songs of the week / JDW3 / the good & the sad

[d halfnote]

Last week I was reading the paper here in ATL when I saw a note abt a blues guitarist who "kept the tradition alive".

Looking closer, I saw it was abt one of my early heroes.

Then I realized the context was past tense.

 

I know there's prolly another head-bowing thread sending condolences to Edgar & to our sadly shrinking little group but as usual I have my own take on things.

Bear with me as I offer my own thoughts.

I think it imperative that we not just mourn such losses but take the time to share what we valued from the person.

The music & character.

 

John Dawson Winter 3rd.

Along with Mike Bloomfield on of the orig late-50s / early-60s cats to attempt real blues style...not imitation, the real thing.

There was more to him than just that, though.

 

For those who may not be fully familiar w/ his history, when he burst on the national scene in 1969, he garnered the biggest contract Columbia had offered anyone---over $ 1/2 M for signing.

Miles Davis & Bob Dylan --- not to mention Mitch Miller --- must've been chewing the carpets !

 

Later, after demonstrating his mastery as a gtr slinger & singer, he was the 1st major pop-rock music figure to realize, admit & take steps to reclaim his life from the depths of addiction that, somehow, STILL has a hold on so many as "cool".

 

For me there's an additional point. When I finally saw him perform, early 70s, in a Dayton-area arena, the rambunctious crowd included the sort who think rock culture equated with wildness. Fire crackers were flying & at one point something like a bottle-rocket went off.

John stopped in mid-note, had the lights pulled up & demanded that security yank the perpetrators.

"Y'all wanna be crazy ? Go someplace else." he said as he stood there, Firebird hanging at the ready. "I ain't playing another note this this is settled."

The cat was there for the audience, not just the show. He was a human being there with us, not just an icon. I've never forgotten that moment.

 

I followed him closely as a player for yrs til my focus shifted elsewhere.

There were a few other interesting slide players --- Jesse Davis, Duane Allman, G Harrison --- but no one except Bill Harkleroad (aka Zoot Horn Rollo) of Beefheart's bands, managed that slippery, over-the-top manic thing that Winter seemed almost unable to stop doing.

Fastest cat in the West !

 

 

Some fave tracks & comments...

 

Blk Cat Bone =

The vox ! Ppl never seem to rate Johnny as a vocalist but he really was quite effective, even when locked into this almost cartoonish, Snaggletooth style.

 

Drown In My Own Tears =

Again, the vox ! / esp the bg singers, recreating the exact tone of Ray's singers.

 

Leland miss Blues =

"Don't mess up slick / y walk the post 2 slow !"

 

JDW's 2nd Col. album, oddly titled SECOND WINTER, was distinctive in almost every possible way from the stunningly conceived & crafted cover tot the unprecedented 3-sided trick ( 2 LPs, the second, smoothly blank where side 4 might've been ).

With the wealth of material included, it seems he could've easily included filler material & I've no doubt that Columbia pushed for that ( "John, we can't put out a record with nothing on one whole side !").

Guess who won ?!

 

Miss Ann = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh-3iomkurU

Dig the simple but effective b3- maj 3 middle finger trill used during the verses --- as common as that lick has become, this is the 1st place I heard it. Masterful !

Just as important, if not more so, is the melismatic quality which JW imbues to the vocal---I'm telling ya, he was a great singer.

 

I Love Everybody =

Hippies included !

 

I Hate Everybody =

Equal time title !

 

Next, tryna figure how to expand his realm, JW connected with semi-washed up bubblegum rockers the McCoys (kinda like Zappa hiring the Turtles to sing for him), creating, to everyone's surprise, one of the most blistering bands in rock.

 

Prodigal Son =

John takes a moment to consider his direction in life & mixes up a new metaphor.

 

On The Limb = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1OFNOSItkw

Rick Derringer does the same, while he & John pretend they're the Everly Bros.

 

Rock & Roll Medley = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb_D1yTAa68

The Winter-Derringer band in full flight, live & on fire.

Consider these points:

:58 = they break the tune into a furious scratch rhythm gtr vamp, followed by a Latin-esque drum twist &,

at 1:20 = a stunning downward arabesque.

1:30 = in what sounds like an edit, they somehow have taken the tune into an even faster tempo that's maintained til

4:06 = while channeling the demons that must've infected Jerry Lee Lewis himself (I can only imagine the amount of spittle being unleashed on the front rows) the bottom drops out of the band but somehow it gets even more furious.

"Did somebody say, 'Keep on rockin' !' ?!

 

Ain't Nothing To me =

Comic relief & a touch of country gtr.

 

Muddy Waters's Mannish Boy =

John, as they say these days, pays back by hyping his hero into a mean, mean, version ("I'm a mean[/] !") of one of greatest cries of blues power.

 

One of my fave Hendrix quotes = "In them old days, things woulda been diff if they'd had amps out there in the fields".

 

Fast Life Rider =

Winter, one of the few guitarists to stand up to Hendrix in jam situations, takes it upon himself to demonstrate that possibility over a raw backwoods vamp more primordial than John Lee Hooker.

Dig that drum pattern---straight outta Napoleon Strickland's Como drum & fife oeuvre !

 

When Hendrix died, Johnny Winter was one of those who was there at the funeral, as a pall-bearer, IIRC, along with, amongst others, Miles Davis.

I've often wondered if Miles took the opportunity to comment on that Columbia contract.

 

Now I just wonder who's gonna carry on for John.

[Larryz]

<--- Chuck Berry must have been chewing the carpets in '69 too.

 

Johnny did two of my favorite songs in '69 on the Second Winter Album: Highway 61 by Bob Dylan and Johnny B. Goode by Chuck Berry. I posted a live version 61 revisited on the other thread that he was still doing at the 2007 Cross Roads. It's cool to see Derek Trucks looking over Jonny's shoulder with admiration for his playing and his rendition of the song. The live rendition of Johnny B. posted here was done in 1984 and it really blew me away as far as Johnny's playing goes (shades of SRV)...Jump blues to the Max! He always did his cover songs in his own unique way and gave them a dose of major energy! A few years back I posted his '69 Woodstock performance playing on a Fender Hockey Stick 12 string with 6 strings removed. He could really belt out the blues and it's cool to see him in his early days. Thank God for Youtube! very cool!

 

In the video on the other thread before he starts playing Highway 61, he was asked who his early influences were and he named: Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis. All of whom are included in the music and the performers that I grew up with. They all made me want to play guitar and sing too. He also mentioned starting out on the Ukulele. When reading more about Johnny on Wikipedia, it says that Johnny played Ukulele on a children's show at the age of 10. He and his brother were singing Everly Brothers songs (another couple of my old growing up icons)...

 

Anyway, it's nice to know that I loved the same music and performers that inspired such a great singer and inspirational musician...and I still love all of them!

 

 

[Caevan O’Shite]

I was a little late to the party, partly just due to my relatively youngish age, and (LONG story) actually getting into Rock/Pop/Blues music a little late, as kids go. (Extremely religious parents- enough said?)

 

As such, a lot of my proper introduction to Johnny Winter came via the first issue of Guitar Player magazine that I bought, the very first one that I got my hands on- August '83- which also happened to be the Muddy Waters tribute cover story, with Johnny and Muddy on the cover, just after Muddy Waters died, with a great reprinted interview with the two of them on, focusing somewhat on Muddy's Blue Sky albums such as Hard Again, produced and performed on by Johnny. I really got a feel of the mutual love and respect they had for one another, for the Blues, for music, for playing guitar and singing.

 

It looked like this...

 

____ http://www.guitarflashback.com/backissues/guitarplayer/8308gp.JPG

 

Over the years, I heard more and more of Johnny's music, both his classic, older and then newer, more recent songs. He certainly had his own stamp on everything he did, certainly did everything HIS way! And damn, could he play fast. When I caught him live, I shook my head and laughed, he was so fast! Absolutely lightning fast when he played finger-picked slide on his iconic old Firebird, and I mean ridiculously fast. I was glad that he pulled out that Firebird, too, besides playing his sig-model Erlewine Lazer; he sounded and played all the more himself on that guitar, it was a part of him and an old friend.

 

I was saddened and angered when I read of some of his troubles and being used and robbed, and glad for him when he later broke free of all that once more and gained back some of his lost ground as an artist and a performer. And while he had a very good, long run of it overall- EARNING it- it's sad to have to say goodbye and go on in a world that's got an empty spot where he once was. Though it's also a world that's all the better for having him pass through it.

[haywired2]

Good read d, I love your song choices for your highlites, especially Ain't Nothing to Me. I was lucky enough to get to see him early on when his brother and Rick were in the band. Johnny was a big influence on me. IMO, he was also a very good singer that not a lot of people give him credit for.

 

Peace

[Caevan O’Shite]

I Love Everybody =

Hippies included !

 

I love that song.

 

I Hate Everybody =

Equal time title !

 

I really love this one- particularly its jazzy vibe!

[d halfnote]

Thanks for fleshing out my opening, cats (& for overlooking my typos !).

 

As I've tried to stress in the past, we shouldn't just list the losses we suffer but express what made the person important.

That's the kernel that gives the new generations a sense of where to find the trail.

[Caevan O’Shite]

Thanks for fleshing out my opening, cats (& for overlooking my typos !).

 

As I've tried to stress in the past, we shouldn't just list the losses we suffer but express what made the person important.

That's the kernel that gives the new generations a sense of where to find the trail.

 

Good call.

[Larryz]

+1 on Haywired's compliment D...I think you did an excellent write-up! and +1 on Caevan's love for the jazzy vibe on I Hate Everybody...I still hear Johnny's blues cutting through the mix, but I also hear him doing some jazzy chromatic runs in there too! He could play on the fly as good as any...