His songs have been recorded by numerous artists including The Hollies, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Jackson Browne, Arrival, Marianne Faithfull, Cheap Trick, Jack White with The Raconteurs, Joe Perry, Rumer and Chris Cornell.

Reid’s music career began in the early 1960s performing in a local British club where he was invited to join Peter Jay and the Jaywalkers as lead vocalist, opening for The Rolling Stones 1966 tour.

At the concert at the Royal Albert Hall, Graham Nash of The Hollies became friends with Reid and suggested The Jaywalkers sign up with UK Columbia Records—an EMI label—to record with producer John Burgess.

With accompanying musicians Peter Solley on organ and Keith Webb on drums, a 1968 tour of the United States with Cream did much to gain Reid a loyal following.

Unable to record or release his music, Reid concentrated on live work, mostly in the US whilst awaiting the outcome of litigation with Most, making only sporadic UK performances during that period.

In 1970, he returned briefly to England to perform at the Isle of Wight Festival with bass player Lee Miles (a former member of Ike & Tina Turner's band whom Reid met while touring the US with the Stones), David Lindley and Tim Davis.

Produced by Reid, engineered by Tom Dowd,[16] and mixed by Eddy Offord this third album was released in 1973 and received favourable reviews, but failed commercially.

[2] For Rogue Waves, Reid enlisted Lee Miles on bass, Doug Rodrigues on lead guitar and John Siomos on drums, recording at Brother's Studios in Santa Monica, California.

[18] Reid retired his solo career in 1981 to concentrate on session work, appearing on albums by Don Henley, Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt.

[2] The album featured a cover version "Gimme Some Lovin'" which also appeared on the soundtrack for the Tom Cruise movie Days of Thunder by Tony Scott.

"Rich Kid Blues" was the eponymous song on an album released by Marianne Faithfull, produced by Mike Leander in 1984 but unreleased for 14 years.

[17] In late 2002, Reid returned to the UK with longtime bass player Lee Miles for three shows at the [WOMAD] festival near Reading, his first live appearance in years.

[needs update] For appearances at festivals and his London shows, Reid uses a full band and venues have included The Jazz Cafe, The Borderline, The 100 Club, Dingwalls, The Half Moon and notably an invite to return to Ronnie Scott's in 2009 for a week long residency as part of their 50th anniversary (one of only 6 non-jazz acts to do so).

Also Seed of Memory and River became available on CD and a new live album, Alive was released by Sanctuary Records, having previously been available from Reid himself, who made 200 copies to sell at WOMAD 2002.

Around this time Reid began a residency at The Joint in Los Angeles, this became "Big Monday' and ran for four years, with many of his friends dropping by when they were in town including Robert Plant, Keith Richards, Bobby Womack, Roger Daltrey, and Eric Burdon.

In 2003 Johnson placed three of Reid's songs, "Seed of Memory", "To Be Treated Rite", and "Brave Awakening" in the movie The Devil's Rejects directed by Rob Zombie.

Many songs originally recorded by Reid have been covered by numerous artists including The Hollies, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Arrival, Marianne Faithfull, Cheap Trick, Jack White with The Raconteurs, Joe Perry, Rumer and Chris Cornell: Reid's early song "Rich Kid Blues" was covered on an album by Marianne Faithfull in 1984.

[19] The UK artist Rumer recorded "Brave Awakening" on her Boys Don't Cry 2012 album and appeared at his London shows at the Jazz Cafe and Half Moon.

The American rock group The Split Squad recorded a cover of Reid's "Tinker Taylor" for their debut album, Now Hear This..., released in 2014.