NEVER ARGUE MUSIC WITH A 15 YEAR OLD

I'm not a flute guy. I'm not sure where it came to me that flutes lacked balls. They were dainty, unlike sax or brass, who more often than not were in your face. I do know that my distaste for flute began with Jethro Tull. I'll be honest, the fifteen year old me is in charge here, I don't care what Jethro Tull sounds like, those bloomers or elf pants, whatever, Ian Anderson insulted my blue jean guitar rock mindset. Fuck 'em. Banned for life. If you think that's harsh, take it up with the fifteen year old me.

Years later Herbie Mann's shirtless hairy torso seemed so out of touch I began to wonder what the flute does to them to make them present themselves like that. So, I  pretty much ignored flute players all together. Flute stuff was still there, but that doesn't mean it merited exploring. Again, fifteen year old me. Don't bother arguing.

When I was in the thick of that, Johnny Winter's Still, Alive and Well LP came out. One song, "Too Much Seconal" had flute on it, played by Jeremy Steig. He is the reason why the door was never completely closed on the flute. For that one damn song. After I listened to that tonight, I went looking for anything by Steig himself. "Howlin' For Julie" is the first thing I happened to find, and it pretty much rips. His playing at the three minute mark is as Stooges-like as I imagine flute can be. Still, flute.

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Listen:
Johnny Winter - Too Much Seconal mp3 at Tumblr
Jeremy Steig - Howlin' For Judy (streaming) at YouTube

DUDE WAS THE SHIT

I somehow ended up listening to a lot of Johnny Winter today, not something I often do. But after a few from his early LPs, I revisited "Trick Bag". Shit, that one by itself is worth a post. So I'll just stop here. Dig "Dallas", from his first LP on Columbia, his breakout. He was only twenty five when he recorded that. What were you doing when you were twenty five?

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Listen:
Johnny Winter - Dallas mp3 at David Fulmer
Johnny Winter - Too Much Seconal mp3 at Tumblr
Johnny Winter - Still Alive and Well mp3 at Tumblr
Johnny Winter - Trick Bag mp3 at David Fulmer

TULL ALMOST RUINED IT FOR HIM

I have a hate affair with the flute. It has always seemed like a wussy instrument best reserved for classical music. I think the first time I heard it in any sort of music that I'd be interested in was in my high school art class, when students could bring in records to play while the class painted. The surf chicks that were in that class were always playing two records, one being It's a Beautiful Day (blech) and the other The Turning Point by John Mayall. When I first heard "Room to Move" from the Mayall LP, I remember thinking, "What's that flute doing in there?". Then Tull happened. I hate Jethro Tull. They, Ian Anderson in particular, practically wiped flute from my life altogether. Don't ask. If you don't hate Jethro Tull already, you probably wouldn't understand.

Johnny Winter pretty much saved the flute from the abyss that is music I hate. Seriously, after Tull I didn't think it would ever be cool with me. But Johnny Winter's semi-comeback Still, Alive and Well had a song called "Too Much Seconal" with flute by Jeremy Steig. It fit the song well. Flute was back, or at least on double secret probation.

Oh but that Ron Burgundy, he kicked the flute door down. LAMF. After seeing Will Farrell's character Burgundy in the movie Anchorman, I realized that I was making too big of a deal out of it. It's really just a weird instrument, all skinny and frail n' shit. You can't really convincingly rock out with it. When you're not playing it, you look weird walking around with it. Even the cases look weird. I laughed. I gave Herbie Mann a shot. Some of his stuff sounds like some sort of a hipster jazz dude's version of yacht rock. But I'm sorta digging it and that scares the hell out of me.

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Listen:
John Mayall - Room to Move (streaming) at YouTube John Almond - Flute
Johnny Winter - Too Much Seconal mp3 at ATumblr (?) Jeremy Steig - Flute
Herbie Mann - Harlem Nocturne mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Herbie Mann - Odalisque mp3 at Roy Ayers Project
Herbie Mann - Blues In the Closet mp3 at Groove Addict

OTIS AND A GRAB BAG

Mother lovin' Diddy Wah did it again. That fucking rascal. He posted Otis Rush's "Homework", which many of you older Bic lighter wavers might know from the J. Geils version. Rush's original version just sent me right into a clicking frenzy, through the series of semi-related songs below. It's compare and contrast night over here..

I dig the production on all of these, as different as they are. In varying amounts of rawness, most could easily have been cut live in the studio with no overdubs, if that's any kind of reference. It's all some kind of electric blues, done by a black dude, a greasy rock band,  some ticking time bomb-weird spit shined Canadian white kids, a British blues demigod, and a really, really white guy from Texas.

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Listen: 

Otis Rush - Homework mp3 at Diddy Wah Go there to get it.

Otis Rush - All Your Love mp3 at Susan Piver (?)
Richie Knight and the Mid-Knights - Homework (streaming) at YouTube
J. Geils Band - Homework (streaming) at YouTube Studio version
John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers - All Your Love (streaming) at YouTube
John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers - Parchman Farm mp3 at Lake Tahoe Real Estate (?)
Johnny Winter with the Traits - Parchman Farm mp3 at Lake Tahoe Real Estate (?) 1967

KING OF THE BOYS' ROOM

Johnny Winter died yesterday. It hits kind of hard around here, because he was my biggest musical influence from the age of 13 to about 18. Yeah, those years. I'll spare you the personal sobbing (if you're curious, here's a couple posts about growing up as a Johhny Winter freak, here and here).

He was a blues man, capable of rocking, and a freakishly good guitarist. By that I mean at times fast, really fast, but always fluid. Sometimes just on the cusp of overplaying. By rotating styles (acoustic bottleneck, electric blues and rock 'n' roll, oft times on the same record), he always sort of directed the focus to the center of the Venn diagram, the blues.

Here's a smattering. Keep in mind when listening to his chops, he was born in 1944. So, for instance, on the Johnny and the Jammers tune, he's fifteen years old. On "Dallas" he's twenty five. How many twenty five year olds can play like that?

I may add blurbs about each song, and I know I'll add some videos. I just wanted to hep you to these right now. A little something to help you contemplate the loss of one of the greats, because that's what Johnny Winter most assuredly was, one of the greats.

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Listen:
Johnny and the Jammers - School Say Blues (streaming) at YouTube 1959
The Insight featuring Johnny and Edgar Winter - Please Come Home For Christmas mp3 at Cloudfront (?) 1966
Johnny Winter with the Traits - Parchman Farm mp3 at Lake Tahoe Real Estate (?) 1967
Johnny Winter - Meantown Blues (streaming) at Hell Hound on My Tail 1967
Johnny Winter -Be Careful With a Fool mp3 at Smokestack Lightning 1969
Johnny Winter - When You Got A Good Friend mp3 at Cover Me 1969
Johnny Winter - Dallas mp3 at David Fulmer 1969
Johnny Winter - Hustled Down In Texas mp3 at Review Stalker 1969
Johnny Winter And - Johnny B. Goode (live) mp3 at Ghost Whisperer 1971
Johnny Winter - Still Alive and Well (full LP), streaming) at YouTube 1973
Johnny Winter - Ain't Nothing to Me (streaming) at YouTube 1973
Muddy Waters with Johnny Winter - Mannish Boy (streaming) at YouTube 1977, Produced by Johnny Winter
Johnny Winter - Trick Bag mp3 at David Fulmer 1984
Video:
Johnny Winter - Full set, Copenhagen at YouTube 1970, 23 minutes

THE UNLIKELY TEACHER

Well, if it ain't my old buddy, Johnny Winter. My first guitar hero. I'd never heard of him when I saw him on TV in my teens, but I was so taken by his licks, I did what young music fiends normally do. I headed down to the record store and bought his latest LP, Johnny Winter And Live (the name of the band was Johnny Winter And, and it was a live album. Yeah, clever). It was a great live album, mixing stretched out blues songs showcasing his slide playing, along with more rockin' stuff with him and Rick Derringer swapping meaty licks (eye roll inducing, but it fits). In retrospect, it was a great LP for me at that age, but unbeknownst to me, he was a junky trying to clean up. There was a long waiting period for the next LP. That ended up being a serendipitous turn, as it had me, as young music fiends also do, backtracking his older stuff while I waited for something new to come out. My brothers were both eating up his stuff as well. So, bang, bang, bang, first job money was flying across the record store counter. In no time we had all of his LP's up until that point. Four on Columbia (the label that broke him), one on Imperial, and a couple, capitalizing on his popularity, that compiled earlier obscurities.

Before we had even heard another current Winter LP, we were learning about the blues. That's because, as you went backwards chronologically, his LPs had more and more blues. Before his fifth on Columbia, "Still Alive and Well", had come out, we had it bad. My brother started bringing home blues LPs: Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, Elmore James, Howlin' Wolf and Robert Johnson; bam bam, bam. We didn't have expenses, we all lived at home, we didn't drive, weren't particularly fashion conscious, and we didn't drink. Records and rolled tacos got all our expendable money, and all of our money was expendable. So we spent it on this music that we were just becoming cognizant of. It was cool. You can sort of recreate that by listening to the songs below, top to bottom. That first one will give you an indication of what I thought I was getting myself into. Oh, the lessons that were learned. Ground zero for us. From then on it became all about fiending, reading, searching, listening, debating, talking to hippie counter guys, all of it. We were off to the damn races.

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Listen:
Johnny Winter And - Johnny B. Goode (live) mp3 at Ghost Whisperer From the fourth Columbia LP
Johnny Winter - Hustled Down In Texas mp3 at Review Stalker From the second Columbia LP
Johnny Winter -Be Careful With a Fool mp3 at Smokestack Lightning From the first Columbia LP
Johnny Winter - When You Got A Good Friend mp3 at Cover Me From the first Columbia LP
Johnny Winter - Dallas mp3 at David Fulmer  From the first Columbia LP
Johnny Winter - Leaving Blues mp3 at Aquarium Drunkard Very early, produced by Huey Meaux. If song link is disabled, go there to get it. It's worth it.

MATLOCK TIME

I used to live in a granny flat behind a married couple, the parents of some kids that had been a few years behind me in school. I was in my late twenties. The couple were into many cool things. Swimming, Dixieland jazz, scuba diving, and abalone chili rellonos. There was one thing I could never figure out. They used to watch either Matlock, or Murder She Wrote, or both; I forget which, but it was a regular thing. My Mom was into them too. Regardless, it was common thought back then that those shows were made for that age demographic. I wasn't expected to get it.

When I saw the video above, I wanted to be bowled over by it. Johnny Winter and Leslie West were two of my favorite guitarists back in the day. The thought of seeing them playing together hadn't even crossed my mind, that's how mind blowingly good the paring had the potential to be. Alas, it ain't that good. But, here's were Matlock comes in. I'm sure that the way I hear this song is way different than it would be to someone much younger than me. I gave Winter and West the benefit of the doubt, and listened for good parts, if only for their track records. I even had a moment were it took me back. Matlock. There are brief moments interspersed throughout where their guitar interplay works, fleeting as they may be. But that's how it was for me. Young rascals are not expected to get it.

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Listen: 
Jimi Hendrix - If Six Was Nine mp3 at Electric Adolescence 
Mountain - Mississippi Queen mp3 at Liberty Avenue Don't bother, it's all ads 
Johnny Winter - Hustled Down In Texas mp3 at Review Stalker 
Jimi Hendrix - Three more cuts at Indie Rock Cafe Two of the five songs had broken links 
Oddball: 
Jimi Hendrix - Studio jams (2 with John McLaughlin, 6 with Johnny Winter) LP download at Rock On Vinyl (with the details and song lists).

DUDE'S A SMORGASBORD

Good God, if there was one guy who never met a style of blues based music he didn't like, it's Johnny Winter, at least on his first ten or so LPs.  They flow pretty well, chronologically, that first ten or so.  But some of the changes from LP to LP have been drastic, and some single LPs in that first ten are like K-Tel records, the styles of songs are so varied.  But back in the day, he managed to keep my interest for a long stretch.

One thing you probably know is that Johnny Winter is a hot shit guitarist.  He is.  After playing in bands around Beaumont Texas in the sixties,and releasing records on no chance record labels, he met Mike Bloomfield in Chicago.  Bloomfield, impressed, later invites Winter onstage at Fillmore East where he is playing a Super Session era show with Al Kooper.  Winter plays B.B. King's "It's My Own Fault", and the audience goes ape. Columbia Records people in audience take note.  He's signed to the major within days.

His first LP on Columbia, Johnny Winter was straightforward blues, some acoustic, some electric with horns.  So there's a couple styles right there.  But it works.  Right about the time this LP is released, Imperial Records licenses an earlier LP The Progressive Blues Experiment (originally released by Sonobeat in 1968). The Progressive Blues Experiment is a similar mix of acoustic and electric, but the electric is more like a cheap John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, not that it's a bad thing.  It's raw sounding, the studio budget nowhere near the Columbia job. And it adds another style.

The Columbia follow-up, Second Winter must have been a shock for early Winter freaks. It's dominated by wah-wah and electric slide, more rock 'n' roll than blues. And, it's another style.  Three LPs in, he's already off on a bunch of tangents, and that's just the first couple years. There's not enough time or available effort at this end (not tonight) to go into detail about the ensuing LPs (really, I just couldn't find samples), but here's some from the first three.

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Listen:
Johhny Winter - Meantown Blues mp3 at Sunrise Musics from Progressive Blues Experiment
Johnny Winter - Dallas mp3 at David Fulmer from Johnny Winter 
Johnny Winter – When You Got a Good Friend at Cover Me from Johnny Winter
Johnny Winter - Hustled Down In Texas mp3 at Review Stalker from Second Winter
Viisit:
Johnny Winter at Wikipedia

QUINCY IRBY LIVES

Try as I might to find a common theme among songs on the same post, this one is kind of an exception. The reason is because it's for my brother, Tim, who passed away in 1997 and was a brilliant guitarist. His birthday is January 13, which this year falls on a Friday, hence the image above. So, here's just a few of guitarists that he dug.

I had to start it with Johnny Winter, because that's the first guitarist that I remember him trying to emulate, and he had it down; to the point that you could name an era of Johnny Winter and he could improvise something in that style, be it bottleneck blues, or electric rock 'n' roll. The cut below, an alternate take of "Dallas," begins with Johnny Winter muttering "unlucky thirteen" which, of course, meant I had to post it.

He was also into surf music, deep. Beginning with the omnipresent garage sale Ventures, and then onto the Surfaris, the Challengers (who he would later christen "dodes"), the Lively Ones and so on. We knew about Dick Dale, but, believe it or not, at the time all of his records were out of print and nearly impossible to find. Finally, around 1975, Dick Dale released a new album with re-recorded old material and some new stuff. It blew away all of the other bands. Tim got it bad. A few years later (around '80) he started a surf band, the Evasions, with a guy he met through a classified ad, Richard "Skid Roper" Banke (who Tim would call Braniac, because Richard had suggested "The Braniacs" as a band name). A while later, he would get the opportunity to be sent to Dale's house, to shoot him for a friend's music column. He spent a day, one on one, with the King of the Surf Guitar. Dale took him out on his boat, played piano, and played an unreleased song on acoustic in the middle of a tour of the house. He gave Tim his phone number and told him to call him any time (and, as any brother would, he later proved it by calling him while I was present).

Tim, Del Mar Fair, mid-80s

That's only two, and though there's a few others down below, this will have to be continued later. I can see where it's going, I could go forever about all of the guitarists he loved. Besides Johnny Winter, Dick Dale, Cliff Gallup (Gene Vincent), Paul Burlison (Johnny Burnette), Neil Young and Karl Precoda (Dream Syndicate), all represented below, there's the man, Chuck Berry, Billy Lee Riley, Scotty Moore, Keith Richards, Mick Taylor, Ron Wood, Jeff Beck, Rory Gallagher, Hendrix, Clapton, Duane Allman, Leslie West (Mountain), Chet Atkins, Merle Travis, Tommy Collins, Joe Maphis, John Fogerty, Ronnie Montrose, Jimmy Page, Rick Derringer, Jeff Beck, Ron Asheton, Johnny Thunders, Paul Johnson, and on and on. His tastes were varied, but it was always about the guitar.

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Listen:
Johnny Winter - Dallas mp3 at David Fullmer
Dick Dale & the Deltones - The Wedge mp3 at 4Shared
Gene Vincent & the Blue Caps - Cat Man mp3 at LYWL
Johnny Burnette & the Rock n' Roll Trio - Honey Hush mp3 at RocknDog.com
Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Down By the River mp3 at I Am Fuel, You Are Friends
The Dream Syndicate - Halloween mp3 at The Mad Mackerel

BORN TO JAM: HENDRIX ODDITIES

Once his career took off, Jimi Hendrix rarely passed up an opportunity to jam, or record the odd cover. As much a fan as confident guitarist, he had plenty of opportunities to jump on stage, or drag someone to a studio after hours. Some of this stuff has been in circulation so long, that I remember seeing one of the bootlegs (of Hendrix and fellow 27 clubber Jim Morrison) back when I was in high school. This stuff,...well, most of this stuff is interesting just as curiosities. Want to hear Hendrix playing while a certifiably wasted Morrison blurts out shit like he just learned to cuss? Then you'll love "Morrison's Lament," from afore mentioned boot. How about him jamming with Stevie Wonder on drums, on "I Was Made To Love Her"? Or Hendrix with Johnny Winter and stealth scenester Stephen Stills? With John McLaughlin? There is, as always has been, a lot of this stuff floating around. But if you, like me, are not a Hendrix completist, and maybe just mildly interested, here's your low commitment chance. Don't miss the video of a young Hendrix (1965) as sideman to Buddy & Stacy (at :49 seconds he shows early flash, running his hand down the frets from over the top of the neck). And, in a totally bizarre match up, there's a audio only clip at YouTube with Hendrix backing Jayne Mansfield. I also threw in a few covers because they were just sitting there, and worth a listen. Hendrix does New Orleans, (covering Allen Toussaint's "Get Out of My Life Woman"), the Four Tops, and an odd Dylan. Remember, jams is jams: long, meandering and often sloppy. Just pretend you're in the kitchen getting a beer, while a bunch of rock stars are banging around in your living room.

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Jams & Covers:
Jimi Hendrix (w/Stevie Wonder on drums) - I Was Made To Love Her mp3 at Everybody Taste
Jimi Hendrix (w/Jim Morrison) - Red House mp3 at Troubled Souls Unite
Jimi Hendrix (w/Jim Morrison) Morrison's Lament mp3 at Troubled Souls Unite
Jimi Hendrix (w/Jim Morrison) - Tomorrow Never Knows mp3 at Troubled Souls Unite
Jimi Hendrix (with Jim Morrison - Five more mp3s at Troubled Souls Unite
Jimi Hendrix - Studio jams (2 with John McLaughlin, 6 with Johnny Winter) LP download at Rock On Vinyl (with the details and song lists).
Jimi Hendrix - Get Out of My Life Woman mp3 at Everybody Taste
Jimi Hendrix - I Can't Help Myself mp3 at Everybody Taste
Jimi Hendrix - Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window mp3 at Everybody Taste
As Sideman:
The Icemen (My Girl) She's A Fox (1966) mp3 at Everybody Taste
Buddy and Stacy (1965) - Shotgun video at YouTube
Jane Mansfield (Hendrix on bass and guitar, 1965) - Suey at YouTube

I WAS A TEENAGE WINTER FIEND

Johnny Winter already had a few records out when he signed with Columbia in 1969. None of the early releases got much attention. But Rolling Stone had been more than kind, and that got Columbia's attention. They quickly signed him, and their push behind his first album on their label was immense. Soon, heads were listening, and there was a real buzz about the "new" American blues man.

With Columbia's push came big budgets, and excellently art directed LP covers. The first was a solemn portrait with a black background, self-titled with white stenciled letters. The follow-up, "Second Winter," was photographed by Richard Avedon, in his psychedelic style (as he had for the Beatles). The third, was with his newly constructed four piece, featuring former members of the McCoys ("Hang On Sloopy"), Rick Derringer among them. That cover was shot by Norman Seeff, the soft-focus hot shot photographer at the time. The cover of the fourth, "Johnny Winter And Live," consisted of live shots by Seeff, with a band portrait on the inside, also shot by Seeff.

I remember all of seemingly inconsequential trivia because my brothers and I bought his first four albums, and once the music was consumed, the liner notes were devoured; all due to the long wait for the fifth LP. (Unbeknown to us, the wait was due in part to Winter's attempt to kick heroin.) Each of the first four LPs was distinctly different, ranging from acoustic blues to straight-up seventies guitar rock. Because I know them inside and out, those first four Columbia records remain my favorite.

1970

Listen to the "When You Got a Good Friend," from the first Columbia LP. It's just Winter playing acoustic bottleneck slide, with one guitar overdub. Recording wise, it doesn't take rocket science to get that down. Yet the song is full, and the playing so traditional, the only clue to its vintage is the clarity of the production. On "Highway 61 Revisited," from "Second Winter" he's transformed, becoming the rock n' roll slide guitarist. He's really all over the place, almost to the point of showing off. The last one, a cover of "Jumpin' Jack Flash," is from the live album, and it is seventies teenage guitar freak Godhead.

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Music:

Johnny Winter - When You Got Good Friend (1969) mp3 at Cover Me
Johnny Winter - Highway 61 Revisited (1969) mp3 (via MediaFire) at Metal Bastard
Johnny Winter And - Jumpin' Jack Flash (live, 1971) mp3 at Southbay Ampworks
Video:
Johnny Winter - Be Careful With a Fool (1970, Danish TV) at YouTube
Johnny Winter - Mean Town Blues (1970) at YouTube
Johnny Winter - Jumpin' Jack Flash (1974) at YouTube