Im not gonna dwell on Johnnys death any longer, too sad. But heres a bit from my book concerning him. Although I never met Johnny Winter, I played and was friends with someone who did- Mr. John Lee Hooker JOHNNY WINTER I was so curious to see how one of the worlds most influential musicians lived. His house was in a nice neighborhood, but modest. A young girl answers the door, and then disappears to find who I’m looking for. John Lee Hooker appears and he is dressed casually, just looking like a regular old granddad or something. He greets me warmly with a “Hey there, Slapper!” (his nickname for me), and shows me to his den. Its wood-paneled walls are completed plastered with memorabilia and pictures of him with everybody whos anybody in the blues world. John starts telling little stories about each picture, but the one that most catches my eye features my all time favorite blues-rock guitarist - Johnny Winter, who Id seen play at least a dozen times. During his concerts I would push my way to the front of the crowd and do my best to position myself directly in front of Johnny. I was fascinated by his use of effects pedals, and wanted to see how he got those psychedelic swirly sounds and find out which device did what. They sat at his feet like little sonic spaceships, waiting to be clicked on and off at the guitarists whim. Stomp! On. Stomp! Off. What a sense of power when even your feet are in charge of something that important. I especially was mesmerized by his phase-shifter… The source of the tones that touched my soul was revealed to me through this reconnaissance, and his was a huge influence on the rather unorthodox incorporation of effects into my flute playing. Sure, a lot of flutists were keen on adding a little reverb and delay, but armed with knowledge from watching Johnny, I recklessly embraced any effects I could get my hands on, mimicked his volume too. If I liked it so much then why not try it on my own instrument, I reasoned. It took years and years to learn to control those little bastards though - made for a wooden host, they reacted wildly having a metal instrument as the source signal. No matter, a thousand joints later I figured it all out and created my own world of sound. Never was a better use of my time made. To me that shits the original cyberspace. I would be remiss now not to mention Johnnys astonishing technique and speed; why that boy could take you on one amazing supersonic lightning ride! Hes still playing his ass off in the 21st century too, just sitting down now instead of twirling around on stage like when he was younger. His fingers are still faster than light in a vacuum though.
Posted on: Fri, 18 Jul 2014 08:04:10 +0000
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