“The Likes of Me” is a song written by Jerry Reed, the country singer, guitarist, and songwriter known both for his dazzling guitar playing and for a string of hits as a performer and actor. Reed recorded it himself in the late 1960s.
The lyric is a portrait of a restless, untameable spirit — a man who knows he is not suited to settling down, and who wonders whether taming the wind or the river would be any easier than taming a soul like his. That theme of self-aware wanderlust gave the song a rueful honesty.
The song found a lasting home in bluegrass through guitarist Tony Rice, who recorded it for his 1984 album “Cold on the Shoulder.” Rice’s clear voice and fluid flatpicking suited the song well, and through his recording “The Likes of Me” has been carried on by later acoustic musicians.
