William James “Willie” Dixon was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi on July 1, 1915. His mother habitually tried to turn everything she said into rhymes and Willie quickly followed suit and carried the habit into his poems and song writings. He first heard the blues at age 12 while he served time on a prison farm for stealing fixtures from a house that had been torn down. He served a second stint the following year for being a vagabond. He learned how to sing harmony from Leo Phelps who was a local carpenter. Phelps had a gospel quartet, the Jubilee Singers, and Dixon sang bass. Dixon wrote poems and often made them into songs, some of which he sold to local music groups.
He headed to Chicago in 1936. Because of his size, he took up boxing. He was 6 foot 6 inches and weighed 250 pounds. He was so good that in 1937 he won the novice division of the Illinois State Golden Gloves Heavyweight Championship. He turned pro but left boxing after only four fights because his manager was cheating him out of his money. He worked briefly as a sparring partner to Joe Louis. It was at the boxing gym where he met Leonard “Baby Doo” Caston who was the major influence in getting Dixon to pursue a music career. Caston built Dixon’s first bass out of a tin can and one string. Because Dixon sang bass, playing the bass instrument came easily. He also learned to play the guitar.
Dixon performed with Baby Doo and together they formed the Five Breezes group. They blended blues, jazz, and vocal harmonies. This success was cut short because when he was drafted he refused to go, claiming he was a conscientious objector. He spent the next ten months in prison. After the war, he formed the group Four Jumps of Jive. Dixon then rejoined pianist Caston in 1945, forming the Big Three Trio with guitarist Bernardo Dennis and went on to record for Columbia Records. After a year, Ollie Crawford replaced Dennis.
In 1948 Dixon signed as a recording artist with Chess Records but ended up performing less and getting into the business end of Chess. By 1951, he was working as a producer, A&R talent scout, session musician, and staff songwriter. Although his years there were less than perfect for him, his output and major influence was enormous.
Dixon also worked as a producer for Checker Records where he worked with such greats as Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Otis Rush, and Bo Diddley among others. He performed on many of Chuck Berry’s early recordings further proving his link between the blues and rock and roll.
Dixon is remembered mainly as a songwriter as he wrote around 500 compositions. The biggest boost to his song-writing career happened after he cornered Muddy Waters at a Chicago Club in the men’s room and taught him the hard circumstances and boastful lyrics of Hoochie Coochie Man. Muddy’s voice added a tough bravado to the song. It was a classic case of the right singer, singing the right song at the right time. Some of his other hit songs include Little Red Rooster, Evil, Spoonful, Back Door Man, I Just Want to Make Love to You, I Ain’t Superstitious, My Babe, Wang Dang Doodle and Bring It On Home.
Later in life Dixon became an ambassador of the blues and a vocal advocate for its practitioners by founding the Blues Heaven Foundation. It worked to preserve the blues legacy and to secure copyrights and royalties for blues musicians who were exploited in the past. Dixon put it like this, “The blues are the roots, and the other musics are the fruits. It’s better keeping the roots alive, because it means better fruits from now on. The blues are the roots of all American Music. As long as American music survives, so will the blues.”
Heart failure claimed the life of Willie Dixon on January 29, 1992 in Burbank, California. He is buried in Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois. Following his death he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame under the ‘early influences’ category in 1994.
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