Willie Dixon

Willie Dixon, often called the poet laureate of the blues, was born in Vicksburg on July 1, 1915, and became a songwriter, producer, arranger, and bass player who shaped the sound of Chicago blues in the 1950s and 1960s with songs such as “Seventh Son,” “Little Red Rooster,” “Hoochie Coochie Man,” “My Babe,” and “Wang Dang Doodle.” Born at 1631 Crawford Street, he defined the blues as “the facts of life” and traced many of his works to poems and songs he heard or wrote as a youth in Vicksburg. He developed his ear for language and music by listening to his mother Daisy’s poetry, singing spirituals at Spring Hill Baptist Church, savoring the blues of pianist Little Brother Montgomery, learning harmony singing from Theo Phelps of the Union Jubilee Singers, and performing with the quintet on a weekly WQBC radio program from the Vicksburg Hotel in the 1930s, while also brokering his songs to other WQBC performers. As a teenager during the Depression, he often left town in search of work, loading freight, chopping wood, and shoveling coal, and was once arrested for hoboing in Clarksdale, Mississippi. In 1936, he moved to Chicago, pursued a brief boxing career, continued to sing and write songs, and learned to play a homemade one-string bass. After recording with the Big Three Trio and other combos, he secured a production job with Chess Records in the early 1950s and emerged as the studio mastermind behind the classic Chicago blues of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, Little Walter, Koko Taylor, and many others. He played string bass on numerous sessions, including the first hits by Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, and he produced the debut releases of Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, and Magic Sam on the Cobra and Artistic labels. His impact extended far beyond the African American blues market as he helped promote and book blues in Europe in the 1960s, while covers of his songs by the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, and others sold millions of copies. He later toured and recorded several albums with his band, the Chicago Blues All Stars, earned induction into both the Rock and Roll and Blues Halls of Fame, and in 1981 established the Blues Heaven Foundation to assist blues musicians and sponsor blues education programs. After his death in Burbank, California, on January 29, 1992, his widow, Marie, and the Dixon family carried on his mission, and in 1997 they purchased the former Chess Records building in Chicago to house Blues Heaven. He is buried in Alsip, Illinois, and Vicksburg renamed his native street Willie Dixon Way in 2002.

Vicksburg, Mississippi · United States