15/09/2025
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SEPTEMBER 1970 (55 YEARS AGO)
Johnny Winter: Johnny Winter And is released.
# ALL THINGS MUSIC PLUS+ 4.5/5
# Allmusic 4.5/5
# Rolling Stone (see original review below)
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Johnny Winter And is the fourth studio album by Johnny Winter, released in September 1970. It reached #154 on the Billboard 200 Top LP's chart.
Although Johnny Winter And — the band the Texas blues guitar legend briefly fronted with fellow guitarist/vocalist Rick Derringer — only made two records together, many regard this group as one of the highlights of Winter's career. Although the band itself was short-lived, Winter and Derringer continued to collaborate off and on for several years, most notably on Derringer's most famous tune, "Rock And Roll Hootchie Koo." Derringer also played in several of brother Edgar Winter's bands during the seventies.
ORIGINAL ROLLING STONE REVIEW
A bad title for a terrific album. The title implies: Superstar and ... the boys. But this album is much more than Johnny Winter being Mister Ultimate Speedfingers while an anonymous rhythm section tries to keep up. Johnny plays with his new band, not on top of them. The new band consists of three ex-McCoys, a dyed-in-the-wool Rock Band. They still are. And good musicians—especially Rick Derringer, the guitarist-singer who shares the limelight with Johnny Winter.
This album contains—surprise!—no blues. It is Rock and Roll at its very best. Good, solid songs—a few of them instant classics. The singing is funky, full of raspy screams, pushing the music towards some sort of ultimate ... edge.
The soul of the album is the interplay between Johnny Winter and Rick Derringer. On stage, it's easy to see how it works. Derringer plays guitar straight from the groin: solid-snaky rock lines. The root. Winter seems to play guitar in a state of transported ecstasy, like the bare electric skeleton of rock dancing in the mind-juice river. The branch. Winter's guitar-imagination has greater scope than Derringer's. Winter's guitar builds on Derringer's, elaborating, decorating, getting slinky and sliding right out of your brain. All without ever losing the beat, the sexual thread of the music.
Together, they sound like Hendrix playing behind Clapton. In fact, the album will remind you of the best moments of early Hendrix and early Cream. "Am I Really Here" sounds much like Cream's "White Room." The vocal to "Rock and Roll Hoochiekoo" has the same slide-punch inflections as Hendrix's singing. There are more examples of Influences At Work Here, but Winter and Derringer are much too good to be mere imitations. They have learned; they have transcended their influences and come up with something all their own.
Playing in a rock context has improved Winter's playing (if you can believe that possible). He seems more down-to-earth, more believable. You can dance to it. In fact, you'd better.
The material is surprisingly good — especially Derringer's compositions. "Rock and Roll Hoochiekoo" and "Funky Music" are both sturdy good-time rockers, and would make fine singles. Winter's compositions, though intense and moving, tend to lack form. They sometimes, as on "Nothing Left," fall apart in your ear. But what the hell. This is fine stuff, by far the best thing Johnny Winter has done. And that's saying something. (RS 69)
~ David Gancher (October 29, 1970)
TRACKS:
Side one
"Guess I'll Go Away" (Johnny Winter) (3:28)
"Ain't That a Kindness" (Mark Klingman) (3:29)
"No Time to Live" (Jim Capaldi, Steve Winwood) 4:36
"Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo" (Rick Derringer) (3:31)
"Am I Here?" (Randy Zehringer) (3:24)
"Look Up" (Rick Derringer) (3:34)
Side two
"Prodigal Son" (Johnny Winter) (4:18)
"On the Limb" (Rick Derringer) (3:36)
"Let the Music Play" (Allan Nicholls, Otis Stephens) (3:15)
"Nothing Left" (Johnny Winter) (3:30)
"Funky Music" (Rick Derringer) (4:55)