In 1970, it seemed the blues boom had run its course. In England, the top practitioners of blues rock were starting to move away from the form. Fleetwood Mac lost its leader in 1970, and just a few years later, their albums bore little resemblance to their hard edged blues records from the late 60’s. Eric Clapton has said that after he heard The Band’s Music From Big Pink, he felt that the heavy blues rock he was producing with Cream was now outdated. He soon left Cream and formed Blind Faith with Steve Winwood, and after that short lived project collapsed, he hooked up with Delaney and Bonnie and Friends. It was with from their backing band that he put together the band for his first solo record, which featured the more countrified, down-home blues sound he had been pursuing. He soon toured and recorded with them under the name Derek and the Dominos. While artists like Fleetwood Mac and Clapton pursued a more middle of the road sound, others turned their amps up and pursued a more riff-oriented hard rock sound. Among the latter group was Johnny Winter. In 1970, after putting out two blues- oriented albums, he put together a new backing band, and recorded Johnny Winter and… which took him in a deucedly more rock-oriented direction, although still bluesy.
Johnny Winter had established his career first and foremost as a blues man. It was as a blues player that he got the attention of Rolling Stone magazine, who did a feature on Texas music that included him. It was that article that got the attention of an entrepreneur named Steve Paul, who had Winter perform at his club, and eventually took on managerial duties for him. A contract with Columbia Records soon followed. His first album was largely straight blues, with his second album edging more toward rock. When his third album came out, his music had definitely crossed the line into rock. This transition would continue for the next several years until around 1977, when he released Nothing But the Blues, which brought him back to his first love.
However, in 1970, Johnny Winter and... continued on this early detour. Since the line between rock and blues is thin, and the second album was already starting in that direction, it may seem more like a natural progression. Add to that the fact that he now had a new three-piece backing band formerly known as the McCoys, who struck it big in 1965 with Hang on Sloopy. This new band, of course, featured second guitarist Rick Derringer, who, like Winter, is now a legend. Several of the songs on Johnny Winter and… were penned by Derringer, including Rock and Roll Hootchie Koo, which Derringer made a hit of his own in 1973. I have embedded the YouTube link to that song here. To me, it sounds more raw than Derringer’s, version, which was probably polished to be a rock radio hit. Also, the second and third verses are switched in Winter’s version.
The idea I get from the various Johnny Winter interviews I’ve read is that while he doesn’t regret making his third album, he still would have preferred playing the blues. That is always where his heart was at. I am not an expert on Johnny Winter, but it seems that from 1977 on, he has played strictly blues for the most part. Through the late 70’s playing with Muddy Waters and his band, and the 80’s on the Alligator label, and what I have heard since then, he was and always will be a blues player. He may have crossed back over into rock, or gone into country of jazz at different times, I don’t know. But if his hard rock records of the early 70’s were an aberration, I’m glad he did detour for a while, at least to make Johnny Winter and…
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