I was given the gift of not only meeting Jerry about the time this song was released, I sat at the table on his tour bus across from him just this close, watching him practice licks from his catalogue and show on an acoustic..........yep, what you saw was what you got.
That was Fun,
Thanks.
.
My Dad bought a
TransAM then and
Those were the days!
The Chinese got the elevator
And we get the shaft
He makes it look so easy!
Good times. Miss them!
MY childhood best friend was a cousin of Jerry Reed. I met him once.
Great guy
I’ll take the liberty of reposting my Christine Blasey Ford tribute to Jerry’s song from the eve of the Kavanaugh hearings:
Swamp Bound and Down (not by Jerry Reed)
Swamp bound and down, lawyered up and bluffin’
We’ll make ‘em do what we say must be done.
We’ve got a tall tale to tell and a short time to sell it,
I’m Swamp bound to watch old white men run.
Help from Fake News in Atlanta, Cooper, Lemon, then there’s Dana,
We’ll save this seat no matter what it takes.
Swamp bound and down, scared as hell of flying,
Go find some girls whose story is the same.
Agendas at stake, so no trick is too dirty,
I’m Swamp bound and lookin’ for some fame.
You call that “live”? I love the song but that’s completely lip-synced, just like everything else was on “He-Haw”.
Reed married country singer Priscilla Mitchell on July 9, 1959; they had two daughters, who also became country singers.[19][20]
Reed died in Nashville, Tennessee, on September 1, 2008, of complications from emphysema at the age of 71.[19] One week later, during their debut at the Grand Ole Opry, Canadian Country Rockers The Road Hammers performed “East Bound and Down” as a tribute.[21] In a tribute in Vintage Guitar Magazine, Rich Kienzle wrote that “Reed set a standard that inspires fingerstyle players the way Merle and Chet inspired him.” He was survived by Mitchell and their two daughters. Mitchell died following a short illness on September 24, 2014, at the age of 73.[20]
Reed was a smoker for many years. Thom Bresh, son of Merle Travis and a close friend of Reed’s, produced a 1990s video with Reed acting out his desire to quit smoking the addictive cigarettes (”Jerry Reed-Another Puff”) that serves as a public service video from Reed himself on the dangers of smoking cigarettes.[22]