Jagger
• "Violent Love" – Otis Rush, The Big Three, Oingo Boingo, Dr. Feelgood
• "Walkin' The Blues" – Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton, John Kay
• "Wang Dang Doodle" – Koko Taylor, Howlin' Wolf, Grateful Dead, Savoy Brown, Box Tops, PJ Harvey, Rufus Thomas, The Pointer Sisters, The Blues Band, Widespread Panic
• "Weak Brain, Narrow Mind" – Willie Dixon, Widespread Panic
• "When My Left Eye Jumps" – Buddy Guy
• "When The Lights Go Out" – Jimmy Witherspoon, Kim Wilson
• "Who" – Little Walter
• "Wigglin' Worm" – Willie Dixon
• "You Can't Judge A Book By Looking At Its Cover" – Bo Diddley, Shadows of Knight, Cactus, The Yardbirds, Beat Farmers, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Tim Hardin, The Merseybeats, Elliott Murphy, Long John Baldry, The Monkees, Eric Clapton, Roy Buchanan.
• "You Don't Love Me" – Booker T. & the M.G.s, Al Kooper and Stephen Stills
• "You Know My Love" – Otis Rush, Gary Moore
• "You'll Be Mine" – Howlin' Wolf, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Dr. Feelgood
• "You Need Love" – Muddy Waters

  "Whole Lotta Love" – Led Zeppelin. Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" was appropriated, without credit, from Dixon's "You Need Love." Although the main guitar riff was composed by Jimmy Page himself, Robert Plant based the lyrics on Dixon's song. Dixon and his music publisher received credit and royalties, after a 1985 lawsuit was settled out of court.

  "You Need Loving" recorded by The Small Faces in 1965, is another uncredited loose version of the song

• "You Shook Me" – Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Jeff Beck Group, Led Zeppelin, Dread Zeppelin
• "Young Fashioned Ways" – Muddy Waters

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Tributes

• French singer-songwriter, Francis Cabrel, refers to Dixon in the song "Cent Ans de Plus" on his 1999 album, Hors-Saison. Cabrel cites the artist as one of a number of blues influences, including Charley Patton, Son House, Blind Lemon, Robert Johnson, Howlin' Wolf, Blind Blake and Ma Rainey.
• Canadian rock musician, Tom Cochrane, wrote a song entitled "Willie Dixon Said" that appeared on his 1999 album, X-Ray Sierra.

See also

• List of blues musicians
• Chicago Blues Festival
• List of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees
• Boogie-woogie

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Dixon, Willie; & Snowden, Don (1990). I Am the Blues: The Willie Dixon Story. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0704302535
• Dixon, Willie (1992). Willie Dixon - Master Blues Composer: With Notes and Tablature. Hal Leonard. ISBN 0793503051
• Dixon, Willie (2003). I Am The Blues. (DVD)
• Snowden, Don (1997). "Willie Dixon." In The Chess Box [CD booklet]. MCA Records, Inc.

External links

• Willie Dixon at All Music Guide
• Willie Dixon at the Internet Movie Database
• Willie Dixon Memorial at Find A Grave
• Willie Dixon at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
• Willie Dixon, Mississippi blues musician. The Mississippi Writers and Musicians Project of Starkville High School.

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