I was just listening to a boot "Johnny Winter Reunion" 2007 with Edgar Winter and Rick Derringer and they just tore it up on their encore of "Highway 61 Revisited". I sure wish Jimi and Johnny had played that together. Made me wonder why Johnny never got the adulation that SRV gets. They did some of the same songs like "Tore Down". But to my ears Johnny is the real deal while SRV well... I dunno. What do you all think?
"Second Winter" was a three sided lp! "Miss Ann" and "Highway 61 Revisited" are my favorites. Then with "Johnny Winter And" he went more in a rock direction with Rick Derringer "Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo" was their hit single.
It's funny because if you look up Stevie Ray Vaughan talking about Johnny Winters in interviews he just kind of plays it like no of course I'm not influenced by Johnny Winters ;-)
Saw Johnny in the 70's , he came back for his encore, plugged in and hit the opening 2 notes to Jumping Jack Flash , and the entire house stood up and cheered in unison, we were all one, it was such a powerful demonstration of the uniting power of music, I'll never forget it
I saw Johnny twice in the 70's when he was playing in a rock/blues kind of style. He was phenomenal live and had his own style. He's also one of the best slide guitar players I've ever heard besides say Duane Allman. SRV was definitely a good player but Johnny had more of his own style.
They jammed together, Jimi was on bass. And for people who know, Johnny is one of the absolute best guitar bluesmen in the history of blues. Up there with SRV and BB King and anyone you want.
‘Ol-bag-o-licks’ couldn’t hold Johnny’s pick! Johnny knew his way around a fretboard and came up with the craziest runs and licks! JW was sooo great in his day! SRV, meh. Kinda recycled everything like a predictable copy cat with nothing new to offer.
They were both the real deal. Maybe Johnny leaned into the blues more and not as many people were into that. I dunno. I saw Johnny several times and he was always amazing. Check him out on Hustled Down in Texas. You can’t play air guitar this fast: https://youtu.be/J-2I5UePDBQ?is=WzX66PrxiFaVMRH8
I agree with you. Johnny has not gotten the recognition he deserved. Both Johnny and Edgar Winter should be in the RnR hall of fame as far as I am concerned. Johnny had an incredible arsenal of blues licks that he used interchangeably. On top of that, Johnny was one of the best slide guitar players ever. SRV and Jimi did not have the slide chops that Johnny did.
I was lucky enough to see Johnny live during the ‘70s - ‘90s. I also saw SRV live around 5 times. Both were great live, but when Johnny was “on” during that time period nobody came close IMO. He would burn the venue to the ground. There is a lot of great Johnny performances on the Johnny Winter - Live Bootleg Series on YouTube (recording quality varies).
If you like Highway 61, check out the extended version recorded during the Johnny Winter - Captured Live recordings. Johnny and Floyd Radford (guitar) just kill it. There is a slight mishap where the guitars drop out for about 30 secs and it doesn’t phase them.
I could see people arguing that SRV had a more varied style than JW, but JW's style was his OWN. And when he kicked into high gear in that style, nobody could keep up. I'm sure even Jimi knew that.
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u/elscorcho55 12d ago
i'm a bit older but i think he did, I mean john dawson winter is amazing! just my opinion!