http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/125864-raisin-cain-the-wild-and-raucous-story-of-johnny-winter
By Mary Lou Sullivan
10 June 2010
Excerpted from Chapter 5, "The Legend Begins" of Raisin' Cain: The
Wild and Raucous Story of Johnny Winter by Mary Lou Sullivan
--
While Johnny was meeting with the Vernon Brothers in England, Rolling
Stone was going to press with an article that would change his life.
On December 7, 1968, the counterculture music magazine ran a cover
story written by Larry Sepulvado and John Burks, who traveled to the
Lone Star State to report on the music scene. The main illustration,
a photograph of Johnny in a formal seated pose with the caption
JOHNNY WINTER, ALBINO BLUESMAN, was spread over two pages and ran
beneath the "Texas" headline. Although the article mistakenly called
Edgar his "identical twin brother," it gave him instant credibility
with Mike Bloomfield's acknowledgement that Johnny was the "best
white blues guitarist he had ever heard" and Chet Helms's description
of him as "incredible." A former Texas resident, Helms had talked
Janis Joplin into leaving Austin and later convinced Big Brother and
the Holding Company to hire her as their singer. With credentials
like these, along with his famed "Family Dog" concert and light-show
productions at the Fillmore and Avalon ballrooms, Helms's opinion
carried weight.
"When I got back to Texas, Rolling Stone had this big article that
said how great I was," says Johnny. "It was everywhereeverybody read
Rolling Stone. It called me the hottest thing in Texas outside of
Janis Joplin. The reporter saw me in the Love Street Light Circus but
I never knew he was there. That article was excellent; I didn't know
how much it would do, but I knew it was gonna be a big help to us. It
helped us get more money at the club, and I was going to New York to
talk to Steve Paul, who wanted to be my manager."
Steve Paul, a twenty-seven-year-old New York entrepreneur from the
Bronx ("one of the best boroughs in town") owned the Scene, a trendy
nightclub in Manhattan. A former restaurant publicist with numerous
contacts in the music industry, Paul was fascinated by the nightclub
scene and remembered "loving and sneaking into all sorts of New York
nightlife at an early age… My concept [for the Scene] was organic,
eclectic, and open minded," he said. As owner of the hippest club in
New York City at a time when the rock music scene was exploding, Paul
enjoyed the music and company of a wide circle of rock stars and
famous musicians.
"Everybody had an amazing time, including me," he said, as he tosses
off names of notable artists who frequented and jammed at his club.
"Johnny Winter, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Eric
Clapton, the McCoys, the Who, the Velvet Underground, among others,"
he said. "How can you not like all these people, especially when they
come to your club? They're all great musicians and interesting
characters." The Rolling Stones, Beatles, and Led Zeppelin also
frequented the Scene, and Paul considered Johnny "equal to the best of them."
Before Johnny met with Paul, he and his band flew to San Francisco to
talk to record executives at Mercury Records. Texas native Doug Sahm,
founder of the Sir Douglas Quintet, whose single "She's About a
Mover" on Mercury Records reached thirteen on the charts, set up the meeting.
"Doug Sahm got Mercury Records to pay our way to San Francisco," said
[Uncle John] Turner. "The Rolling Stone article came out at the same
time. Record labels were calling our hotel room from the East Coast
saying don't sign anything yetgive us a chance. I don't know how
they knew we were in San Francisco. I guess the word got out."
Also in relentless pursuit, Paul who had talked to Johnny for hours
on the payphone at the Vulcan Gas Company, left phone messages at
Johnny's parents' house, and tracked him across the country. "I was
really into blues and great players and Johnny seemed like an
exciting and colorful musician, which indeed he is," said Paul.
"When I went to California, he called me at every place I was there,"
Johnny says. "I don't know how he got my number. He'd call me at
restaurants, everywhere. I thought he was kind of an idiot. I wasn't
sure if I believed him or not. Believed he really was who he said he was."
Johnny and company stayed on the West Coast for several weeks.
Mercury Records arranged for them to play a Tuesday night audition at
the Fillmore and a gig at the Matrix, a small, hip club near North Beach.
"The Matrix was owned by Grace Slick's husband," said Turner. "Jerry
Garcia was there; he was part owner. It was a club like the Scene,
although it was nowhere as big or as cool. But it was a cool place to
play; there were a lot of record people there."
Although Mercury Records offered Johnny a lucrative deal, the label
wanted artistic control, something Johnny was determined not to give
up. He returned to Texas to see what Paul had to offer.
"Steve Paul looked up my number in the phone book and called me when
he flew in to Houston," says Johnny. "He came to my house. I thought
he was kinda crazy; he saw us but he never said he liked us or not.
We couldn't figure out why he was so excited about signing us if he
didn't have any feelings for us. It was very strange that he never
said he liked us."
Paul may not have told Johnny he liked the band, but considered that
meeting "exciting and enjoyable" and on a personal level, found
Johnny to be "really smart, funny, and enjoyable to be with."
Nevertheless, Johnny doesn't think that goodwill ever extended to the
rest of the band.
The Scene: A Basement Club Under a Dirty Bookstore
"Later on I found out he didn't like Tommy [Shannon] or Uncle John
[Turner] at all," says Johnny. "He didn't think they were as good
musically as they needed to be, but he didn't say anything about that
for a good while. He waited. He never did have opinions of his own.
He would ask his friends what their opinions were and he'd get enough
opinions in one direction and that would be his decision. He was real
strange about that."
Despite Paul's comments that he loved the blues and blues
artistsMuddy Waters was the first recording artist he hired to play
at the SceneJohnny believes he only embraced the genre because it
was trendy in the late '60s.
"Steve Paul wasn't into bluesnot particularly. He just knew blues
was very popular at the time. He was a New Yorker, a fast talker. He
wasn't like anybody I ever knew. He never seemed to have a thing for
girlshe never liked guys either. We couldn't figure out what he was,
but he just didn't go for either sex. He didn't want us to knowI
guess he felt we would be down on him if he told us he was gay, so he
didn't tell us.
"He said, 'Let's go to New York and I'll show you what I can do.' And
he did. I stayed at his house and he took me to the Fillmore to see
Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper. I sat in with them and played 'It's My
Own Fault,' and blew everybody away. The crowd gave me a standing
ovation. They just flipped out completely. They'd seen all the stuff
in Rolling Stone and were waitin' to see what I was like. Everybody
wanted to sign me up after that. Steve didn't make me sign until
after he had gotten a deal with ColumbiaI had already signed with
Columbia when I signed a management deal with him. He had owned the
Scene for several years when I met him. It was a big club on
Forty-Sixth and Eighth Avenue, a basement club under a dirty
bookstore. I played a lot at the Scene and played with a lot of
people there including Jimi Hendrix."
"Steve Paul was a cool person," said Turner. "A brilliant,
fast-thinking New Yorker, he hung with the Warhol crowd. Steve Paul
delivered the $600,000 deal. He got the money and he also brought
Johnny to New York to his club and got him to jam with Jimi Hendrix.
In our mind, this guy was powerful."
"Being a hick from Texas, I didn't know what to think of Steve Paul,"
said Shannon. "I'd never seen a New York Jewish guy before. It was
weird how it happened. One night, Uncle John and I were sleeping on
the floor with our clothes in footlockers. The next day, we fly into
the airport, where there were two beautiful girls waiting on us. We
went from there to some mansions in upstate New York. We went from
sleeping on the floor to living in mansions overnight."
Shannon also had another experience in New York he had never
encountered in Texas.
"When we first moved to New York, there was a black guy named Jason
who was supposed to be our valet," said Shannon. "He was gay and fell
in love with me. I was so dumb, I had no idea. One night, we went out
and ate with a big group of people. He came over and sat in my lap,
and I still didn't get it. Everybody started laughing and I couldn't
figure it out. Someone had to tell me he was gay. After that it was
like, 'Get away from me, man!'"
Steve Paul enjoyed traveling with an entourage. Whether the initial
destination was a restaurant, a concert, or a Broadway play, the
group always ended up at his nightclub. He had opened the Scene just
off of Manhattan's theatre district in 1964. The blue-canopied
basement club quickly became the place to see and be seen. Tiny Tim
of "Tip-Toe Thru the Tulips with Me" fame got his first break at the
Scene in 1965 when Paul hired him, and he soon earned the title of
House Freak. The Scene was also a spawning ground for up-and-coming
musicians and the place where legendary players always stopped by for
the good-looking groupies and impromptu jams.
"There was always a line outside the Scene and lots of celebrities,"
says Johnny. "Jimi Hendrix and all of the English bands who came to
New Yorkonce they left their gigs, they came to jam. It was a real
well known place for rock 'n' roll people. There was everything in
the Scene in 1968heroin and cocaine, speed, ups, downs, grass. They
pretty much did it in the open and nobody cared."
Turner and Shannon were also dazzled by the Scene and the musicians
the club attracted.
"All the people at the Scene were famous," said Turner. "Rod Stewart,
Joe Cocker. One of the first times we went there Jerry Lee Lewis played."
"The first time I went to the Scene I couldn't believe it," said
Shannon. "Jimi Hendrix and Rod Stewart were there, as well as the
most beautiful girls you can imagine. You have to remember, we were
hicks from Texas. I couldn't believe Jimi Hendrix was sitting over
there, Jerry Lee Lewis was thereany night of the week, you would go
in and there'd be great musicians. I played with all the great guitar
players just about… Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Muddy Waters, and all
the Kings [Albert, Freddie, B. B.], just about all the great guitar
players except Jimi Hendrix."
Early in their careers, Jimi Hendrix, the Doors, the Rascals, Blood,
Sweat & Tears, and the Chambers Brothers performed at the club, which
was known for its horrible ventilation, deafening acoustics, and
laissez-faire attitude. Raven, a Buffalo-based rock/blues/jazz band
that relocated to New York City, played there regularly, and was the
backdrop for Johnny to dazzle new audiences with his mastery of the
guitar. Other house bands included the McCoys; Free Spirits, a
jazz-rock band with Larry Coryell and Jim Pepper; and Players, which
featured Dan Armstrong, the studio session guitarist and luthier who
invented the clear Plexiglas guitar. Patrons witnessed musical
history in the making at amazing jams by Janis Joplin and Eric
Burdon; Tiny Tim and the Doors; Richie Havens and Joan Baez; Jimmy
Page and Jeff Beck; Hendrix and B. B. King; the Monkees and Frank
Zappa; Hendrix and Jim Morrison; and Hendrix and Johnny Winter.
--
Mary Lou Sullivan is a music journalist whose 30-year career began at
a dinner with Bruce Springsteen. She first interviewed Johnny Winter
in 1984, a meeting that led to a close rapport that has only deepened
through the years. When Johnny was ready to tell his story, she was
the only one he trusted. Mary Lou Sullivan lives in Connecticut.
.
0 comments:
Post a Comment