Death Notice: Jerry Reed

"We got a long way to go/And a short time to get there."

This one hurts. I've got a fair dose of Suth'ren blood coursing through my veins and I spent a lot of my youth reading books, watching movies and listening to long playing records and 8 track tapes cut by various Sons of the South and their imitators. The mid-1970s was a veritable golden age for Southern Gothic chic, from Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire to the Burt Reynolds movies DELIVERANCE (1972), WHITE LIGHTNING (1973) and GATOR (1976) and Top 40 songs like Helen Reddy's cover of "Delta Dawn," Jim Stafford's "Spiders and Snakes" and Jerry Reed's "Amos Moses," a story song about a one-armed bayou Cajun. Dovetailing seamlessly into this kudzu-choked idiom was the CB radio craze, which beget SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT (1977), again starring Burt Reynolds and his GATOR costar, Jerry Reed. Reynolds and Reed enjoyed an effortless onscreen camaraderie in these films (and the underrated W.W. AND THE DIXIE DANCEKINGS) - I love how pleased the generally egocentric Reynolds looks in the frame grab above with Reed's performance as GATOR's bad ole boy villain, Bama McCall.

Born Jerry Reed Hubbard in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 20, 1937, Reed and his siblings spent time in and out of orphanages and foster homes after their parents' separation. Reed eased the pain of these hard times through music and had his first recording contract by the age of 18 and was opening for Ernest Tubb when most kids his age were getting ready for the senior prom. As a performer, Reed attracted little notice but top acts began recording his songs, including Gene Vincent ("Crazy Legs"), Brenda Lee ("That's All You Got To Do") and Elvis Presley ("Guitar Man"). Reed also forged a profitable early relationship with country music legend Chet Atkins, who produced his 1965 song "If I Don't Live Up to It." Reed appeared frequently on television, on The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, Hee-Haw, Scooby-Doo and his own Jerry Reed Show

If I had to guess, I'd say his SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT role as Cledus "The Snowman" Snow was probably close to what Reed was like in real life... but I always liked him best in GATOR. His sleazy loan shark Bama McCall had the flair of a Jim Thompson heavy and you never feared him more than when he was smiling. Bama's climactic comeuppance under the plywood flap of a beachfront hot dog stand is one of the more memorable righteous kills in movie history. Jerry Reed enjoyed great success throughout his life, right up until he was diagnosed with the emphysema that killed him yesterday. With months to live, he turned to philanthropy to try and give a little back of the riches he'd reaped. "We live this life like what’s down here is what it’s all about," he told The Tennessean in an interview conducted in 2007. "We’re temporary, son, like a wisp of smoke.”