I'm a little surprised that two full weeks after his passing, there's been no comment from anyone here regarding the death on April 19th, of Jim Dickson. Over the last twenty-plus years, I was fortunate enough to have spent time with, spoken at length with, or interviewed each of the five original members of the Byrds, and one of the few things that all five agreed on was that there would never have been a Byrds as we knew them, were it not for Jim Dickson. He was the true visionary of the Byrds, and all five guys confirmed that fact repeatedly. He was responsible for the timeless recordings of Lord Buckley, it was he who put David Crosby onto Ravi Shankar, who in turn exposed Beatle George to Shankar's work, it was he who made the afterhours studio time at World Pacific Studios available to the fledgling Byrds, it was he who brought the rough demo of Dylan and Ramblin' Jack doing "Tambourine Man" to the band (a few of whom later admitted that they were initially underwhelmed by it), and convinced them that this was the song for them. And perhaps most importantly, it was Jim Dickson who (according to Chris especially) instilled in the Byrds as a whole the importance of doing work that would continue to have real meaning, and would last and resonate for years, if not decades to come. Rest in peace, Mr.
Dickson, and from myself, at least, thank you, thank you.
Dickson is ingrained in my musical psyche was musch as Roger or Chris or Gene....
Dickson, James Thomas Buchanan
January 17, 1931 - April 19, 2011
James Thomas Buchanan Dickson ("Jim") passed away on April 19, 2011 at the age of 80. A native of Los Angeles, California, he had a life-long love of sailing. He grew up sailing with his father on the Jubilo and his passion for sailing continued throughout his life. In the 1955 Transpac race, Jim was 1st in class and 3rd overall on the Nalu owned by Peter Grant and in the 1959 Transpac race he sailed on the Constellation with Sally Blair Ames and was 1st in class. He retired to Hawaii where he spent many years fishing and sailing. The last years of his life, Jim lived in Costa Mesa, California.
In 1945, Jim entered the U.S Army and served with the occupation forces in Japan under General Douglas McArthur. After he returned from the army, he began his career in the music and became a music industry pioneer. A jazz buff and recording engineer, Jim was in the right place at the right time during the early '60s folk-rock boom of L.A. He began working as a part-time engineer at World-Pacific studios and by the time Jim met the fledging Byrds he had already recorded hip comedian Lord Buckley as well as started his own publishing company. Having access to World-Pacific at night, Jim began recording the folkies who played at the Troubador, people such as David Crosby, Gene Clark and Roger McGuinn. Jim became the Byrds manager and created a grass roots following around the band that was able to catch the attention of the radio and record industries. Jim remained loyal to the members of the group when the Byrds splintered, producing albums for the Flying Burrito Brothers as well as both Gene Clark and Gram Parsons.
Jim is survived by his brother Bob Dickson, his sister Martha Church, his nieces Karen Hodges and Gayle Byrne.
Published in the Los Angeles Times on May 1, 2011