Chicagoan of the year in music: Syl Johnson
Chicago soul great Syl Johnson is 74 years old, and he can’t remember a year that music didn’t play a fundamental role in his life.
While growing up in a one-bedroom shack in Mississippi, young Sylvester Thompson was around music all the time (his name was changed to Johnson once he started recording in Chicago). His father and uncles played violin, guitar and banjo, and Sylvester and his brothers Jimmy and Mack hung on every note.
“My daddy could play harmonica as good as Little Walter,” Johnson says. By the time he came to Chicago as a teenager in 1950, young Syl was a pretty fair guitar player. He bonded with a kid named Sam Maghett, future Chicago blues great “Magic Sam,” and soon became a key player on Chicago’s blues, soul and R&B scenes.
Johnson was an in-demand guitarist, playing on sessions for the likes of Jimmy Reed, Elmore James and Junior Wells during the ‘50s. He also developed into a singer, band leader and songwriter, leading several formidable bands on the cut-throat South Side scene throughout the ‘60s. During this time he released a string of singles and albums on a series of labels with unshakable grooves and shape-shifting musical reach, referencing everything from Phil Spector to James Brown and putting a distinctive Chicago stamp on all of it – what Johnson calls “Uptown Soul.”
The best of those recordings were collected this year on “Syl Johnson: Completely Mythology,” a beautifully packaged box set put together by the Chicago-based Numero Group label. It’s a triumph for both Numero and Johnson; “Mythology” makes a definitive case for Johnson as one of the lost soul giants of the ‘60s.
Though Johnson would go on to enjoy broader commercial success after moving to Memphis in the ‘70s to record with Willie Mitchell and the Hi rhythm section, he was never better than when he was running his own sessions in Chicago during the ‘60s. From the strutting funk of “Come on Sock it to Me” to the searing social commentary of “Is It Because I’m Black,” Johnson demonstrated a range and breadth of musical feeling that future generations grew to revere. Johnson’s recordings have been sampled countless times in the last two decades by hip-hop artists.
“Young people know old school,” Johnson says. “So to see the guy who made the original old-school stuff is like drinking a $1000 bottle of scotch to them.”
Johnson celebrated the release of “Complete Mythology” with a triumphant concert in November at the Old Town School of Folk Music. Dressed in red and accompanied by a 14-piece band, he looked like a man who knew his time had finally come.
“I cut hits, I produced hits in the ‘60s,” he says. “ ‘Sock It to Me’ sold 80,000 copies in a month. ‘Different Strokes’ was a big hit. But we hit a brick wall because we didn’t know how to run a business.”
The business may have disappointed Johnson, but he never gave up on music.
“I don’t sing like I used to sing,” he says. “I am more polished now. It’s about knowing when to relax, and when to let it out. I need peace and tranquility off stage. On stage, the emotions come out. My emotions get elevated and I am alive to the world. When the people gather and the music starts to play, it all makes sense.”
greg@gregkot.com
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