Willie Dixon

Blues musician

• Born: July 1, 1915
• Birthplace: Vicksburg, Mississippi
• Died: January 29, 1992
• Place of death: Burbank, California

Dixon is best known for composing songs performed by Chicago blues artists including Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and Little Walter. His compositions became important parts of the repertoire of the rock artists the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Cream, and the Doors.

Early Life

Willie James Dixon was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Like many other African Americans in the rural South, he had an unpleasant early life. He experienced severe poverty and even served time in a penitentiary farm, once for stealing a plumbing fixture from an abandoned house and another time for vagrancy.

Dixon’s literate mother provided language training to her children and helped nurture Dixon’s interest in words and poetry. His most salient musical device, a repetitive rhythmic and melodic figure as heard in “(I’m Your) Hoochie Coochie Man,” derived from work songs he heard sung by field hands. Dixon’s musical hero, blues pianist Eurreal “Little Brother” Montgomery, strongly influenced Dixon’s versatility in musical styles.

In 1935 or 1936, Dixon moved to Chicago and became a boxer. He fought in the 1937 Illinois heavyweight Golden Gloves. Around then he met his lifelong friend, pianist Leonard “Baby Doo” Caston. When Dixon was suspended from fighting after a scuffle over prize money, he joined Caston’s vocal harmony group, the Bumpin’ Boys.

Life’s Work

In 1940, Caston, Dixon, and three other musicians formed another vocal harmony group, the Five Breezes. Their recordings included Dixon’s earliest songs, “Sweet Louise” and “Laundry Man.” Around this period, Dixon learned to play bass. However, just when his music career was growing, he was imprisoned for a refusal to serve in the military.

In 1945, after World War II, Dixon resumed his musical activity with a new group, the Four Jumps of Jive. In 1946, Dixon, Caston, and guitarist Bernard Dennis started the Big Three Trio (Dennis was later replaced by Ollie Crawford). The popular cocktail trio was known for singing blues in three-part harmony as heard in their hit “You Sure Good Look to Me.” Through writing songs for the group and recording them, Dixon polished his composition skills and learned record production techniques.

In 1948, by playing bass for Robert Nighthawk’s recordings, Dixon began his relationship with Aristocrat Records, which later developed into Chess Records. In 1953 when the Big Three Trio broke up, Dixon joined the staff of Chess Records.

Although Dixon at first worked sporadically as a session bassist, he became an indispensable songwriter for Chess Records because of his ability to write songs that fit particular artists’ public images. In 1954, Dixon wrote “(I’m Your) Hoochie Coochie Man,” a song he offered to Muddy Waters. This song story of a commanding outlaw-like figure based on southern black mythology combined with urbanized musical sounds became Waters’s trademark. “My Babe,” Dixon’s composition for Little Walter in 1955, was Dixon’s first number-one hit as a songwriter.

Dixon’s assistance as a bassist and record producer not only helped blues artists but also propelled rock-and-roll classics such as “Roll Over Beethoven” and “Johnny B. Goode” by Chuck Berry. Dixon also was a recording artist with a hit song, “Walking the Blues.” He often performed under the name “Big Willie Dixon.”

In 1956, because of a disagreement over pay, Dixon moved to newly founded Cobra Records. There he nurtured Otis Rush by providing songs such as Rush’s biggest hit, “I Can’t Quit You Baby.”

In 1958, Dixon returned to Chess Records. In the early 1960’s, providing songs for Howlin’ Wolf was Dixon’s most important project. Dixon’s compositions for Wolf, “Back Door Man,” “Spoonful,” and “Little Red Rooster,” are not only Wolf representative recordings but also are at the heart of the Dixon song catalog and classics of Chicago blues.

Dixon’s work for a female vocalist, Koko Taylor, was one of his final projects for Chess Records. Dixon exploited her force-of-nature persona with compositions such as “I Got What It Takes” and “Wang Dang Doodle.”

In 1977, Dixon retrieved the copyrights to his songs that had belonged to Arc Music, Chess Records’ publisher. In 1982, he established the Blues Heaven Foundation to help musicians retrieve their copyrights, to promote an ongoing blues tradition, and to educate children about the genre’s history. In 1985, Dixon sued Led Zeppelin for copyright infringement over “Whole Lotta Love,” a remake of Dixon’s “You Need Love.” In 1994, his achievements were honored with his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Dixon died in 1992 in Burbank, California. He was seventy-six years old.

Significance

Dixon’s notable compositions include “The Seventh Son” for Willie Mabon, “Bring It on Home” for Sonny Boy Williamson, “You Can’t Judge a Book by Its Cover” for Bo Diddley, and “Let Me Love You Baby” for Buddy Guy. The commercial and artistic success his songs achieved is a testament to his songwriting ability. Through his work for the American Folk Blues Festival in Europe in the early 1960’s, Dixon influenced the bands leading the British popular music scene, such as the Rolling Stones, Cream, Jeff Beck Group (with Rod Stewart), and Led Zeppelin. Dixon defined his blues as an expression of “the true facts of life,” and his artistic goal was to express his real-life wisdom through his music.

Bibliography

Dixon, Willie. Willie Dixon: The Master Blues Composer. Milwaukee, Wis.: Hal Leonard, 1992. A collection of representative works with guitar tablatures and Dixon’s own explanations.

Dixon, Willie, and Don Snowden. I Am the Blues: The Willie Dixon Story. New York: Da Capo Press, 1989. Dixon’s autobiography discusses his childhood and youth, relationships with record label owners and artists, and the stories behind his songs.

Inaba, Mitsutoshi. Willie Dixon: Preacher of the Blues. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2009. A comprehensive study of Dixon’s works and his philosophy.