Terry Reid

British rock singer Terry Reid might have achieved far greater renown had circumstances allowed him to front the New Yardbirds in 1968. Robert Plant instead assumed that position, after which the New Yardbirds evolved into Led Zeppelin. Reid, unlike Plant, also played guitar, and the prospect of leading his own band likely influenced his choice to launch a solo career. Fronting a guitar-organ-drums power trio, he cut two credible if uneven hard rock albums as a teenager in the late 1960s. A combination of misfortunes and creative inertia soon halted his progress, so he never capitalized on the early promise.

A teenage prodigy, Reid went professional at 15 with Peter Jay & the Jaywalkers. His initial headlining singles adopted a poppy blue-eyed soul style, yet by the 1968 debut Bang, Bang You're Terry Reid, produced by Mickie Most, he had adopted a harder-rocking stance. Most was simultaneously guiding Donovan and the Jeff Beck Group, and echoes of both surface across Reid's first two albums: proto-hard rock on the louder tracks and gentler folk-rock on the softer ones. Reid actually interpreted a pair of Donovan songs, though he composed most of his own material. His high voice recalled Robert Plant's without matching its piercing quality, while his acoustic-leaning pieces particularly echoed Led Zeppelin's earliest folk-tinged recordings.

Reid enjoyed considerably more recognition in the U.S. than in the U.K. His debut album, strangely, never appeared in Britain despite reaching the American Top 200. Reports indicate that contractual obligations to record for Mickie Most as a solo act and to open the Rolling Stones' late-1960s U.S. tour as a solo performer partly explain why he declined Jimmy Page's invitation to join Led Zeppelin. He shaped that band's history substantially by suggesting Robert Plant and drummer John Bonham, after the Band of Joy, their pre-Led Zeppelin group, supported one of Reid's early shows. Reid also rejected an offer to join Deep Purple, confident in his solo prospects; Ian Gillan was recruited instead.

An opening slot on the Rolling Stones' landmark 1969 American tour appeared to signal brighter days, yet Reid's career stalled at age 20. Litigation with Mickie Most soon restricted his studio work in the early 1970s. After lineup shifts he dissolved his original trio, later leading a unit that featured David Lindley and former King Crimson drummer Michael Giles, though that quartet issued no recordings. He relocated to California in 1971 and signed with Atlantic, but his long-delayed third album surfaced only in 1973. Further albums followed on other labels in 1976 and 1979; none of his 1970s releases earned strong reviews or sales, though Seed of Memory briefly charted that year. Reid recorded infrequently, though he contributed to sessions and released The Driver in 1991.

His catalog saw reissues on multiple labels in the 21st century, sparking renewed interest. The Raconteurs cut "Rich Kid Blues" for 2008's Consolers of the Lonely and featured it prominently in concert. Reid supplied three songs to the soundtrack of Rob Zombie's horror film The Devil's Rejects. In 2009 he appeared at the Glastonbury and WOMAD festivals. Two years later he toured Ireland for the first time in three decades and issued Live in London, which contained several new compositions.

In 2012 Reid performed three sold-out nights at Ronnie Scott's to mark the club's 50th anniversary. He returned to Glastonbury and played the Isle of Wight Festival for the first time since 1971. His songs attracted 2000s pop artists: Rumer included "Brave Awakening" on her charting album Boys Don't Cry, America's Got Talent winner Michael Grimm recorded "Without Expression" on Gumbo, and DJ Shadow collaborated with Reid on lyrics for "Listen," featured on Reconstructed: The Best of DJ Shadow.

Reid toured the U.K. in 2013 and 2014, performing the entirety of Seed of Memory at the Borderline. In April 2016 the Washington Post reported that Reid was working in Johnny Depp's home studio with Aerosmith's Joe Perry on a track for the guitarist's forthcoming solo album. That same month Light in the Attic announced The Other Side of the River, a set of unreleased material and alternate takes from the 1973 River sessions, some of which Reid himself had forgotten; the collection appeared in May.