Dec 172011
I encourage you to watch this clip of Johnny Winter playing “Rock ‘n Roll Hootchie Koo.” Watch it all the way through. Pay close attention to Winter and the surrounding scene. Enjoy the wonder of it all. Share your feelings on some of the most wonderful moments.
Amazing how one can be hypercritical of a band such as Wild Flag and yet give a free pass to a jam that sounds straight out of a Sam Ash store. Makes me want to apply to the Bad Attitude club immediately.
dr john, why do YOU have such a bad attitude with me? I did not give a “free pass” to this video. And why carry a grudge against some stuff I wrote months ago? Is one of the band members kin? Shoot! Sure, I was hypercritical of Wild Flag. That’s how I tend to roll. I don’t carry this attitude over to the performance reviews I give my staff, if that’s what you’re worried about. Should I start a blog in which I only express myself in the “professional” manner I try to maintain in my day job? That could get boring fast.
As for this Johnny Winter clip, I enjoy it on many levels other than “great,” and I simply encourage others to enjoy it in whatever way they want to enjoy it. Some may enjoy it by thinking it’s crap. That’s fine. When I watched it I was trying to imagine the scene in that room, with people lamely clapping along to a sort of song that I always liked but am glad we’ve generally moved beyond writing in this day. That whole scene made me laugh from an outsider’s perspective then, and it still makes me feel that way today. That’s all. Considering that my expectations were not let down, it would have been hard for me to get hypercritical over this. Next time I’m psyched to hear a new release involving people whose music I’ve liked in the past I may get hypercritical again. I will accept my fate at Rock Critic Judgement Day.
Sorry: I thought you were giving it a free pass–you now make it more than clear that you did not.
But I don’t feel bad about my overreaction, because it provoked you into saying something truly memorable: “Rock Critic Judgment Day.” That’s gonna have me laughing all day!
Hmmm, that was stagy and dreadful. Johnny Ramone should never ever attempt to play bass again.
Glad we’re square. Sorry I got so inflamed. If I had raved over that for all the crappy I gave Wild Flag, yes, send the hounds on me.
I think the bass player was the one playing a Christmas carol.
And while I also think I may have seen a snippet of an interview with Edgar some time in the early YouTube days, I can’t say I ever considered either of the Winter Bros to have actual human voices. Having a voice doesn’t seem to help Johnny’s timing in his pentatonic diddles, though.
Interesting clip – it seems to have come from a 1969-1970 TV show called Detroit Tube Works. This was a few years before Rick Derringer made “Rock and Roll Hootchie Koo” a big hit. Winter doesn’t appear yet to have hit the heroin brick wall which sidelined him for a few years. Notice how the bass player (who seems to be having a little trouble with the song) is rocking the dreaded-by-Mr.-Mod sleeveless shirt look.
My main response is: tell that bass player to shut the f*ck up! That’s about as bad as it gets as far as bass “accompaniment” goes. Man, I hate when that happens — i.e., when somebody tries to hide the fact that they don’t know the song by playing MORE NOTES. Ugh!
Johnny seems to take it mostly in stride, though I hear the unmistakable sound of a guy who’s trying to hurry through the shitstorm as quickly as he can.
Yeah, the girl on air drums was a much better accompanist than the bass player. I didn’t know the guy from Iron and Wine was around back then. I liked his vest.
The healthy girl straddling the ladder really seemed to like what was going on. The air drums at the end was the real highlight for me.
I wish I had a Hat of Anonymity (+5 Stealth!) like that.
Post of the day!