Guitar Man

About Guitar Man

"Guitar Man" is a 1967 song written by Jerry Reed, who took his version of it to number 53 on the Billboard country music charts in 1967. Soon after Reed's single appeared, Elvis Presley recorded the song with Reed playing the guitar part, and it became a minor country and pop hit. According to Peter Guralnick in his two-volume biography of Presley, the singer had been trying unsuccessfully to record the tune, but wasn't happy with the groove. He said something to the effect of: "Get me that redneck picker who's on the original tune", and his staff brought Reed into the studio - who nailed it on the first take (though this romantic account is contradicted by a studio tape of the session that documents the first, second and fifth takes which are available on video-sharing website youtube. com). The single spent one week at number one on the country chart. Thirteen years later, "Guitar Man" was re-recorded in a new electric arrangement, with Presley's original vocal left intact, and it was the last of his eleven number one country hits. The record also peaked at number twenty-eight on the Billboard Hot 100 and was his last top-40 pop hit in the U. S. The Jesus and Mary Chain recorded a version of this song to the b-side of Reverence single, in 1992. more »

Year:

1981

116 Views

Playlists:

#2

 Watch: New Singing Lesson Videos Can Make Anyone A Great Singer

Well I quit my job down at the carwash I left my mama a goodbye note
By sundown I'd left Kingston with my guitar under my coat
I hitchhiked all the way down to Memphis got a room at the YMCA
For the next three weeks I went a hountin' them night clubs
Lookin' for a place to play
Well I thought my pickin' would set 'em on fire
But nobody wanted to hire a guitar man
Well I nearly bout starved to death down in Memphis I run out of money and luck
So I bummed me a ride down to Macon Georgia on a overloaded poultry truck
I thumbed on down to Panama City started checkin' out some of them all night bars
Hopin' I can make myself a dollar makin' music on my guitar
Got the same old story at them all night piers
There ain't no room around here for a guitar man we don't need a guitar man son
So I slept in the hobo jungles I bummed a thousand miles of track
Till I found myself in Mobile Alabama in a club they call Big Jack's
A little four piece band was jammin' so I took my guitar and I sat in
I showed 'em what a band would sound like
With a swingin' little guitar man show 'em son

So if you ever take a trip down to the ocean find yourself down round Mobile
Well make it on out to the club called Jack's if you got a little time to kill
Just follow that crowd of people you'll wind up out on his dance floor
Diggin' the finest little five piece group up and down the Gulf of Mexico
And guess who's leadin' that five piece band
Why wouldn't you know it's that swingin' little guitar man yeah

 The easy, fast & fun way to learn how to sing: 30DaySinger.com

Jerry Reed

Jerry Reed Hubbard (March 20, 1937 – September 1, 2008), known professionally as Jerry Reed, was an American country music singer, guitarist, and songwriter, as well as an actor who appeared in more than a dozen films. His signature songs included "Guitar Man," "A Thing Called Love," "Alabama Wild Man," "Amos Moses", "When You're Hot, You're Hot" (which garnered a Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance), "Ko-Ko Joe", "Lord, Mr. Ford", "East Bound and Down" (the theme song for the 1977 blockbuster Smokey and the Bandit, in which Reed co-starred), "The Bird," and "She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft)". more »

Follow 3 fans