By Steve Newton
Last year’s top prize for old-school guitar freaks was undoubtedly Skydog: The Duane Allman Retrospective, the seven-disc box set issued on the Rounder label. And now it looks like the biggest “oh-god-I-gotta-have-it!” item in the same category will be True to the Blues: The Johnny Winter Story, which arrives via Sony’s Legacy Recordings this Tuesday (February 25).
The four-disc package–which includes 56 tracks spanning 27 albums–hits the streets two days after Winter celebrates his 70th birthday with a show at the B.B King Blues Club & Grill in New York.
One of the many highlights of True To the Blues is bound to be the King-penned “It’s My Own Fault”, which captures Winter sitting in with Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield at the Fillmore East in December of ’68. In the audience that night was a friend of famed record-mogul Clive Davis, who put the bug in his ear about this shit-hot albino blues-rocker from Texas.
Next thing you knew Winter had been signed to Columbia Records for the then-unprecedented amount of $600,000. The rest is history–and about 23-million of the wildest guitar licks ever laid down for man’s perpetual enjoyment.
Track listing
Disc: 1
- 1. Bad Luck and Trouble
- 2. Mean Town Blues
- 3. Mike Bloomfield’s Introduction of Johnny Winter – Al Kooper, Mike Bloomfield
- 4. It’s My Own Fault – Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper feat. Johnny Winter
- 5. I’m Yours and I’m Hers
- 6. Mean Mistreater
- 7. Dallas
- 8. Be Careful With a Fool
- 9. Leland Mississippi Blues
- 10. Memory Pain
- 11. Highway 61 Revisited
- 12. Miss Ann
- 13. Hustled Down in Texas
- 14. Black Cat Bone
- 15. Johnny B. Goode
Disc: 2
- 1. Eyesight to the Blind
- 2. Johnny Winter’s Intro
- 3. Prodigal Son
- 4. Mean Mistreater
- 5. Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo
- 6. Guess I’ll Go Away
- 7. On the Limb
- 8. It’s My Own Fault
- 9. Jumpin’ Jack Flash
- 10. Good Morning Little School Girl
- 11. Mean Town Blues
Disc: 3
- 1. Still Alive and Well
- 2. Rock Me Baby
- 3. Rock & Roll
- 4. Rollin’ ‘Cross the Country
- 5. Hurtin’ So Bad
- 6. Bad Luck Situation
- 7. Self Destructive Blues
- 8. Sweet Papa John
- 9. Rock & Roll People
- 10. Harlem Shuffle – Edgar Winter & Johnny Winter
- 11. Bony Moronie
- 12. Roll With Me
- 13. Tired of Tryin’
- 14. TV Mama
- 15. Walkin’ Thru the Park
- 16. I Done Got over It – Johnny Winter with Muddy Waters & James Cotton
Disc: 4
- 1. One Step at a Time
- 2. Honest I Do
- 3. Nickel Blues
- 4. Talk Is Cheap
- 5. Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
- 6. Bon Ton Roulet
- 7. Don’t Take Advantage of Me
- 8. Master Mechanic
- 9. Mojo Boogie
- 10. Stranger Blues
- 11. Illustrated Man
- 12. Hard Way
- 13. Highway 61 Revisited
- 14. Maybellene – Johnny Winter & Vince Gill
- 15. Dust My Broom – Johnny Winter & Derek Trucks
