"Goodbye Jimmy Reed" is an uptempo blues song written and performed by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan and released as the sixth track on his 2020 album Rough and Rowdy Ways.
[7] Lyrically, "Goodbye Jimmy Reed" is similar to previous Dylan songs "Blind Willie McTell"[8] and "High Water (For Charley Patton)"[9] in that it pays tribute to the titular blues singer indirectly.
[12] Writing in The New York Times, historian Douglas Brinkley called the song a "high-octane showstopper" that honors Reed with "dragon-fierce harmonica riffs and bawdy lyrics".
[13] Critic Ann-Margaret Daniel, in a review of Rough and Rowdy Ways at Hot Press, noted that the song is "a romping, glorious, boogying hello, more than it is a fare thee well".
[17] A 2022 article at Ultimate Classic Rock identified the song as the best on Rough and Rowdy Ways: "If you listened to nothing else on the album but 'Goodbye Jimmy Reed', a foot-tapping tribute to the late blues guitarist, you'll come away with inevitable knowledge: Dylan, in his 80th decade of life and 60th of music-making, has still got it".
[25] "Goodbye Jimmy Reed" received its live debut at the Riverside Theater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on November 2, 2021, the first concert of Dylan's Rough and Rowdy Ways World Wide Tour.