I was watching the TV news last night, and while I heard a lot about that 17-year-old girl in Alaska having a baby (a new low-point for broadcast media), I didn’t see anything about Jerry Reed dying, and that’s a travesty.
My dad took me to see “Smokey and the Bandit” at the old Parkwood Cinema in Griffin, one of only two movies I ever saw with him. (The other was the Disney movie “The Aristocats” at the Imperial Theatre, which isn’t there any more. Funny how you remember stuff like that.)
I don’t know that I’d put "Smokey and the Bandit" in the pantheon of great cinematic achievements, but as a 13-year-old boy, I thought it was pretty funny. So did my dad. I don’t ever recall seeing him laugh as hard as he did watching that movie. He even laughed at the naughty parts, which gave me license to laugh at them, too, and made me feel a little more grown up.
Jerry played Cledus Snow in that movie, and he did a few other movies, but he was mostly known as a musician. Though he certainly wasn’t in the same league as Waylon and Willie and Merle Haggard, etc., he was a pretty innovative guitar player, and wrote some good songs, and he played and sang on Willie Nelson sings Kris Kristofferson, which is one of the best country records ever made. Oh, and he once stood up to Elvis Presley.
I recently read Peter Guralnick’s excellent Elvis biography Careless Love, and he relates the story of when Elvis wanted to record Jerry Reed’s song Guitar Man. They couldn’t get the guitar part done right, though, so they had to get Jerry himself to come in and play it.
They recorded the song, and then they let Jerry know the deal – in order for Elvis to release his song, he was going to have to sign over a good part of the publishing rights, and therefore the royalty money. Jerry looked at Elvis’ representatives and sort of politely told them to kiss his butt.
“I'll put it to you this way,” he reportedly said. “You don't need the money and Elvis don't need the money, and I'm making more money than I can spend right now - so why don't we just forget we ever recorded this damn song?”
Eventually Elvis gave in and released the song without getting the publishing rights. It was probably a risky move by Jerry Reed to stand up to Elvis that way, but you have to admire him for it. Dolly Parton did the same thing when Elvis wanted to record I Will Always Love You, and that turned out to be a brilliant decision, because she made a lot of money off that song.
So goodbye to Jerry, an American original. Man, every day it seems like it’s somebody else.
6 comments:
Some info on the Imperial: http://cinematreasures.org/theater/14718/
-Nick
I mourn the passing of The Snowman but the part I most remember Reed for was his absolutely dead on portrayal of Bama McCall in "Gator." (Or was it "White Lightning?")
Nobody before or after has captured that oily, frightening white trash villainy so well.
So long, Bama.
Elvis recorded "I will always love you?"
Seriously?
I love Dolly Parton's original version, and loathe Whitney Houston's melisma-fest yodelerama butchering of same, although Dolly's making the money off the rights, bless her.
On what did Elvis record that?
It damn well was Gator, which was also filmed in Georgia.
-Nick
Elvis didn't record it, because Dolly wouldn't give up the publishing. She later said she made enough money off that song "to buy Graceland."
And you're right, he scared me to death in "Gator." Lauren Hutton was in that movie, too, as I recall. She wasn't as scary.
Mark, the funniest movie I ever saw Jerry Reed in was "the Survivors", an under-the-radar nugget from 1981 starring Robin Williams and Walter Matthau. Still one of the funniest movies I've seen.
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