Thoughts on the documentary Johnny Winter: Down & Dirty

This is a 2014 documentary, released a few months before Winter’s death at 70 while he was touring Switzerland. The period covered shows him on tour over roughly the last year of his life, interspersed with interviews with him, cinema verité bits, comments from various people in the music business, and biographical material. 

 

By this time, despite being off methadone, the long term addiction that replaced his relatively brief period of heroin addiction, Winter is physically frail, moves like someone 20 years older and sits down when playing. It’s a sad commentary, I suppose, on how a lifetime of addictions, and a wild life in general, can ruin a person’s physical health. In contrast, Keith Richards, who once represented the poster boy ideal for the dangers of the rock ‘ roll lifestyle is still very much alive and kicking, and recording, at 82.

 

Winter’s first recording was released in 1959, when he was 15, and the last one in 2014, presumably when he was still 69, and he has a significant discography from before he became famous in 1968 as well as subsequently, including a plethora of live recordings, in which he went from blues to hard rock back to blues. Today, he’s still primarily thought of as a Texas bluesman. The early ‘70s hard rock years stemmed from management and record label believing  that this was the route to commercial success though the most creatively successful part of that decade was his association as producer and backing musician with the resurgence of Muddy Waters with 1977’s Hard Again album, and the  three that followed, where Winter reigned in his overbearing, excessive trademark  of egoistic, endless, fluid soloing for an tasteful, concise and incisive  integrated contribution to a Chicago blues band style.  Winters was a masterful, technically proficient guitarist encouraged by the “guitar hero” fixation of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s to abandon discretion in favour of excess.

 

I’m ambiguous about Johnny Winter’s music. The records I like best are the solo albums Nothin’ but the Bluesand White, Hot & Blue as well as the three Muddy Waters albums to which he contributed because he plays to serve the songs rather than showing off his extraordinary ability showcased for its own sake. Even the first albums on Columbia Records, as well as The Progressive Blues Experiment, seem to verge too much on hard rock than on the straightforward blues of that late ‘70s’ period. When Winter formed Johnny Winter And for the foray into hard rock, he lost me. I can admire how good he is on the guitar but it’s an intellectual appreciation rather than a visceral enjoyment; lengthy versions of “Highway 62 Revisited,” no matter how energetic, simply become tedious after a few minutes.

 

At 69, Winter still plays pretty much as fiercely and fluidly as he ever could, and nis voice, never his strongest suit anyway,  just about holds up. The shocking part of the documentary is simply how frail he is and the sense, in hindsight of course, that one is watching a slow fade into death. If Winter had looked after himself, or had someone who minded him better, this last period of touring might not have been his last and absolutely wouldn’t have felt so forlorn and almost desperate, even if the audience clearly still adore him. The people who pay for the tickets are just happy to experience a living legend who mostly still sounds like he always did, while he’s still able to tour and to play.

 

Paul Nelson deserves much credit for weaning Winter off methadone and getting him back as close as possible to prime Johnny Winter and managing his career successfully at least for the last few years of Winter’s life so that he didn’t die in forgotten ignominy. I suppose it could be a badge of honour to have been in one of the audiences during that last period of shows, especially the final one, which wouldn’t have happened without Nelson’s dedication to rescuing Winter.

 

The bits of biographical detail are insightful and the comments from the likes of Joe Perry (Aerosmith) are full of admiration for a living icon of rock and blues.  From a distance, just noting the regular record releases, it seemed that Winter’s career was chugging along satisfactorily and that returning to being a bluesman was comforting, of course, this public image never reflects what actually happens in the musician’s personal life, that will not only  have the same kinds of challenges most people have  but sometimes extraordinary ones specific to the musician’s life choices.  Winter kept working, while dependant on methadone, but on a reduced level of efficiency, due to the machinations of his manager, until Nelson took over,  though it  couldn’t have been a happy life. Presumably, the final, methadone-free years, were good and Winter died during a positive period of his life.

 

Johnny Winter: Down & Dirty is your typical slice-of-life view of a specific time in a person’s life and that the period is close to his death makes the viewing quite poignant knowing that one is experiencing the final months of someone who isn’t anticipating his imminent, unforeseen demise. He was still articulate, verbally and as musician, and seemed optimistic that life would continue favourably for a while longer. To me, it seemed that this period would end with a slow decline due to the physical frailties, and that Winter would conclude his life in a frail care home of sorts, rather than a sudden exit at age 70.  

 

I suppose I should investigate Winter’s music in more detail. I have the late ‘70s albums already mentioned, as well as collections of his pre-fame recordings and ‘90s blues period, but other than hearing some songs from the hard rock period, I’ve not gone on a deep dive into the back catalogue, mostly  because, as mentioned, I’m not that much of a fan of Winter’s style but seeing as how Apple Music provides the resources, one should do the research and pay proper homage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd go solo.

 

TOM VERLAINE

Tom Verlaine (1979)

 

RICHARD LLOYD

Alchemy (1979)

 

Lloyd and Verlaine were the guitarists for Television, the finest guitar band of the mid-1970’s New York scene (often called the New York punk scene as distinguished from the UK punk scene the New York scene preceded and influenced), featuring angular, interlocking guitar lines, poetic lyrics, and a raw yet melodic approach that wasn’t informed by blues. Television sounded nothing like its contemporaries, whether in the hard rock / metal sphere or the other, diverse bands on the New York scene. The music was both intellectually engaging and emotionally resonant and Television’s influence, especially the debut album Marquee Moon,typically, was much more substantive than their commercial appeal at the time.

 

Verlaine and Lloyd were presumably still both signed to Elektra Records and given that they were the talents in the band, both as songwriters (though Lloyd wasn’t given all the credits he deserved) and as architects of and masters of that angular guitar style that characterised the band, each complementing the other with Lloyd as the melodic foundation and Verlaine as the idiosyncratic visionary.

 

Tom Verlaine and Alchemy were released in the same year and have some musicians in common and sound vastly different. 

 

Lloyd chose a highly melodic, guitar pop approach, with airy, pleasant tunes and hooks, a throwback to mid-1960’s American guitar pop and some distance from the sound of Television, much like Lindsey Buckingham’s debut solo album, Law & Order deviated from the characteristic MOR sound of Fleetwood Mac.  Lloyd didn’t sound like an alumnus of Television at all. Alchemy was buoyant pop perfection; Lloyd couldn’t have distanced himself further from the Television sound, while still making a guitarcentric record.

 

Tom Verlaine, on the other hand, expanded from the Television sound by making a less harsh, and more tuneful and, dare one say, humorous album with his patented skewed, piercing lead guitar style and, of course, his vocals, both  elements that reminded the listener of Television, whereas Lloyd apparently wanted a record that wouldn’t echo Television at all.

 

Even so, Verlaine’s songs for his debut solo album, have as many tunes and hooks as Richard Lloyd has, and fiercer memorable guitar solos, alongside lyrical, anthemic guitar solos.

 

I bought both albums in probably 1980, long before I’d heard Marquee Moon (though, of course, I knew of its reputation) and appreciated both in roughly equal parts, as the two different perspectives on the component parts of the Television guitar sound. If I were pushed, I’d say that Tom Verlaine has the greater heft and therefore more satisfactory Alchemy is pretty good on the guitar front too, even if the songs seems a tad lightweight.

 

I bought Verlaine’s second and fourth albums, respectively Dreamtime (1981) and Cover (1984) but neither of them, good as they are, had the same impact as Tom Verlaine. It’s obviously a broad, and possibly unfair generalisation, but for me Marquee Moon and Tom Verlaine quite adequately and sufficiently  illuminate Verlaine’s talents and abilities; one doesn’t need to be a completist.

 

I never saw any other Richard Lloyd records in any of the records shops I frequented in Cape Town and surrounds and therefore had no idea how his music progressed. I had to do some research regarding Lloyd’s  discography to find out what he did next. 

Field of Fire (1985), recorded with Swedish musicians and initially  released only in that country, was the follow up to Alchemy. It’s a good, solid yet unremarkable and basically journeyman like collection of mid-1980’s guitar rock, with production that’s not beholden to the studio fashion of the decade and therefore it doesn’t sound dated, but it also doesn’t have the verve of Alchemy. 

 

the studio record was followed by Real Time (1987), a live album that mixes old and new tracks, and thereafter there was a long hiatus before Lloyd released his own stuff again. 

 

Lloyd outlived Verlaine, has a more extensive discography and may someday be hailed as some kind of genius too, providing at least 50% of what made Television great.

 

For me, Marquee Moon, Tom Verlaine and Alchemy form a unit, trapping collective lightning in a bottle to illuminate a special time in late 1970’s non-mainstream rock and ought to be celebrated as such.   

Velvert Turner channels Jimi Hendrix Lite

 VELVERT TURNER

The Velvert Turner Group (1972)

 

In various interviews over the years, Richard Lloyd (guitarist and songwriter, Television and solo career) recounts how he met Velvert Turner who boasted of knowing Jimi Hendrix and believed him when Lloyd’s mates were mocking Turner who not only did know Hendrix but also studied guitar with Hendrix.

 

Roughly 2 years of Hendrix’s death, Turner had his opportunity to record his one and only album and it’s not bad at all.

 

The songs and performances aren’t direct copies of Hendrix’s signature style but definitely sound like pastiches or, if one wants to be charitable, homages of that signature style and Turner’s voice on here is unnervingly similar to Hendrix’s to the extent, if  I hadn’t known better and had heard the songs blind, I might’ve believed these tracks were previously unreleased studio outtakes by Jimi himself. The main difference, though, is that Turner doesn’t have his mentor’s chops and also doesn’t try to play exactly like Hendrix, at least not in the latter’s highly characteristic style.

 

“House Burning Down” and “Long Hot Summer” off Electric Ladyland seem to be the direct stylistic reference points rather than the psychedelic rockers and that limits the overall sonic palate of the album and makes it somewhat one dimensional. There aren’t any tracks that stand out as a cut above the rest. Turner is a journeyman, with some good lyrics, but without a unique songwriting talent and this is probably one reason, if not the major reason, why the album didn’t make him a star and why there weren’t any follow ups. Velvert Turner had his one shot but just didn’t have the magic to convert his homage into a sustaining career of interest beyond that of a curiosity.

Albert and BB do King things

  

I might as well rank the three prominent bluesmen with the surname King, alphabetically, as that is the order in which I appreciate Albert, BB and Freddie. To tell the truth, Freddie King is very underrepresented in my collection, mostly because, when I was buying blues CDs, I didn’t encounter his albums as often as those of Albert and BB.

 

BB King characteristic guitar style is based on an expressive vibrato, fluid single-note solos and smooth, melodic phrasing and he incorporates elements of jazz and swing though R & B and funk also infuses his later period releases, chasing a contemporary audience, and he released a couple of collaborative albums, of which Riding with the King (2000), his recording partnership with Eric Clapton, is probably the most rewarding. 

 

Albert King's approach is more raw and aggressive, characterised by playing a right-handed guitar (famously, a Gibson Flying V) upside down, as he’s left handed, with powerful bending of notes, which gives him that gritty, piercing tone, and a relatively small repertoire of punchy licks that he mixes and matches into those formidable solos he’s known for. His releases have also followed commercial trends, from the ‘70s onwards, to seek maximum commercial gain from a music that was increasingly marginalised and  his collaboration is the In Session set recorded with Stevie Ray Vaughan who was deeply influenced by Albert King.

 

I heard a BB King track before I’d heard anything by Albert King but I bought an Albert King album well before a I bought one featuring BB tracks.

 

In 1997, when I began buying LP records seriously, the record bar of the OK Bazaars department store in Cape Town had a two side display stand with records at a discount, presumably the stock nobody wanted to buy and there was always several blues albums amongst the pop and rock records in which I had no interest. The albums were priced at 99c, which meant 10 records for R10,00, a real bargain for my quarterly excursions to the City.  Up to the end of 1976 these trips were focussed on buying as many model airplane kits as possible. From January 1977 my focus was on records, as I’d just acquire a proper mini hi-fi set up for my room.

 

The first records I owned were rock albums but albums such as Dr Feelgood’s Malpractice and Cream’s Cream’s Cream Live engendered an interest in the blues. Part of the reason for buying these blues albums at the OK Bazaars in Cape Town was that interest and part of the reason was the budget friendly price. 

 

An ABC BluesWay compilation and Albert King’s Years Gone By were amongst the first batch of blues albums I owned.

 

The BB King track “Blue Shadows Falling” from BB King in London (1971) was featured on the ABC BluesWay compilation and was the first BB King tune I ever heard. By the time I bought the record I already knew who BB and Albert King were but it was theoretical knowledge.

 

“Blue Shadows Falling” had a heavy, relentless rhythm track and was as close to blues rock as BB ever got, with backing by  English luminaries in their blues scene, and it spoiled me for the rest of his oeuvre, once I started delving in to it.

 

Years Gone By (1969) was a revelation. Albert King is backed by the Stax house band, which gives the tunes a tough, tight foundation for King’s big voice and stinging, piercing lead guitar.

 

My second BB King purchase was a collection of ‘50s recordings with a big, horn driven band and his gospel driven vocals and, to me, a distressingly short supply of lead guitar or, at least, not the kind of lead guitar I appreciated.  The songs and arrangements sounded like 1940’s big swing bands  with gospel style vocals and with a bit of incidental lead guitar

 

I didn’t play that album much and it  put me off any of BB King’s other and later records for many years.  

 

Albert King’s tougher, small combo blues was more appealing and when I saw Live Wire / Bluespower  (1968) in a record store, as a new record, I bought it without further thought and was once again rewarded with more of the best of his style, with “Bluespower” as an exceptional high point of his piercing, emphatic style of lead playing. The songs were recorded at Fillmore East performances, where King was exposed to young, hip, (mostly) white audiences, while serving as warm up act for rock bands.  I suppose the tight combo backing and King’s heavy lead guitar style resonated best with an audience immersed in the worship of the “guitar hero.”

 

Many years later, when I began collecting CDs, there was a great deal more blues albums from many different artists available and inevitably I enlarged my collection of Albert Kings albums as well as, eventually, BB King albums, including BB King in London for exposure to the full selection of those tracks.

 

I discovered, on the one hand, that Albert King also started as an urban bluesman, not dissimilar to BB King, fronting a large, horn-drive band too, before he joined Stax and, on the other hand, that BB King recorded music as tough and stripped down  as Albert. Both artists have substantial discographies, with BB’s outstripping Albert’s, and with a wide variety of styles and approached depending on the musical fashions at the time of recording. 

 

I’ve developed as much of an appreciation of BB King’s music as I have a love for Albert King’s records though, if I were forced to choose one collection over the other, Albert’s catalogue will be what I will keep. 

 

On the whole, I prefer the visceral punch I take from Albert King’s best records to the more sophisticated, almost showbiz approach of BB King’s music.

 

For me the contrast is illustrated by a show of the Japanese Blues Carnival 1989, where Albert King opens for BB King. Presumably, BB, as one of the most lauded bluesmen ever and certified Ambassador of the Blues, was afforded the key position of headliner because he had the highest profile of the two men.

 

Albert’s backing band is a small combo of keyboards, drums, bass and a two man horn section, who are dressed like and might well be a night club showband who are technically adept enough can back any musician. For the sake of emphasising that it’s 1989,  the keyboard player does a couple of rinky dink ‘80s style solos on her electronic keyboard and the bass player gets a solo turn to channel his inner Stanley Jordan. Meanwhile,  Albert plays his patented, ferocious, timeless blues licks in a crowd pleasing set. 

 

BB King, on the other hand, has a larger, more sophisticated yet also contemporary band to back his crowd pleasers performed in the showbiz blues style he’s perfected for events like these. This is not to say that he’s going through the motions but BB King’s performances somehow are less engaging than Albert King’s and certainly doesn’t connect emotionally. This is blues as simply a commercial music genre.

 

Both these guys, at least once a show, will give examples of what the blues is, or is supposed to be, as so many other musicians and musicologists and archivists do. In Albert King’s “Bluespower” and ”I’ll Play the Blues for You,” for example, the blues seems to be just an expression of every day sadness as opposed to the reaction to racist oppression and poverty so many people claim as the root base of the blues, a folk expression of socio-political and cultural concerns. To me, most of the interviews I’ve read or listened with bluesmen mostly talking to White people, the explanations of what the blues are, seem to be regurgitated clichés designed for consumption by eager White people who want to believe that there is indeed some deeper meaning behind the music. Where rock and roll is just frivolous, blues is deeply serious.

 

However the blues may have originated, on cotton plantations or lumber camps and possibly as comments on downtrodden lives, it soon became no more than a commercial sound, a new trend in music and, given how many blues artists there have been over the years and how many are still playing the blues, there’s no way that the blues was anything but a musical genre some musicians chose to make a living in, rather than as a vehicle for socio-political or cultural commentaries. 

 

Muddy Waters preferred to be a musician rather than be a farm labourer. Robert Johnson and others preferred to be itinerant musicians rather than taking up steady employment. The blues musicians who migrated North  to Chicago and Detroit and who had day jobs didn’t play music after hours because they had a burning political mission to highlight the injustices of the Deep South but simply to entertain and to make a little extra money. The blues artists who recorded, did so for the money and they were fortunate that blues, in its various iterations, was a popular genre until the advent of more sophisticated genres that appealed to younger urban generations who thought of the blues as old-fashioned and even backward.

 

Both Albert and BB King’s songs dealt with a variety of topics but the most common themes are woman trouble or a celebration of the patriarchy; there songs didn’t comment much, if at all, on current political or social events or situations.  Even if they did play blues, those blues were for entertainment and upliftment. You weren’t supposed to leave a show by either King deep in the  throes of depression because of the songs they performed for you.  You were supposed to have a good time at the show and not sit there analysing the lyrics and pondering their meaning and significance.

 

I don’t like ranking musicians, albums or songs. I like some, I don’t like others. For this reason, I don’t care whether BB King might’ve been a better musician, singer or general bluesman than Albert King, or the other way around. If I’m pressed to answer the burning question of which of the two I’d be willing never to listen to again, I’d say it would be BB King, and  that’s simply because Albert King’s oeuvre and guitar style speak to me more substantively viscerally than that of BB King.  I’d rather not be compelled to make that choice though, as I enjoy BB King’s blues too.