Last Saturday, we lost perhaps the greatest, most influential
musician ever born in Little Rock when Jim Dickinson died in a Memphis
hospital at 67. He was far from a household name (the magazine
Bucketful of Brains aptly called him a “non-careerist”), but who can
touch his CV? It’s a constellation of musical achievement, spanning
four decades and more genres than you can count.

Singing lead with the Jesters, he cut the last great record ever
released by Sun. He played piano on “Wild Horses” (look closely in
“Gimme Shelter,” and you’ll see him lounging on a couch with Keith) and
the Flaming Groovies’ rejoinder to “Sticky Fingers,” “Teenage Head.” In
the ’70s, he was a founding member of the Dixie Flyers, a Memphis
rhythm section Jerry Wexler and Atlantic brought to Miami to cut
records with the likes of Aretha Franklin, Sam and Dave and Ronnie
Hawkins. In LA, he collaborated with Ry Cooder on a number of solo
albums and soundtracks, including “Paris, Texas.”

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In the years that followed, he became a much in-demand producer,
most famously of Big Star’s deconstructionist pop masterpiece
“Third/Sister Lovers” and the Replacements “Pleased to Meet Me,” but
also of stand-out records from everyone from Mudhoney to Screamin’ Jay
Hawkins to Lucero. His piano playing on “Time Out of Mind,” inspired
Bob Dylan, in his Grammy acceptance speech, to thank his “brother from
Mississippi, Jim Dickinson.” (Dylan later, on his radio show, described
Dickinson as “that magical musical maestro from Memphis … the kind of
guy you could call to play piano, fix a tractor, or make red cole slaw
from scratch.”)

And that’s the short version, skipping past his work helping to
expose forgotten Memphis bluesmen like Furry Lewis, cult projects like
Mudboy and the Neutrons and “Dixie Fried” and his more famous sons,
Luther and Cody Dickinson, of North Mississippi All-Stars, Hill Country
Revue and Black Crowes fame.

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Though he was typically associated with Memphis and spent a good bit
of his life, including his last days, raising his family in North
Mississippi, Dickinson always stayed connected to the Little Rock
scene. He produced the Gunbunnies “Paw Paw Patch” in 1989 and later
helmed records by the Boondogs and the Magic Cropdusters.

That Boondogs record never saw the light of day. It was an album
neither party was happy with, but Dickinson remained a towering
influence (and friend) to Jason Weinheimer, who in recent years had
been collaborating on a documentary on the musician.

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“Jim used to describe ‘that Little Rock Thing’ to me — a trait he
observed and admired in the musicians he encountered here. Simply put,
it was the Little Rock music scene’s complete disregard for the world
outside ours. I think he was a huge fan of our insular, stubborn,
independent spirit because it reflected his own.

“Little Rock’s true music scene has yet to successfully export
anything beyond Central Arkansas, and we don’t seem to care. Likewise,
Jim’s career reflects decisions made strictly for himself and his
family. When the Dixie Flyers were so hot in Miami, Jim left the band
to return home to Memphis. As his career in L.A. was taking off, he
came back again to raise his family in the South. And instead of
becoming a caricature of himself in the post-Elvis Memphis, he moved
further South into backwoods Mississippi to immerse his sons in hill
country music and culture.”

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Ultimately, Weinheimer said, he expects popular regard for Dickinson’s work to eclipse his cult status.

“He talked a lot about pop music being nothing but a quest for immortality. I’ll miss him dearly, but his legend lives on.”

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