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I saw Johnny & Edgar many many times back in NYC, from small clubs to MSG; they almost always showed up together even if only one was mentioned as the nights performer. Gonna find some time to break out those CDs tonight and groove on some true American blues.......
Damn.... I've seen him numerous times, and to be honest his later years he was a shell of himself on stage, but I'd still drop a twenty to go watch him play. Nobody else like him, not even close, to his stage personna, and man could he rock the electric blues.
I remember reading up on albinism when I first became a fan of him back in the 1970's and discovered that the average life span of somebody with albinism was 48 years due to problems from sun exposure mostly. He ended up living close to a normal length life... but he will be missed for sure. What a trip it was to watch him onstage, with his skinny ass porcelain white bony body all covered in tats ripping blues riffs non-stop. They broke the mold after he was born.
He and his brother Edgar actually lived for a few years in my home town of Rhinebeck in upstate NY back in the early 70's. They lived on an old farm, and they would perform with their bands at "dances" at the town hall. Unfortunately, I was just a bit too young to go to these (wasn't even really paying attention to music yet, still playing army scenarios and hide and go seek, etc), but I heard stories later on about them.
Here is his obituary from Rolling Stone, it has some good links within the obit (got to visit the Rolling Stone page to get access to the links, which I put in bold in obit below):
Johnny Winter, Texas Blues Guitar Icon, Dead at 70
The guitarist, who won Grammys for producing Muddy Waters and co-wrote "Rock & Roll Hoochie Koo," was on tour in Europe at the time of his death
by Kory Grow
JULY 17, 2014
Johnny Winter, the Texas blues guitarist who added his own unique current of electricity to songs like "Highway 61 Revisited," "Johnny B. Goode" and "Jumpin' Jack Flash" in the late Sixties and throughout the Seventies, died Wednesday in his hotel room in Zurich, according to his publicist. He had been on tour in Europe and most recently had played in Wiesen, Austria. Winter was 70.
The Lion in Johnny Winter: A Tribute to the Guitar Icon
"His wife, family and bandmates are all saddened by the loss of one of the world's finest guitarists," a representative for Winter said in a statement. "An official statement with more details shall be issued at the appropriate time."
Winter, along with his younger brother Edgar, rose to prominence in their early 20s and turned heads both for their musicianship and stark-white hair, a result of the musicians' albinism.
The guitarist was born in Beaumont, Texas in 1944 and rose to prominence in his early 20s after a Rolling Stone cover story on Texas music in December 1968. "If you can imagine a 130-pound, cross-eyed albino with long fleecy hair playing some of the gutsiest, fluid blues guitar you ever heard, then enter Johnny Winter," wrote Larry Sepulvado and John Burks in the issue. "At 16, [Mike] Bloomfield called him the best white blues guitarist he ever heard.... No doubt about it, the first name that comes to mind when you ask emigrant Texans about the good musicians that stayed back home is Winter's." The guitarist, who had previously played in a band with his younger brother Edgar (who scored a Seventies hit with "Frankenstein"), was playing in a trio at the time. After the article came out, Winter was offered several deals and eventually signed a reported $600,000 contract with Columbia.
Johnny Winter and the 100 Greatest Guitarists
Although Winter had put out a debut LP in 1968, The Progressive Blues Experiment, which would reach Number 40 on the Top 200, his first release for Columbia in June of the following year, Johnny Winter, rose to Number 24 and featured Edgar on keyboards. He quickly released a follow-up in October, Second Winter. Both records featured a mix of originals and covers of songs by Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan, B.B. King, Sonny Boy Williamson and more. Between those two albums' release, Winter played an hour-long noon set on the last day of Woodstock.
In his lifetime, the bluesman issued nearly 20 studio LPs. His most recent album, Roots, came out in 2011 and featured guests ranging from Warren Haynes to Edgar on songs by the likes of Elmore James and Jimmy Reed. A four-disc retrospective box set, True to the Blues: The Johnny Winter Story, was released in February 2014. Winter's final album, Step Back, which features appearances by Eric Clapton, ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons and Aerosmith's Joe Perry, among others, is scheduled to come out on September 2nd.
100 Greatest Guitarist, David Fricke's Picks: Johnny Winter
Outside of his own work, Winter co-produced the 1970 hit "Rock & Roll, Hoochie Koo" for Rick Derringer, and produced three LPs for Muddy Waters in the late Seventies, earning three Grammys for his work with the blues legend.
"It's a living music," Winter once said of his chosen genre. "For me, blues is a necessity."
For you guys younger than 50, who may not be fully familiar with Johnny's music, please let me recommend a CD released in 1992 by Legacy Music..
It is entitled "Johnny Winter Scorchin' Blues", and it contains 10 blues songs performed by Johnny between 1968 thru 1978...
Simply awesome blues songs by Johnny and his distinct guitar style...
R.I.P. Johnny,, We're gonna miss you and your music...
Awesome blues guitar player and music legend!! He'll be missed- his guitar riffs, and that voice..."life changing stuff!" Loved his Second Winter album amongst many memorable songs Rock and Roll, Hoochie Goo!, Johnny.
Always loved Johnny. Saw him many times, once from front row center in a small club. He could rock it. Couldn't sing much, but he could play! Damn, we're getting old! Johnny B. Good:
I loved his music. So many great albums. Particularly liked Johnny Winter and Live. The Muddy Waters album, Hard Again, that Johnny both produced and I think played on was superb. You will be sadly missed.