The Johnny Winter Story

About Woodstock: Johnny: "I woke up and wandered onstage"

Many have forgotten that Texas guitarist Johnny Winter was at Woodstock since he didn't appear on the Woodstock albums.

His main recollection is of crawling up to sleep on a pile of garbage in a press trailer.

"Then I woke up and wandered onstage with the band just to see what was going on,"he said. "Whoever was scheduled to be on wasn't on, so the audience saw us and wanted us to go on."

At the time, 'Winter's' manager (Steve Paul) had blown off an agreement to be in the film and on the record. The movie cameras did take footage of Winter, but none of it was included in the final film. 'Woodstock, Three Days Of Peace and Love'. The filmmakers said Winter's act was too strange, he remembers. "Too strange for Woodstock! That was all about flaunting traditions, so that must have been pretty strange."

The set-list was:

• To Tell The Truth"
• Johnny B. Goode
• "Six Feet in the Ground"
• Leland Mississippi Blues or Rock Me Baby?
• Mama, Talk To Your Daughter
• Mean Mistreater
• "I Can't Stand It" with Edgar Winter )
• Tobacco Road...( with Edgar Winter )
• Meantown Blues (encore)

Various movies of this historic pop-festival are available, I'm not sure if Johnny Winter appears in anyone of them, below a summary:

Creation Of Woodstock 1969 Music Festival - Interviews w/ founders & developers of fest. & clips by Ritchie Havens, Leslie West, Mountain, Arlo Guthrie, Janie Jop lin, & Sly & Family Stone. Archival photos & rare & never-b efore-seen film footage. 60 min

Woodstock - 3 Days Of Peace & Music - Woodstock set the standard for all rockumentaries to come. Sensing that the now-legendary 1969 Woodstock concert would be something more than a mere "happening", director Michael Wadleigh brought along a battalion of cinematographers and assistants. As a result, what could have been an aloof, detached record of the landmark concert is as "up close and personal" as it was possible to get without actually being there. Utilizing widescreen, splitscreen, and stereo-sound technology to the utmost, Wadleigh puts us right in the middle of the 400,000 screaming, mud-caked spectators, then zooms in to loving closeups of the stars. Edited by Martin Scorsese (among many others), the finished product won the 1970 Oscar for Best Documentary-and was also stamped with an "R" rating due to some innocuous (by 1990s standards) nudity and profanity. The talent lineup includes Canned Heat, Richie Havens, Country Joe and the Fish, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Santana, David Crosby and Stephen Stills, Jefferson Airplane, Joe Cocker, Arlo Guthrie, John Sebastian, Sly and the Family Stone, Ten Years After and Sha Na Na. The original 184 minute running time was expanded to 224 minutes for the 1994 video version, featuring previously excised footage of Janis Joplin. One of our favorite shots in Woodstock has no music at all: the final image, as a group of dour policemen survey the garbage and debris left behind by the Woodstock Naton.

The Compilation album Woodstock - 3 Days Of Peace & Music released on four CD's contains "Mean Town Blues" performed by Johnny Winter.

Woodstock: Director's Cut

23 or 24 Aug 1969 - Shea Stadium in New York

Sat 30 Aug 1969 until Mon 1 Sep 1969 Texas International Pop Festival

Dallas International Motor Speedway, Louisville, TX. Other artists: included Canned Heat, Janis Joplin, James Cotton, Santana , Sam & Dave, Chicago, Led Zeppelin , Sly and the Family Stone and Ten Years After.

Sat 30 Aug 1969
1. Canned Heat
2. Chicago Transit Authority
3. James Cotton Blues Band
4. Janis Joplin

Sun 31 Aug 1969
1. Chicago Transit Authority
2. James Cotton Blues Band
3. Delaney and Bonnie and Friends
4. Incredible String Band
5. B.B. King

Mon 1 Sep 1969
1. Johnny Winter
2. Delaney and Bonnie and Friends
3. B.B. King
4. Nazz
5. Sly and the Family Stone

The Texas International Pop concert of Johnny Winter resulted in the record: "White Lighting" and is also available on video

Setlist of Johnny Winter at the Texas International Pop Festival 1969
1. Intro
2. Mean town blues
3. Black cat bone
4. Mean mistreater
5. Talk to your daughter
6. Leland, Mississipi
7. I'm not sure (fade out)

Someone remembers:

I first saw Johnny Winter at the Texas International Pop Festival in 1969, a few weeks after Woodstock. There were close to 300,000 people there.

Johnny was dressed entirely in white and was wearing a white jacket with long fringe. He played at night on the third day and when the spotlights hit him I'm sure he could be seen for miles. I imagine people looking out of their plane windows could have seen him that night. He reflected light so well.

I can't remember if he had a bass player or not. I have always heard that he did some gigs for a while without one. And it was around that same time. Apparently Johnny and Tommy Shannon had some falling out. I saw Tommy Shannon about a year after Stevie Ray had died, when his new band was playing at a club near where I worked. I mentioned his early stuff with Johnny Winter and got a very chilly response. I guess he was still really hurting from Stevies death, and apparently Johnny Winter is still a sore subject with him. But Stevie was the best friend Tommy ever had. They were like brothers. But I digress.

At the time of the Texas International Pop Festival, Leeland Mississippi was pretty much Johnny's theme song. I used to hear it on top 40 radio every now and then. I remember he played it that night. He probably opened with it.

I didn't see him again untill he toured with the band on the "Captured Live" album, with Randy Joe Hobbs and the rest. Except for the festival and maybe one other show, that was probably the show I liked the best.

Not long after Captured Live Johnny returned more to his bluesy roots and stop doing so many of his older rock-n-roll songs. He was as good as ever, but their were a lot of tunes he just didn't play very often anymore, such as Still Alive and Well, and Rock-n-Roll Hootchie Koo, and Leeland Mississippi.

I started seeing him fairly regularly in the late seventies and early eighties. He came around quite a lot. He stuck with the same trio for quite a while. The bass player blew harp on almost every song, it seemed. He had a special harmonica rack that looked like a clear plastic tube. He blew harp while he played bass. That trio was perfect for Johnny. That band accounts for some of the best performances I ever saw Johnny give.

I was still missing some of his old rock songs though. Then one time I saw him in a bar (with the same three-piece band). The band seemed to be in a great mood that night, and it was a good crowd too. There was a built-in table that surrounded the whole stage. That is where I was sitting. People who were sitting there started writing song requests on napkins and passing them up to the bass player to read. After Johnny had done a few requests, I decided this might be my opportunity to hear Leland Mississippi live for the first time in almost ten years. So I handed the request to the bass player, and he whispered in Johnny's ear. Johnny and the bass player went over and talked to the drummer for a while. I don't think they had ever even rehersed that song before as a group, because they talked about it for quite a while. Then Johnny stepped up to the mike and said,"Here's an old one that I haven't played in a long time, called Leland Mississippi."

They played it perfectly, and the crowd went nuts. Johnny's fans are some of the most loyal in the music business. They are mostly old timers who know his music backwards and forwards. I think everyone else was as happy as me to hear that song after such a long time.

Johnny was obviously enjoying himself at this point. I never saw him so happy at a show before or since. At one point someone requested a song, and Johnny and the bass player had another meeting. Then Johnny said into the mike," We've got a song we're gonna do, but I'm going to let my bass player play guitar." Then they switched, and Johnny started playing bass. I believe it was Wipe Out, but they ended up doing three songs that way, if I remember right. They were all laughing and having a blast up there. That was obvious. Anyway, they did do Wipe Out (of all songs for Johnny to play), and they were loving it. The drummer did a solo, and then came out from behind his drumms and started playing his solo on mike stands and anything he could get to. He eventually came to the front of the stage and started drumming on the stage floor and the table that surrounded it. He was right at our place at the table and started playing his solo on our glass ashtray. Butts and ashes were flying everywhere, but that was alright. We didn't care. It was a blast.

It was like they were playing in their own garage. They were really having a ball. Eventually Johnny and the bass player switched back and they went back to playing Johnny's stuff. They played a long time, and did several encores. That crowd just wouldn't let the band get out of there that night. That was one of the best shows I ever saw Johnny put on. He also did "Hustled Down in Texas" off of Second Winter. That is the only time I remember hearing him play that song live. I've never seen Johnny have so much fun as on that night.

saw him a lot of times after that too. I've seen him so many times I really couldn't count them all. Another good show saw I was back in 1985 roughly. That was when he was billed with Edgar's band and The Greg Allman Band. Edgar opened the show, and he was in top form. He almost had a fussion sound mixed in with his past styles. It's obvious that Edgar just keeps studying. Everytime you see him he is better, and introducing new elements into his music.

After Edgar, Greg Allman's band came on. They had Dangerous Dan Toller on lead if I remember right. They had plenty of guitar power to do all of the Allman brothers material. In fact it really sounded more like an Allman Brothers concert. They did Whipping Post, Statesboro Blues, and a lot of other Allman Brothers stuff. Then Johnny came on. He didn't have a bit of trouble topping Edgar and Greg. I really thought there might be a few Greg Allman fans leaving after his show, but that didn't happen. That was one of the best shoes I have ever seen.

I don't know if there are any other Johnny Winter fans out there, (in this ng) but this post is for them.

Saturday, 27 September 1969: The Johnny Winter Story

On Saturday, 27 September 1969 "The Johnny Winter Story" a compilation of early tracks cut during his days in Chicago, and released by GRT peaks US #111

3 October 1969: Massey Hall,Toronto, Canada

Opening act for the Johnny Winter Show was the local band: Whiskey Howl

Saturday, 25 October 1969: Boston Garden, Boston, Massachusetts

14-15 Nov 1969 - Fillmore east.

Johnny Winter was the man of the night his southern slide, twang guitar style is so very cool and unique and you just must hear rock and roll hoochie coo the man served up some hot and spicy texas blues and sheer rock sweating passion as with the other musical selections just smooth tight harmony  this mixed with the raw real abandon as you can see in his pictures it was just he and the band with the music they were playing for that time the whole of his world was right there on that stage a "true natural force of nature loose in this house of music that was and is Johnny Winter" Then came something and someone I could hardly believe the man introduced his brother Edgar I think I remember him saying this is his new york debut but in all truth I was so blown away by Johnny all I was thing now their are two of them how can this be that thought didn't last long because the man came out like the best professional of the day sat at the organ and with that band and his brother at the helm, they rocked the house down and I do indeed mean "some down with it all rock and roll" as Edgar moved to other instruments, sax, organ etc. and is a virtuoso with each as he sang while mixing in textures in voice and music performance, truly gifted young men, a night I still don't want to forget.

28-29 Nov 1969 West Palm Beach festival

Thanks giving weekend in 1969. It was at a drag strip outside of West Palm on the way to Okechobee (sp?). The band at that time was Johnny, Edgar Winter, Uncle John Turner and Tommy Shannon.

Among others, Grand Funk played three nights also. The show featured Iron Butterfly, King Crimson (Robin Fripp and Greg Lake), Jefferson Airplane, Rotary Connection (Minnie Ripperton), PG&E, Rolling Stones, Vanilla Fudge, Janis Joplin and Her Full Tilt Boogie Band, and others.
On the third night, Johnny played, then Vanilla Fudge played followed by Janis. Afterwards, the announcer said, Johnny wants it, Janis wants it, and the Fudge wants one. All three bands came out on stage and jammed.
Edgar jammed with the drummers, Snooky Flowers, Janis' sax player, and with the organist from Vanilla Fudge. Tommy Shannon (SRVaughn's Double Trouble Band) jammed with both bass players and Johnny jammed with the guitar players. But the top of the show was Janis and Johnny doing some good ole scat singing Texas Blues style.

Johnny jammed with the guitar players and scatted with Janis, Edgar jammed on drums with the other drummers and on sax with Snooky Flowers, etc. It was a unusual and wonderful thing.

Saturday, 6 December 1969: Second Winter

Johnny Winter's album: "Second Winter" reaches position 55 in the Billboard charts

11,12,13 December 1969 Boston Tea Party

Johnny Winter, Sons of Champlin, Ten Wheel Drive perform at the Boston Tea Party on Lansdowne Street

Friday, 19 December 1969: Madison Square Garden

Janis Joplin with guest apperance from Johnny Winter

A promotional ad from 1969