Customer Reviews

Essential

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Jerry Reed's talents as a singer and songwriter have long been a source of wonder for me. Listen to any of his albums, including this one, and find out for yourself. His sense of humor in such
original songs as "When You're Hot, You're Hot," "Lord, Mr. Ford" and "Another Puff" are highly entertaining, and his way with a ballad can truly touch the heart.
On a personal level, being a professional musician AND a guitar
player, I have constantly been blown-away by Mr. Reed's awesome capabilities on the guitar. His instrumental compositions such as "The Claw" and the lesser-known "Lightning Rod" are terrific examples of his mastery of the instrument. In this respect, he has been a tremendous inspiration in making me a better musician. Does anyone know that he was once praised by Jazz critic Gene Lees in Downbeat Magazine? And did I mention that ole Jer is a pretty good actor, as well? Just check out his Bama McCall role in "Gator." A real natural.
But I agree with another reviewer, in that a CD Boxed Set is called for. Having once had a complete collection on vinyl, there are just too many gems missing from what is currently available on CD. And lest we forget, we all owe a great deal of thanks to the great, and sad to say, late Chet Atkins for having discovered this good ole Georgia boy.

Of all the words in the English language which can be used to sum up Jerry Reed's remarkable career, both as a musician and as an actor, perhaps these four words can best apply: "Been there, done that". These four words are most apropos, due to Jerry's longevity in the entertainment industry, which spans upwards of almost five decades. It is because of the many different musical styles displayed on "The Essential Jerry Reed" (ranging from country to swamp rock), why Mr. Reed has paved the way for many a future artist, including the likes of Creedence Clearwater Revival, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Allman Brothers, Charlie Daniels, etc. - each a successful artist/group in their own right. Therefore, Jerry is credited with starting the swamp rock/southern rock genre, and some of the songs featured in this collection ("Amos Moses", "When You're Hot, You're Hot", "The Uptown Poker Club" and "Ko-Ko Joe") contain a healthy dose of this well-crafted style of music. The lyrical homespun humor Jerry brings to many of the songs in this rather "definitive" collection adds profound depth to the music, as is the case in such numbers as "The Uptown Poker Club" and in "She Got The Goldmine (I Got The Shaft)", where the latter selection finds Jerry once again in hot water with the same judge in a kangaroo court of law filled with mayhem and hijinks, a recipe which is also the order of the day in the up-tempo "When You're Hot, You're Hot" (poor, poor Jerry!). Jerry Reed shows that he's quite the balladeer, as he croons with an unmistakeable vocal depth and precision, found in such tender moments that are nicely supplied in the compromising "A Thing Called Love", "A Good Woman's Love" and in "Smell The Flowers" as well. The latter title pretty much sums up Jerry's philsophy in life - in just taking things as they come, letting the chips fall where they may, complete with a touch of "happy-go-luckiness" present in a majority of the songs in this "almost" well put together collection of Jerry's credible compositions. However, "The Essential Jerry Reed" contains some major-minor flaws, none of which are contained in the movie music selections found in the first two "Smokey And The Bandit" pictures ("East Bound And Down" [from "SATB"] and "Texas Bound And Flyin'" [from "SATB 2"] - both of which are marvellous and are fine, upstanding numbers, no doubt). One big mistake RCA made in preparing this compilation, was omitting "Smokie's" other songs, such as both "The Legend" and "The Bandit", also performed amicably by the talented Jerry Reed. Some other important cuts RCA left behind, are the untamed "Alabama Wild Man" and "U.S. Male". It is due to these aforementioned omissions the reason why "The Essential Jerry Reed" gets only a four-star rating. But, nevertheless, it is a worthwhile body of "The Alabama Wild Man"'s guitar pickin' delights, and is thus worthy of being in any music collector's CD library. So, it all adds up to more of an "essential", rather than a "definitive" purchase!

JERRY REED-THE ESSENTIAL JERRY REED: The Alabama Wild Man was a triple threat talent in the seventies, playing hotshot session guitar for everyone from Elvis on down, scoring his own twanger smashes like the swampy tall tales AMOS MOSES and WHEN YOU'RE HOT YOU'RE HOT, and serving as Burt Reynolds' cronie in good ol' boy flicks GATOR and SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT. THE ESSENTIAL JERRY REED is exactly what the title suggests...all the witty, gritty, southern fried antics you could ever ask for. Dig into trucker fave EAST BOUND AND DOWN, the autobiographical GUITAR MAN, and the quick-pickin' instrumental THE CLAW; Reed adroitly covers all the bases. He hardly disappoints in the novelty category either...there's LORD MR. FORD, one of the wittiest "car-tunes" since Chuck Berry's NO MONEY DOWN, divorce ditty SHE GOT THE GOLDMINE (I GOT THE SHAFT), and the wheezy narrative ANOTHER PUFF, which is the SMOKE, SMOKE, SMOKE THAT CIGARETTE of its era. Make no mistake son, this is the best Jerry Reed your hard earned dollar can buy.

RATING: FOUR GUITAR PICKS

A killer songwriter, amazingly skilled guitar player, and a charismatic singer and performer, Jerry Reed is sickenly underappreciated. This is a great collection to use to acquaint yourself with this no-nonsense classic awesome musician. From the country funk of "Ko Ko Joe", and the beauty of the ballad "A Thing Called Love", to the unbeleivable acoustic guitar work on the instrumental "The Claw" or the groovy "Guitar Man", hear Jerry do it all with style and originality. This is a must have CD that will have you digging around for Jerry's LP's in old record shops (which all fully deserve to get reissued on CD!)

Long-deserving of a first-class compilation, it's great to see some of Jerry Reed's best material available on one CD. Long-time fans -- like me -- may quibble with the song selection. No "Alabama Wild Man"? "Talk About the Good Times"? "Give Me Back my Blues"? But, give RCA credit for coming up with some gems -- the selection of "Another Puff" alone should win somebody some brownie points in hillbilly heaven. Until more of Reed's catalog is available on CD -- and that may never happen -- this is the place to start to discover that Reed was much more than just a Burt Reynolds sidekick........

Jerry Reed deserves much more credit than he receives. Some people consider him a country/comedy novelty act, which is a tragedy. As an aspiring guitarist (aren't we all?), I'm simply in awe of Jerry's fingerpicking ability and I defy anyone to not smile while listening to his version of "Alabama Jubilee."

If you're even remotely considering this CD, I urge you to buy it. You won't be disappointed, I promise. And if you are disappointed, there's something wrong with you and you should get help.

Jerry, if you're reading this, thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing your talent with the world.

Jerry wrote A thing called love, which was a big hit for Johnny Cash and was also covered by Elvis, and he also wrote Guitar man and US male, both big hits for Elvis. His own versions of A thing called love and Guitar man are included here. Other great songs include I love you what can I say and You took all the rambling out of me. So, he could do conventional songs, but what I particularly like are his comedy songs.

My favorite comedy song is The bird (about a creature who could sing like George Jones and Willie Nelson), but this collection also includes Lord Mr Ford (about the problems caused by cars), She got the goldmine I got the shaft (about a divorce settlement) and Another puff (about trying to give up smoking).

You can also find a couple of songs from the two Smokey and the Bandit movies - East bound and down, Texas bound and flying - and many other good songs.

This is an interesting collection by somebody who could have made a comfortable living as a session guitarist, but who had more to offer than that.

I have been a Jerry Reed fan ever since his movie teamings with Burt Reynolds and specifically his movie music beginning with W.W. AND THE DIXIE DANCE KINGS and SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT. Like many late blooming Jerry Reed fans I found myself buying -- as my budget permitted -- both old and new Jerry Reed records and 8-track tapes. With Jerry Reed albums you were almost always guarantied a collection of serious-toned songs, lamenting love songs in the great tradition of George Jones, and plain old songs just for fun like THE COIN MACHINE, SHE GOT THE GOLD MINE I GOT THE SHAFT, THE BIRD, and so on.

With the rise of Compact Discs and rapid extinction of 8-track tapes, cassette tapes, and 33 rpm vinyl records it has been difficult to replicate my Jerry Reed collection on CD. Even my favorite Jerry Reed soundtrack, appearing on albums SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT and RCA's separate release of EAST BOUND AND DOWN, have long since been unavailable. Likewise both volumes of Jerry Reed's greatest hits, which I originally bought on cassette tape, have disappeared. THE ESSENTIAL JERRY REED is the closest a CD has come to capturing the magical highlights of Jerry Reed's anthology.

True, no matter what collection is assembled it will always absent some of the music we enjoy the most. Very often an obscure side B favorite, and not necessarily the album headline song, was the title I found myself ever repeating on my car stereo. For those songs we will all have to wait for future releases or buy the equipment and cables necessary to convert vinyl grooves into CD tracks. In the meantime ESSENTIAL covers enough of Jerry Reed's numbers for me to hold out a little while longer.

This is a very good collection of the Wildman's hits. It would be pefect if it had included: Semolita, Alabama Wildman, Gimme back my blues, Tupelo Mississippi Flash, A Friend (from movie WW and the Dixie Dancekings with Reed and buddy Burt Reynolds), Gator (from movie Gator).However, the fact that it includes Uptown Poker Club, Another Puff and Lord,Mr.Ford makes it required for old fans and soon to be new fans of Mr.Jerry Reed! Get it!

Jerry Reed has good chops on the guitar, a great singing voice, and nice songs to sing. Sure it's "country," but it's more like Willie Nelson country, i.e., it cuts across musical boundaries. He sings with great personality; I like the man. A real good time.