Johnny Winter - The Return Of Johnny Guitar (The Best Of Johnny Winter

Strutting
Texas blues. This compilation album at least features the man doing
what he does best. Many collections concentrate on his dire seventies
rock'n'roll glutfest and his even direr mid-sixties early
embarrassments. It's the blues that defines him from 1969 onwards, and
this CD thankfully concentrates on that definition of him as an artiste.
Johnny Winter has many hardcore fans, myself obviously included. His
fire, precision and inventiveness combine with his songwriting talents
and his ability to quote stock phrases of the Blues Bible in a new and
exciting way. This creates instant classics. I'm sometimes surprised to
find I'm listening to a Winter original when I'd assumed it was
something from the early rustic days of the blues. As for his guitar
playing, well, combine the sting and attack of Albert "the Ice Man"
Collins and the raw scrape of slide legend Elmore James and the
development of musical sentences from Clapton's Cream days and you'll
have a fair idea of Johnny's appeal. That voice too is pretty cool -
it's like a coyote gargling with sandpaper. Diehard fans will have all
these tracks anyway - they've appeared on his three Alligator Records
releases from the early to mid eighties. And they're terrific. A healthy
helping of Texan blues with extra chili - he yodels, growls, yelps and
brags through these songs with an energy and relish that's kinda hard to
resist. Each solo is a delight- the slower numbers feature exciting
developments of licks and phrases - you can follow the ideas through
each solo, and the faster songs combine Chuck Berry chops with sudden
high register flurries. Guitar fans will argue until the end of time
about the merits of their particular hero. My mind was made up in 1969
with one song from a CBS sampler. Yep, it was I Love Everybody by Johnny
Winter from his third album, confusingly called Second Winter. I bought
every album for the next 40 years and the tracks on this compilation
represent a period I recall with great fondness. At the risk of sounding
cliched - Go Johnny Go! (Amazon's Customer)



Track Listing

01 - Mojo Boogie - 4:54
02 - Good Time Woman - 6:06
03 - Tin Pan Alley - 5:52
04 - Sound The Bell - 3:29
05 - Don't Take Advantage Of Me - 5:24
06 - I Smell Trouble - 4:49
07 - Third Degree - 6:36
08 - Mad Dog - 4:28
09 - It's My Life, Baby - 4:11
10 - Murdering Blues - 5:02
11 - My Time After Awhile - 6:17
12 - Broke And Lonely - 4:51