JohnnyWinter (1944 - 2014) https://youtube/watch?v=QMClreF1zyY Bye Bye Johnny I lost one of my musical heroes today. John Dawson Winter was a Texas bluesman, a guitar slinger of epic proportions. His work with Muddy Waters, particularly the Hard Again record, which he produced and played on, literally changed my life. I was in California when an actor named Jeff Cooper gave me the album. It’s a classic. Muddy, Johnny, James Cotton, Pinetop Perkins and Willie “Big Eyes” Smith played the blues in a way that managed to get my attention in a big way. It was full tilt electric blues. One of the song’s lyrics went, “The blues had a baby, and they named the baby rock and roll.” The record rocked it in a blues style like noting I’d ever heard before, or since. I was a shitty guitar player at the time, but when I heard that album, I became what’s called a bluenatic, and I’ve been playing the blues ever since. For years I blasted that record and played lead over it. I loved it, but always in the background was Johnny wailing away. I think I delusion-ally I thought some of his playing was mine. I wish. I’ve lost a lot of musical heroes over the years, and Johnny Winter has sadly joined that group, taking with him another piece of blues heritage that I try in my small way to honour whenever I can. It takes a special person to dedicate his entire creative life to blues music. Clearly it’s not a commercial choice. It’s not an easy life, but Johnny lived it to the very end. Blues is a kind of brother and sisterhood. You either get it, or you don’t. Texas blues in particular has always captured my imagination. I didn’t realize it at first, but so many of my favourite players came from Texas. Stevie Ray Vaughn, Albert Collins, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Billy Gibbons, Janice Joplin, Freddie King, and T-Bone Walker. I saw Johnny play live many times over the years. The last time was in Kinston, Ontario. He wasn’t looking, or playing, at his best, but it didn’t matter to me. Watching him work was a connection to the legacy I love. I actually met him backstage in Buffalo, NY, in the early 90’s. I knew a groupie, who got me backstage. It was after the show, and Johnny had new tattoo he was picking at, and John Paris, his bass and harp player, and one hell of a great guitarist and super nice guy, told him to stop picking at it. Johnny was very nice to me. He spoke with a slow drawl. I was in shock meeting him. He was a strange-looking cat up close. I made him laugh a couple of times. In fact, I heard what I thought was a rumour that Johnny paid a comedian to go on the road with him just to make him laugh. Years later, I was doing stand-up in LA and saw a guy with a Johnny Winter button on his jacket. Being such a big fan I started up a conversation with him. It turned that not only was the rumour true, but the guy, Ron Pearl, was actually the comic Johnny used to tour with! Pearl told me a few Winter stories. I watched him perform later that night and we was hilarious. It appears Johnny’s taste in comedy was as good as his taste in music. I needed to write this. I once heard that when Muddy Waters passed, Johnny went to the legend-studded funeral, but was too upset to get out of his car. In my own way, I’m pretty upset too. I think I’ll play some guitar later and listen to Hard Again.
Posted on: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 15:37:53 +0000
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