Terry Reid – A Living Legend Playing At A Club Near You
Written by Jason Daniel Baker
Sunday, 01 May 2011 05:00
Some know of him merely as a point of reference for all the great names in the music industry he has found himself linked with over his five decades in the music business. The famous bands he opened for with one of his first bands – the Jaywalkers – include the Rolling Stones and as a solo act he opened for Cream among others.
His influence can be heard widely across a vast array of different performers not merely from those he has influenced at a distance but as a session man contributing to their recordings.
His name is dropped alongside the biggest legends in rock music but he can go pretty much anywhere without being recognized by the general public even with a colourful and uniqu
e style of dress. He has always stood out but never been the kind of celebrity his curriculum vitae suggests he should be.
You could say that a number of writers at Uber Rock sort of like Terry Reid. Russ P reviewed a gig of Reid’s in Cardiff last year with a glowing affection for his sound that matches my own. Terry Reid is a name, which, like very different bands such as The Fall and Joy Division, are bandied about by music writers as epitomizing the inventiveness of popular music to the degree that favourable comparisons to other acts have almost become a cliché or even a superlative.
I’ve always felt too much was made of the fact that he could have been the lead 
singer for Led Zeppelin or Deep Purple if he’d had the inclination (and contractual flexibility) to accept their offers. Not that he wouldn’t have been spectacular in either band. Just speculating what either would have sounded like had he joined is a heady notion and far from an unpleasant one.
Reid’s own musical taste and ear for composition tended to suggest a different path from heavier bands like those and not always a straight-ahead, easily definable one. It was one which some record companies and producers he worked with early in his career failed to understand or properly record.
Blues, folk, country, rock, pop…Terry Reid could apply his talents to each genre and create a captivating sound. He didn’t limit himself to cultivating a niche or becoming a servant to genre when it came to albums or individual songs. Marketing strategies failed him. People didn’t know what kind of clubs to book him in or what radio stations to pitch him to.
An utterly esquisite musical statement like his 1973 album ‘River’, which many regard as his masterpiece, drew critical raves. But it never got the kind of recognition from mainstream audiences it rightly deserves plainly because the writing and performances on it are beyond simple description.
When you hear a track from that album, like its title track or ‘Dean’, what do you define it as? Blues? Maybe. Blue-eyed soul? Perhaps. Rock? Definitely. I’d even go with ‘Motown’ in describing different aspects of certain tracks. Terry Reid’s sound is a genre unto itself, so completley far out as to deny ready classification. It is a quality intrinsic to its appeal but one which tends to limit word-of-mouth referals to ‘Trust me, just listen’.
Others suggest ‘Seed Of Memory’, his 1976 album produced by Graham Nash and featuring David Lindley on acoustic and slide guitars, is his best work. It features a title track which appeared in the soundtrack for the Rob Zombie film ‘The Devil’s Rejects’. The potential listener can’t go wrong buying both albums.
His music and career are beyond cult status. To a music journalist like me he is evidence that gods walk among us, not for what he might have done had he made different choices, but for what he actually did. To many of us hearing Terry Reid for the first time stimulated pleasure centres in our brains like a first taste of sugar or getting our first crush on a girl. We weren’t sure what it was right away but we knew we liked it and knew we wanted more.
Nearly a half century after he burst on to the British pop scene he still plays clubs and captivates audiences one room at a time with a voice not merely of remarkable range but one which evokes pure emotional intensity as well as a recognition of familiarity within the subconscious. Its texture remains coarse but sweet, distinctly human yet with otherwordly power.
The voice just hits you when you hear it. You’ve heard something like it before but didn’t catch the name of the tune. Chances are it was the same guy singing it on the tune you can’t quite place or name.
It is a voice and a musical repertoire which belongs to an affable bloke from Huntingdon who blushes when some of us suggest he is living god. Set to complete the American leg of his tour before embarking on its Irish segment I can tell you that he remains an act well-worth seeing and hearing. He is also a warm and funny man who tells some of the most interesting stories you’ll ever hear. According to sources he’ll likely be playing Wales in August but for those with the inclination to travel to see him his English tour dates are coming up in May.
Terry Reid Tour 2011 – English Dates
Sat 7th May 2011 – St.Ives Corn Exchange – Cambridgeshire
Thu 12th May 2011 – The Duchess – York
Sat 14th May 2011 – The Cluny 2 (Formerly The Round) – Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Tue 17th May 2011 – Komedia – Brighton
Fri 20th May 2011 – Holmfirth Picturedrome – West Yorkshire
Sat 21st May 2011 – Jazz Cafe – London
Tue 24th May 2011 – Robin 2 – Wolverhampton
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Terry-Reid/124623797580566
Artwork by Jason Daniel Baker : Live photography by Andy & Russ P