He was lionized as an authentic bluesman when Rolling Stone discovered him in 1968, and that's how he ended up-only a racist would deny his feeling for this music. (Hint: showbiz kids relate to rock-schlock more authentically than albino bluesmen.) C+ I prefer to figure out why Helen Reddy's version of "Raised on Rock" scores two out of a possible three on a credibililty scale of ten while Johnny's gets one. Those who considered Saints and Sinners a masterpiece or hard rock and roll should find this satisfactory. Rock and roll the way Johnny likes it, however, was meant to have a human dimension, and since he has trouble projecting irony or intimacy anyhow, a lot of these die a little when Derringer mixes them into heavy cuts. The average live-sound band is too busy doing promotional tours for its current album to worry about material for the next, but here the songs are lovingly chosen-there's even a good one from the pitiful Richard Supa. Rick Derringer has done the standard live-sound job, in which echo is amplified into unnatural "depth," and theoretically that's fine. I think what puts me off this otherwise searing assertion of rock and roll prowess is the engineering. White blues lives: the best and heaviest track is a Hoodoo Rhythm Devils song. Nastiest: the Delta-styled "Too Much Seconal" and "Ain't Nothing to Me," dedicated to the subversive notion that sometimes the impassivity of country music is a little sadistic. Winter will never be an especially personable singer, but I like what's he's putting out on this monkey-off-my-comeback: two late-Stones covers, plenty of slide, and a good helping of nasty. But except for an intense "Good Morning Little School Girl" it doesn't get any encores.
B+Įxcept for the eight-minute "Mean Town Blues," which damn near transforms John Lee Hooker's shuffle into a stumble, this is what every live album ought to be and all too few are: loud, fast, raucous, and to the point. Ex-bluesman Winter represents the South-spacey ex-blues guitar, formless FM songs, exalted vocals (and you thought spacey ex-blues was an insult). White, Hot and Blue B-Įx-popstar Rick Derringer represents the North-real McCoy rock guitar, contentless AM songs, dumb vocals (watch out Steve Miller here comes Dino Valenti).
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