Customer Reviews

Still Alive & Well

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Johnny Winter's "comeback" album from 1973. Johnny is one of the most underrated guitar players that ever picked up a 6-string. While deeply rooted in the blues, Johnny delivers some rippin' stripped-down rock and roll on this album. Production is held to a very minimum of overdubs, and it's basically Johnny with his bass player and drummer. No effects, no slick production tricks, just good old rock and roll. He's one of those rare guys that can just plug the guitar into and amp and rip it up. In addition to his masterful playing, Johnny serves up some of his patented gritty, soulful vocals.

I have worn out two copies of this album, and one or two 8-track copies. This is the fourth time I have bought this, and it's just as fresh as it was in 1973.

If you like simple straight forward rock and roll from a master guitarist, this is a mandatory album for your collection.

This CD is never mentioned in all of those "top 100" collections in major magazines, but this is what it's ALL about! Only a man with the blues in his veins can turn it into hard rock like this. And there's a couple of good country tracks, bitchin' Stones covers (his version of "Silver Train" is better IMHO), "Too Much Secanol" features Winter on a National Guitar, and his cover of Lucille is funky and nasty. A great bonus inclusion! But what's really about are tracks like "Still Alive And Well", "All Tore Down", and the like. Put it in the car, crank it up, and go rockin' down the highway and discover one of the lost gems of the seventies, and indeed ALL rock albums. You can't do better.

Johnny Winter was poised and achieved heavy acclaim at the time of this release and his next "Saints @ Sinners" which also should not be missed for relative tight blues rock so in tune at the time....hailed as "comeback", Indeed, Still Alive and Well is a solid recording and this fine sounding CD featured tight blues from this Powerhouse Trio...An occasional mellotron (Todd Rundgren), piano and flute sweeten out the mix as the Winter band never strays from it's roots covering usual old blues covers, new tunes from the band and the occasional Stones (and bonus Dylan Cover) covers, in this case a really fine reworking of "Silver Train" that was heavily played on FM radio in New York at the time of "Goats Head Soup" while also covering the Stones "Let It Bleed"..
Dylan's 'From A Buick 6" (Highway 61 Revisited)is an added workout,Rick Derringer's "Still Alive And Well" is a kicker and the sweet "Cheap Tequila" and low down accoustic "Too Much Seconal" are the standouts.

This album is unequalled in my mind. Listen and ask yourself, "How could just three guys make so much articulate, teeth-gnashing rock?" Clear as a bell. Take particular note of the clean but snarling guitar in the title track. It's just him and the bass player folks, filling every second of that song. No electronic effects or fancy mixin' in the way of this RocknRoll. When I first heard this album, I was in a band myself and almost quit playing; the guitar riffs are that good. Thanks Johnny, in all your trials, for putting out one of the cleanest, most unretouched rock and roll offerings of all times. Let the present day "rockers" take notice of this effects-less, down-in-the-dirt, honest-to-goodness rock guitar playing legend. Then let them eat their hearts out.

We all know the story. Johhny came staggering out of Texas in the late 60's and then out of detox around '73 and this was his sort of "come back" album. The vocals have a magnificent ragged quality to them and I love all the tracks, even though it's not really a blues album as such. But the best thing about this album are those two monstrousr riffs that begin "All Tore Down" and "Can't you feel it?" respectively. Shit, they may well be two of the greatest riffs I have ever heard and I've heard thousands of 'em. If you are a sucker for a couple of chords straight from heaven, then these tracks were made for you. Worth it just for that alone but a fine album anyway.

While having several JW vinyl albums from the day (the 70's!),
I never found myself listening too much, though I did like his first album.
This cd caught me by surprise! I bought on a recommendation by Amazon, and several reviews. You must own this cd! Great rock songs, great slower songs, Cheap Tequila is worth the price of this cd alone. This is like finding that great, lost 70's rock album you missed. If you have never heard this or if you listened to this in the 70's and not since, Buy This! As another reviewer said, a Desert Island cd, it is that good.

One of the most important things about Johnny Winter's rugged brand of the blues is that Johnny isn't afraid to go to places where the blues actually live in real ways. Places where people's lives aren't what they should be. Places where booze and drugs offer temporary relief from hopelessness, where bad relationships wreck dreams, and working too hard for too little pay wears people down and out. Without acknowledging the pain and suffering that gave birth to the blues, the music becomes an "art form" and a sanitized imitation of the real thing. Johnny Winter is definitely not about sanitized imitations.

On Still Alive And Well (1973), not only does Johnny play the blues in an authentically rugged way, but he plays high energy rock n' roll and hippie barstool country the same way. Among the rock songs here are great rousing and rocking versions of Rock Me Baby, Rock & Roll and Can't You Feel It. Blistering guitar licks and screaming vocals abound. Cheap Tequila is a very strong ballad (and a rare treat, as Johnny doesn't do many ballads), and one of my favorites here. Winter does two Rolling Stones covers, Let It Bleed and Silver Train, and they're both just as good (even better in some places) as the originals. Too Much Seconal is down and dirty acoustic blues, with acoustic slide, mandolin, flute and lyrics from life on the wrong side.

Oh baby, I don't believe you're no good at all
No, you keep drinkin' too much whiskey
You're takin' too much seconal

Of course, Winter's guitar work on Still Alive And Well is also outstanding, to say the least. Johnny is one of the very best guitarists in a generation of rock's greatest guitarists. Rock n' roller Rick Derringer (Rock & Roll, Hoochie Koo) produced this album, and really brought out the rock n' roll side of Johnny Winter. The album has all of the energy of a rock n' roll production. The bad boy of blues/rock is rugged, raunchy and screaming loud on this one, and if you don't mind a little harsh reality with your blues/rock, then you really can't go wrong with Still Alive And Well. AND TURN IT UP LOUD!!

johnny live is always good , very strong blues and hard rock , makes me want to time trip back to the 70s. johnny used to play at washington monument , he is a legend and one of the best in acoustic and hard rock blues

In my opinion this is by far the very best album Johnny Winter ever recorded ! It remains timeless and sounds every bit as good today as it did in the 70's ! It takes you from the hardest of rock to the most mellow ballad over to the blues and back to his country side. If I was ever stranded on a desert island this would be a must have for me ! The guitar work is amazing !

A great album by an extreemly well rounded player. Johnny has many influences and you can hear it on this CD. As others have pointed out this CD is a little more weighted on the rock side of the blues-rock equation that Winters' music is most often described as. Short and sweet...this would have to make the top 20 of best rock&roll albums of all time. If your a guitar player--or just someone who loves guitar--then this is a MUST HAVE!!