![]() ![]() The thing with the blues is, you can play the same song every night, and every time it’s a different song. Just like Johnny, I’m just another link in the chain. ![]() Johnny’s got the credentials and he’s played with a lot of the greats. I think you’re both bluesmen, at the core. That show got me to put a slide on my finger. That was Johnny and Rick Derringer, and it was a really kick-ass rock band. But I remember going to see him at a club called the Boston Tea Party in Boston in 1969. Johnny and I might have passed each other in the hall that day, but that was probably it. Joe Perry: This one time, many years ago, at the Academy of Music in New York in 1972 – this was before we had a manager – Steve Paul had heard of us and said: “I’ve got this show with Humble Pie and Edgar and Johnny Winter, and I’ll give you twenty minutes so I can check you out.” So we played that show, did our twenty minutes, and he passed on us. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.And is this really the first time your paths have crossed? This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at for further information. Our reviewer, DAY TO DAY blues brother David Was.Ĭopyright © 2007 NPR. WAS: Check out this collection and then go buy some Chess Records discs if you want to smoke the unfiltered brand.ĬHADWICK: Breaking it up, breaking it down, music from Muddy Waters, Johnny Winter and James Cotton. WAS: You might argue that the emergence of the Beastie Boys in the mid-'80s was a parallel invitation to the joys of hip-hop, another in-your-face genre that would win the affections of not only white kids but rappers and B-boys from Paris to Tokyo.įor my money, Muddy Waters was the first gangster rapper, albeit with a G-rated vocabulary and a dignified presence that made him beloved by hippies in search of the lost chord. Of course that was exactly the reason it was embraced by white kids in search of authenticity and emotion after all those thin gruel years of Pat Boone and Herb Alpert records. To many blacks, blues music was a retrograde, rural genre that reminded folks of the hardship and suffering they were leaving behind. WAS: Here's the irony: white kids from New York and Detroit and Pennsylvania, where these concerts were recorded, were embracing a music that it had been shunned in the very community where it was born. WATERS: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much. Their devotion to the Chess Records catalog of the late '40s and '50s fueled the commercial resurgence of these venerable artists and others. But that would change with the rise of the rock and roll blues man: Winter, Eric Clapton and the Rolling Stones. WAS: Until then, blues and jazz were only appreciated by a small but loyal cadre of aficionados. WAS: That year, 1977, Johnny Winter had produced Muddy Waters' album "Hard Again," and this was the tour that supported that release. It's called "Breakin It Up, Breakin' It Down." And it captures not only their easy rapport and respect these guys had, but the palpable excitement of their fledgling blues rock audience. WAS: A new concert recording of this classic salt and pepper ensemble has just been released. WATERS: (Singing) Leave my baby (unintelligible) But in the late '70s, they were being introduced to a generation of young white suburbanites suffused with existential angst. The two blues men used to work together in the funky clubs of Chicago's Southside. WAS: The Beaumont, Texas guitarist had long admired singer Muddy Waters and harmonica virtuoso James Cotton. ![]() MUDDY WATERS (Musician): One, two, three, four. It's David Was, DAY TO DAY's resident musician. Unidentified Man #1: I'd like to welcome you to an evening of blues with James Cotton, Johnny Winter and Muddy Waters.ĭAVID WAS: Thirty years ago this spring, a long-haired albino guitar hero named Johnny Winter sat down with a pair of blues legends. ![]()
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