JIM DICKINSON – November 15, 1941 – August 15, 2009
I am extremely devastated to hear that my hero/acquaintance Jim Dickinson passed on yesterday morning.
Pianoman, producer, pater — he excelled at all of these to the point that a lil colored gal like me considered making records and celebrating our region’s cultural circles the most noble aspiration.
My deepest condolences to Miz Mary L, Luther & Cody…to all their family circle and friends, especially Patterson, Brother Chris Chew & my beloved Unc Stanley
Let us keep shining his light
This morn I sho’nuff got the Blues…Farewell, Lorenzo
NP: “Wild Horses” / Labelle
4 Responses to JIM DICKINSON GONE TO GLORY
I only met Jim once. We were on a panel about producing with a bunch of guys talking about ‘pre-production’, ‘hooks’, Pro-Tools and ‘layering’. He and I sat at the curmudgeon end of the table and I will always love him for saying that the only conditions under which he would produce a new band was if he ‘didn’t have to go see them play’ and if the ‘first time he met them was in the studio for the session’. Spontaneity was all with Jim Dickinson, may he rest in peace.
Dickinson was one of those Zelig-like legends you couldn’t help being intrigued: how could one man have played on Aretha’s Spirit in the Dark and Dylan’s Time Out of Mind and the Stones’ Sticky Fingers AND produced Big Star and the Replacements and Primal Scream?! Well, he did, is all we know. I never met the man but did two immensely entertaining and enlightening phoners with him, one about Atlantic Records and the other about Alex Chilton. He truly grasped the magic and madness of rock and roll and soul and the people who make that music.
I may have first met Jim Dickinson at South X Southwest in Austin, Texas. This was circa 1994, when Luther and Cody Dickinson (along with bassist Paul Taylor) were playing as D.D.T., a Stooges/Black Flag-influenced power trio. The boys also backed Dad at his own SXSW gig, and when Luther began tuning his guitar between numbers, Jim gently admonished him: “Son, I’ve told you many times: Tuning is decadent, European, and homosexual.” Naturally, this exchange took place on stage at Chances — at that time, Austin’s leading (only?) lesbian bar!
R.I.P. Mr. Dickinson. What a rich, varied career.
For every “famous” musician out there, there may be a thousand unknowns that are just as good or better… Mr. Dickinson falls in between the two of these “categories”, and we who were lucky enough to appreciate him were extremely lucky for living in this age to marvel at his mastery of both music and advice. Some of his phrases and comments were classics.