Blues songwriter, bassist, producer, singer, and all-around titan died on this date in 1992 — less than a decade after he became my first major interview as a wet-behind-the-ears journalist thrilled and petrified at the prospect of talking to this giant of the blues. Each of Dixon’s songs has, over time, become a beloved standard of the blues canon, having been recorded and covered by the likes of the aforementioned Waters and Wolf, but also by the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Small Faces, Cream, Led Zeppelin, the Doors, Grateful Dead, among many others. Each of these songs sound like planets unto themselves, possessing worlds and works of poetry, myth, magic, humor, pathos, immediacy, timelessness. And Willie wrote them all, each and every one. In a sense, Willie Dixon was the Big Bang of the modern universe of blues.