Swampland Makes The New York Times; Jim Dickinson Memories

Swampland was quoted in an article in The New York Times today. Their article on the recent death of Southern music icon Jim Dickinson used quotes from our own James Calemine of Mystery & Manners. The quote, taken from Jim's final interview,  tells how Dickinson ended up playing piano on "Wild Horses" when The Rolling Stones were recording in Muscle Shoals.

About six years ago I guess it was, I was trying to line up an interview with Dickinson for GRITZ. Somehow I obtained his e-mail address and we bagan conversing that way. Then he sent me his phone number and told me to just "call anytime." So I did. One sunny spring morning.

We began to talk, as I often do prior to turning on the old tape machine for the interview proper. Only thing is, we kind of hit it off and sat there and talked music and wrestling for over an hour until it was time for him to be somewhere. We would try again in a few days.

A few days later, I'll be dog my cats if we didn't do the same thing. It was so much fun talking to Jim, we must have logged two hours on the horn that day. What I remember most is how passionate he was about wrestling, or "rasslin." as we called it. I told him I was working on a book on Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling- a project still stewing on the back burner. What I remember most is when he asked who my all time favorite wrestler was. I said, "Ric Flair." He laughed and almost screamed out "NATURE BOY! WOOOO!" I cracked up.

It's true he loved wrestling. One of his most famous quotes about the "sport" is this one.

"Professional wrestling interprets the universe better than any ideology I have ever seen.  I live for professional wrestling. I avoid competition, I think competition is ugly.  I have never been into what people refer to as "sports."  I love drama.  And that's what rasslin' is - there's no competition because the ending is already determined.  When people start talking to me about it being fake, I tell them you fall from the top rope to the arena floor, your head has just gone eighteen feet into concrete.  You can't fake that.  You gotta be able to take it.  And that's what those old guys could do, they're the toughest bastards on earth."

You were pretty damned tough yourself, Jim. We are all gonna miss you something awful. In my book, you were to music what Flair was to rasslin.' The undisputed Heavy Weight Champion of The World.

Keep it Real. Keep it Southern.

Buffalo
 

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