Eddie Jones – better known to most as “Guitar Slim” – was only 32 when he died pf pneumonia (which was brought on largely by his alcoholism). In his brief career, he recorded two bona fide classics: 1952’s “Feelin’ Sad” (later covered and made more famous by Ray Charles) and 1953’s “The Things That I Used To Do” (a #1 hit on the US R&B charts).
A bluesman, Slim was part of the New Orleans Blues sound, although also something of an experimentalist – he was among the first to use distorted guitar tones, a decade before Hendrix would make them famous. Indeed, Hendrix was influenced by Slim’s work, to the point that he recorded a cover of “The Things That I Used To Do” in 1969. (Other artists to cover that particular track include James Brown and Stevie Ray Vaughan.)
