Quad LP/Tape Poll Winter, Johnny: Still Alive And Well [SQ/Q8]

[EMB]

Johnny in amped-up drug-addled mode from 1973....kind of a domestic version of EXILE ON MAIN STREET.

Side 1:

1. Rock Me Baby
2. Can't You Feel It
3. Cheap Tequila
4. All Tore Down
5. Let It Bleed

Side 2:

1. Silver Train
2. Ain't Nothing To Me
3. Still Alive & Well
4. Too Much Seconal
5. Rock & Roll

 

[Marcsten]

Johnny in amped-up drug-addled mode from 1973....kind of a domestic version of EXILE ON MAIN STREET.

Side 1:

1. Rock Me Baby
2. Can't You Feel It
3. Cheap Tequila
4. All Tore Down
5. Let It Bleed

Side 2:

1. Silver Train
2. Ain't Nothing To Me
3. Still Alive & Well
4. Too Much Seconal
5. Rock & Roll

Take a look at Ole Johnny's eyes on the cover! Probably took quite a while to get THIS good of a shot! I happened to talk to Rick Derringer a couple of years ago after one of his concerts, and asked him (now a Christian) about Johnny and Edgar. He said Edgar was great, but Johnny was 'sick'.
As for the record, I always liked the material. Very interesting blues covers like the Stones' Silver Train. And Too much Seconal, well speaks for itself!
The mix is also pretty discrete - I have it in SQ - and I find it a very good application of the CBS rock theory. Not as aggressive as the Aerosmiths, but still very entertaining. For Still Alive and Well, though, I prefer Derringer's version on his SQ release.
All in all, a 7+.

 

[timbre4]

7 is about right; decent mix of minimal rock instrumentation. I prefer Saints and Sinners which has more going on and more memorable tunes...

 

[EMB]

I gave it an '8.' This is, to be sure, a very discrete mix, and it's fun, but at times lacks the cohesion of the stereo version. Would still make a great 5.1 title, however, the music is exceptional throughout and, no matter how drugged out JW was, you knew everything was honest, even his dissipation, which certainly is evident in the performance. The song selection is curious, too: a few Stones, a B.B. King...and the Coasters?!? Yep, "Ain't Nothin' To Me" is a redo of the 1964 Coasters (very minor)Hot 100 entry "T'ain't Nothin' To Me." But while their version was played for laughs, Winter plays it straight--and gives it a more fitting if sinister edge.

ED

 

[Marcsten]

Good info and thoughtful review. Coincidentally, I played one side of this disc (after some Bourbon) last weekend. The songs' overall blues style, including ain't nothin' to me are really consistent and honest. The mix is a solid mix, but there were so many CBS rock albums that had basically the same mix, I guess I got a little jaded. Compare it to some of the awful surround mixes around now and it is very nice. Kinda makes you wonder what JW could have become...
Marc

 

[EMB]

Still have a fond place for this one...amazing I can even remember it, given all the crap I drank and inhaled back in those crazy years......fortunately I outgrew such excesses. Strange times, those, but the money was good and I was buying the Top 40(well, anything Hot 100 I could latch onto)but really got into Lp vinyl by this time, and loaded up on many of the hot new releases. I'd followed Johnny all along, but this one was a surprise, if only because he sounded like he looked! :yikes Which was ravaged but still capable of brilliance. I dig SAINTS & SINNERS too(and will get to that one in due course), but this one sank deeper into me musically...and for reasons I've never been able to explain, it does have a dark kindred spirit with the Stones' EXILE, if only because both are about a long night of craziness(well, in Mick & Keith's case, probably a long weekend.... Or week....:banana:


ED

 

[Quad Linda]

9. I have an SQ & Q8 of this. Hard living yields blues. This album is the real deal. He sounds like he lived it. Yes, a typical Columbia Quad mix. There's nothing wrong with it!

Drown in cheap tequila...

 

[sjcorne]

I was pretty excited to find an SQ copy of this in really good shape at a record store a few weeks ago...guess I forgot about it since, so I gave it a spin last night. The songs are a lot of fun, but I was surprised to find it didn't seem to decode very well. The Involve decoder usually does not lie. I figured it was the usual CBS rock mix- drums vocals bass and lead guitar up front, rhythm guitars backing vocals in rear, and those kind of mixes usually decode very nicely.

I then went through my PC files and realized I had a Q8 conversion. Gave that a spin and realized why the decoding is off- this is kind of a weird mix. Vocals and guitars are upfront, and the drums are in stereo completely through the rears (much like the Mahavishnu Orchestra Birds Of Fire quad mix). Sort of a reversed CBS rock quad. There is also some slight guitar bleed in the rears which would obviously affect the SQ decoding.

I also have Saints & Sinners (better album IMO) from a Q8 and that one is your logical rock layout as mentioned above. Strangely enough both mixes were done by Don Young- I wonder why he would suddenly change his approach like that from album to album. It's definitely not flipped because the vocals are in the front. I just think it would've made so much more sense the other way around.

I also have John Dawson Winter III in SQ- I wonder if that one is also a wonky mix? Will have to check. I'm hoping D-V will get to Johnny's or possibly even Edgar's quads someday...

 

[esimms86]

I don’t have a turntable or a quad decoder so my home listening experiences are limited to to digital rips and downloads. Having said that, I did own vinyl copies of “Still Alive And Well” and “Saints And Sinners” back in the day. While I would welcome D-V releases of these albums, I would be more excited to see Mr. Dutton release brother Edgar’s work on SACD. Edgar’s more synth driven pop, in my estimation, would open the door to more experimentation in arriving at a quad mix. Of course, the quad mixes, historically, already exist so they are what they are!

 

[Q-Eight]

Take a look at Ole Johnny's eyes on the cover! Probably took quite a while to get THIS good of a shot! I happened to talk to Rick Derringer a couple of years ago after one of his concerts, and asked him (now a Christian) about Johnny and Edgar. He said Edgar was great, but Johnny was 'sick'.

I watched an interview (that I can no longer find) of Johnny a few years before he'd passed. Even though he'd been reasonably clean and sober for a fair while, you could tell that the damage was done. The interviewer would ask Johnny a relatively easy to answer question, something that required more than a one-word answer; yet Johnny would reply with things like "Yeah", "That was fun", or "mmhmm". Maybe the interviewer ticked him off but Mr. Winter was obviously a million miles away.

Still, the guy could probably play better loaded than any of us ever could in our wildest dreams!

I've got the Q8. Love the music, but the mix is lacking. I mean, really - what could they do with a three-piece ensemble (with occasional overdub) and have a fantastic Quad mix? The mix spreads everything out enough, but in my opinion, if it were a little tighter it could have retained some of that "in the studio" intimacy. A little bit of consistency might have helped as well. On some songs, Johnny's lead is in all four channels, on others - it's simply in fat mono in the front. Like I say, a little more drum in the front, and a little more guitar in the rear might have helped given the mix that live in the studio kind of feel. But then, you know, I'd probably be bitching about the fact that's it's not discrete enough. It is what it is, and it ain't so bad.