Terry Reid


  It probably won’t get much attention, but the great white soul shouter Terry Reid just died. Most famous for passing on joining both Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, his first late 60s records hold up really well, with some great originals like “Speak Now” (later covered by Cheap Trick) and cool takes on Donovan and Sonny & Cher. The later stuff veered more into Van Morrison spacey-folk territory and the songs were less memorable, but he had tremendous range as a singer and is one of those guys who deserves posthumous fame.

loomisjohnson

I met him some years ago when he was playing locally to talk about a mutual friend who had passed away. Terry was very nice, charming, funny. I have some of his early records, and get his significance at the time. Sorry to see that he too has now passed. He is in some ways, like a seminal figure to other musicians, in much the way Roy Harper is. And to add to your synopsis, he was out on that ill-fated tour with the Stones that culminated in Altamont. 

I actually think Led Zeppelin would have been a better band with Terry Reid.  Not knocking Robert Plant, but Reid was a really good guitarist who would have made live LZ much more interesting.  We'll never know...

From the movie The Departed:

Jack Nicholson's character, Frank Costello, is in a bar. He asks a guy how is his mother.
He answers, "Ah, she's on her way out."

Cotello responds, "We all are. Act accordingly."