Willie Dixon

The poet laureate of the blues

Willie Dixon was a big man from Vicksburg who boxed, sang bass in gospel quartets, slapped an upright bass in a jive trio, and then, at Chess Records in Chicago, became the most important songwriter the blues has ever had. He wrote or co-wrote more than five hundred songs, produced and arranged the sessions they were cut at, and stood in the corner of the studio playing bass on many of them.

His songs gave Muddy Waters his swagger, with "Hoochie Coochie Man" and "I Just Want to Make Love to You", and gave Howlin' Wolf his strangest, darkest material: "Spoonful", "Back Door Man", "Little Red Rooster". Little Walter, Otis Rush, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Koko Taylor and Bo Diddley all had hits with his words.

Then the British came. The Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, Cream, Jeff Beck and Led Zeppelin all recorded his songs. In later life Dixon ran his own publishing company and set up a foundation, Blues Heaven, to support blues musicians and their families.

Mississippi calls him "the poet laureate of the blues", and the description fits: he thought of songs as sayings, stories and sermons first, and music second.

Worth knowing

Eleven things about Willie Dixon

1. His mother talked in rhyme.

   Daisy Dixon had a habit of rhyming as she spoke, and her son picked it up. As a boy in Vicksburg he wrote poems and sold them on the street.

2. He was a Golden Gloves champion.

   In 1937 he won the Illinois Golden Gloves heavyweight title in the novice division, and he briefly worked as a sparring partner for Joe Louis.

3. His boxing career lasted four fights.

   He turned professional, then quit after a quarrel with his manager over money.

4. He went to jail rather than to war.

   During the Second World War he refused induction as a conscientious objector, saying he would not fight for a nation whose laws were racist, and was imprisoned for ten months.

5. He first heard the blues behind bars.

   As a teenager in Mississippi he did time on prison farms, where he heard the blues sung by the men around him.

6. "Hoochie Coochie Man" was written in a club.

   Dixon took the song to Muddy Waters at the Club Zanzibar during an intermission. Muddy learned it on the spot and, as Dixon told it, played it that same night.

7. "My Babe" started as a gospel song.

   He rebuilt the spiritual "This Train" into a song for Little Walter, who resisted it for two years. When he finally cut it in 1955, it spent five weeks at number one on the R&B chart.

8. "You Shook Me" was sung over someone else's record.

   Leonard Chess bought an Earl Hooker slide instrumental, and Dixon wrote words for Muddy Waters to sing over the existing track in 1962.

9. He came up in a trio.

   Before Chess, his Big Three Trio, with pianist Leonard "Baby Doo" Caston, recorded for Bullet, OKeh and Columbia from 1946. One early side was his own "Signifying Monkey".

10. A film made him a character.

    Cedric the Entertainer played him in Cadillac Records (2008), the Hollywood version of the Chess story.

Life in brief

From Vicksburg to Burbank

1. 1915Born July 1 at 1631 Crawford Street, Vicksburg, Mississippi, one of fourteen children.
2. 1936Moves to Chicago. The next year he wins the Illinois Golden Gloves novice heavyweight title.
3. 1939The Five Breezes. He forms a vocal group with the pianist Leonard Caston and others.
4. 1940sRefuses the draft as a conscientious objector and serves ten months in prison.
5. 1946The Big Three Trio begins recording, with Dixon on upright bass and vocals.
6. 1948Starts working for Leonard and Phil Chess; by 1951 he is full-time as producer, talent scout, session bassist and songwriter.
7. 1954"Hoochie Coochie Man" gives Muddy Waters the biggest hit of his career and makes Dixon's name at Chess.
8. 1956Cobra Records. For about three years he produces for the rival label, including Otis Rush's "I Can't Quit You Baby".
9. 1962The American Folk Blues Festival. He works with the German promoters Horst Lippmann and Fritz Rau to bring Chicago blues musicians on tour across Europe.
10. Late 1970sHis own publisher. Dixon sets up his own publishing company, Hoochie Coochie Music.
11. 1989Wins a Grammy for the album Hidden Charms, produced by T Bone Burnett.
12. 1992Dies January 29 of heart failure in Burbank, California, after years of diabetes that cost him a leg. He is buried at Burr Oak Cemetery near Chicago.

2120 South Michigan Avenue

The man who did everything at Chess

At Chess, Dixon's job had no single title. He found talent, wrote the songs, decided who should sing them, worked out the arrangements, produced the sessions and often played bass on them as well. Chuck Berry, inducting him into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, credited Dixon with shaping the basics of his own music.

He had a gift for fitting the song to the singer. For Muddy Waters, a proud man newly arrived from the Delta, he wrote boasts: songs about mojo, black cats and a man born under a lucky star. For Howlin' Wolf he wrote stranger, more ominous things, often on a single chord, that suited Wolf's huge voice. For Little Walter he turned a gospel song into the bouncy "My Babe".

The arrangement was not always comfortable. Dixon recalled that Wolf would ask why he never got songs like the ones written for Muddy, and then dislike the songs Dixon did write for him.

"The blues are the roots and the other musics are the fruits."

Willie Dixon, I Am the Blues, his autobiography with Don Snowden

On the credits

His songs on Led Zeppelin records

Led Zeppelin's first album in 1969 included his "You Shook Me" and "I Can't Quit You Baby", both credited to him. Dixon now shares the writing credit on "Whole Lotta Love", and the 2014 reissue of Led Zeppelin II credits "Bring It On Home" to him.

Start here

Songs to hear, and where they went

• 1954 Hoochie Coochie Man Muddy Waters's biggest hit, built on a stop-time riff heard all through later blues and rock. It is in the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry. Allman Brothers 1970
• 1954 I Just Want to Make Love to You First issued by Muddy Waters as "Just Make Love to Me", a blunt, slow-burning declaration. Etta James sang it on her debut album, and the Rolling Stones put it on theirs. Etta James 1960Rolling Stones 1964Foghat 1972
• 1955 My Babe A gospel train song turned into a cheerful boast for Little Walter's harmonica, and five weeks at number one on the R&B chart.
• 1956 I Can't Quit You Baby Otis Rush's anguished debut on Cobra, produced by Dixon. Led Zeppelin recorded it for their first album. Led Zeppelin 1969
• 1960 Spoonful Howlin' Wolf's stark one-chord reading of an old Delta idea that goes back to Charley Patton. Cream recorded it in 1966. Wolf's "Back Door Man" and "Little Red Rooster" came from the same pen; see the Howlin' Wolf entry. Cream 1966
• 1962 You Shook Me Dixon's words, Muddy's voice, Earl Hooker's slide. The Jeff Beck Group recorded it in 1968, and Led Zeppelin in 1969. Jeff Beck Group 1968Led Zeppelin 1969
• 1963 Bring It On Home Recorded by Sonny Boy Williamson II in January 1963 and released in 1966. Led Zeppelin's 1969 "Bring It On Home" is credited to Dixon on the 2014 reissue of Led Zeppelin II. Led Zeppelin 1969

Why he matters

The voice behind the voices

Without Willie Dixon there is no Chicago blues as the world knows it, and much less British rock. In December 1964 the Rolling Stones' "Little Red Rooster" became the only blues song ever to top the British singles chart. Cream, the Doors, the Yardbirds, Jeff Beck and Led Zeppelin all recorded his songs. The American Folk Blues Festival tours he helped put together from 1962 brought Chicago blues musicians to young audiences across Britain and Europe.

His second legacy is the Blues Heaven Foundation, which he set up to support blues musicians and their families, and which is based in the old Chess building.

He was in the first class of the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980 and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. Vicksburg renamed a street Willie Dixon Way in 2002, and a Mississippi Blues Trail marker stands on it.