7 The 100 Most Influential Musicians of All Time 7

“It’s Delovely,” “I Concentrate on You,” “Always True to
You in My Fashion,” and “I Love Paris.” He was especially
adept at the catalog song, his best-known efforts being
“Let’s Do It” and “You’re the Top.”
Porter was one of the wittiest of all lyricists, with a sub-
tlety of expression and a mastery of the interior rhyme. His
work continues to stand as the epitome of sophisticated,
civilized detachment in the popular song form. His large
output might have been even more vast had not a horse-
riding accident in 1937 left him a semi-invalid, necessitating
30 operations and the eventual amputation of a leg.

Jimmie Rodgers

(b. Sept. 8, 1897, Pine Springs Community, near Meridian, Miss.,
U.S.—d. May 26, 1933, New York City, N.Y.)

A

merican singer, songwriter, and guitarist Jimmie
Rodgers (byname of James Charles Rodgers) was one
of the principal figures in the emergence of the country
and western style of popular music.
Rodgers, whose mother died when he was a young boy,
was the son of an itinerant railroad gang foreman, and his
youth was spent in a variety of southern towns and cities.
Having already run away with a medicine show by age 13,
he left school for good at age 14. Rodgers began working
on his father’s railroad crews, initially as a water carrier,
and during this time was likely exposed to the work songs
and early blues of African American labourers. As a young
man he held a number of jobs with the railroad, including
those of baggage master, flagman, and brakeman, criss-
crossing the Southwest but especially working the line
between New Orleans and Meridian, Miss. Early on,
Rodgers aspired to be an entertainer. He learned to play the
guitar and banjo, honing what became his characteristic
sound—a blend of traditional country, work, blues, hobo,