In February of 1969, Johnny Winter signed with Columbia Records for a record sum of $500,000 and gained worldwide fame seemingly overnight (even though his recording career started in 1959). An ensuing rush to cash in on Winter's fame resulted in countless hodgepodge compilations of his pre-Columbia recordings with inferior sounding dubs and mixes. The compilations were also devoid of any unifying theme or chronology for the material except that Johnny Winter had something to do with the recordings, either as an artist or session man. Unfortunately this practice continued from 1969 up until recent times. Now for the first time ever the crucial and most creative period of Johnny Winter's career is compiled on this thirty-six song, two CD set, covering the years 1965 to 1968. The sound Winter was creating during these three short years, varied from Byrds and Dylan influenced folk-rock (Avocado Green, The World Turns All Around Her, Leavin' Blues) to psychedelic (Birds Can't Row Boats, Take A Chance On My Love, Livin' In The Blues, Comin' Up Fast) to the blues (Be Careful With A Fool, Goin' Down Slow, Kind Hearted Woman, Pneumonia Blues) to hard rock (Hook You and Rock Me). All thirty-six recordings on "Byrds Can't Row Boats" are sourced from the original four track half-inch masters and first generation mix down tapes with twenty tracks previously unreleased. An added bonus is the sixteen-page booklet full of rare and never before seen Johnny Winter memorabilia such as handwritten letters, original sheet music, contracts, and photos. All of this incredible material is sure to astonish anyone who thought they had seen and heard everything when it comes to Johnny Winter. In other-words "Byrds Can't Row Boats" is "Exhibit A" as to why Johnny Winter belongs in the "Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame".
H**D
Winter Wonderland
If you are a fan of Texas guitar music and Johnny and Edgar Winter, this incredible set will bea revelation to you. It traces the development of the Winter brothers through their mid-sixtiesband years where they tempered their deep Beaumont R&B roots with the swinging soundsof the day including 'Highway 61'- period Dylan, raw Texas fuzztone garage rock and even somelate-blooming teen balladeering. Disc one visits all these genres and more and is an absolutemust for Texas 60s garage band fanatics. Johnny (and Edgar) were incredible musicians at evenat a young age and infuse every track with the enthusiasm and excitement of the day. Johnny'sJim McGuinn-style finger-picking and the brother's Byrds harmonies on the title track show justhow versatile they were at this stage in their careers. As a Gulf Coast music fan and a lifelongByrd's fanatic it was poignant to hear Johnny re-cast Gene Clark's "The World Turns All AroundHer" as a haunting swamp pop ballad with Johnny's ace teen idol vocals and Edgar's eerie Voxcombo organ providing counterpoint. Fans of the Winter approach to the blues will not be disappointedwith disc two which amply displays Johnny's natural ease and dexterity when playing virtually everyblues and R&B style from Robert Johnson Delta slide to B.B. King uptown string bending. If you wantto hear how versatile and diverse the Winter brothers really were, don't hesitate to pick this set upwhile you still can. And unlike all previous attempts to present some of this material in CD form, thisrelease is beautifully mastered from the late Huey Meaux's original session and mixdown tapes.
S**N
DIFFERENT SET OF TUNES THAN THE EARLIER 2 CD SET.
I just thought I'd say that this is a different release than the 2003 2 CD set on the Fuel label ("Winter Essentials") which encompasses more of the early years. There is some overlap of songs but this latest compilation has a number of tracks not included on the Fuel set. This latest 2 CD set brings together tracks from 1965-1968, while the Fuel set begins in 1960 through 1967. I believe the Fuel set is o.o.p but still available, so this is something to consider for Winter fans who want to hear him in a sometimes slightly different style. The three "stars" is because it's early in Winter's career--not because the performances are all "average" (3 "stars")--some of these tunes are actually quite good and never less than interesting, and are worthwhile for Winter fans.This period in Winter's musical development is an eye-opener for fans who've only heard the Winter we all know after he signed with Columbia in '68. He gets a chance on these tracks to show his guitar style, which isn't fully formed yet into the blistering sound heard on his pre-Columbia Records Sonobeat label album (later reissued on Liberty which is a scorcher of a blues set), that made people sit up and take notice. There's some good things on this latest trawl through Winter's early stuff including (from 1966) the Byrds-like "The World Turns All Around Her", and the Dylan-influenced "Avocado Green". There's some pretty good blues things like "Pneumonia Blues", and (especially) B.B. King's "Be Careful With A Fool", both closer to Winter's pure blues sound from 1968. Also check out "Hook You", an instrumental from '68 to hear a different slant on Winter's guitar style. "Take A Chance On Love" is a good example of another early instrumental with a psyche/Byrds feel. "Livin' In The Blues" is a fuzz guitar gem. Plus there's garage-rock with "Comin' Up Fast" which is pretty cool. The sound is actually quite good for tapes collected from those early years and studios. The booklet has some good information on a lot of the tracks but I wish there was a list of players when possible. Another small quibble--why aren't the tracks in chronological order to better hear Winter's progression? But the track placement does make for a good listen. To each his own.I was all set to not like this set all that much, especially because I own the "Winter Essentials" set, but I found myself playing it over again just to hear Winter's early style on tracks I hadn't heard before. But if you can find a copy of the 2 CD set "Winter Essentials 1960-1967" from 2000, that too has some good stuff on it like tracks by Johnny and the Jammers from 1960 (which had a release of about 300 records) and so on.
C**C
60-es Punk at its best
Endlich, endlich! Vor vielen Jahren war das Stück "byrds can't row boats" mal auf einem 60-es Sampler drauf, ich glaube es war eine dieser Moxie 7"-es. Für mich ist es einer der besten Songs aus dieser Zeit. Und völlig zu Recht wird das Stück mit "y" geschrieben und nicht mit "i". Wunderbare Gitarren, tolle Melodie, treibend und gut gesungen. Und natürlich mit Hintergrundchor :-) - so soll es sein. Einzig verwirrend, dass der Song hier "you were once a man" heisst... Egal, nur wegen diesem Song lohnt sich die CD. PS: "byrds can't row boats" ist dann zwar gleich gespielt, hat aber einen anderen Text und hier wird dann auch Dylan ziemlich schamlos nachgeeifert, wie auf anderen Stücken auch...
