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LUMINARY FINALLY FINDING LIMELIGHT
by Jody Callahan Date: FRIDAY, August 15, 1997 Yadda yadda yadda, you think. Another big-haired guitarist with a Flying V; another guy in red stretch pants who blends flash with histrionics and calls it a song. Wrong. Here's why: He's an extraordinary guitar player accessible to ordinary music fans. His songs - while swirling with enough guitar mastery to boggle his fellow players - are wrapped around traditional pop songwriting structures, familiar concepts like melody. Just listen to the instrumental masterpiece Cliffs of Dover from his second record, ``Ah Via Musicom.'' Do you have to know that he's playing a Stratocaster filtered through a certain amp? Do you have to know what a harmonic is? Do you have to recognize the notes and chords he's playing to become infected with that impossibly beautiful melody? No. And that's what separates Johnson from the hordes of other guitarists out there. ``That's the way I like to try to construct (the
songs), becoming a fan of pop music before guitar wasn't a completely
forefront thing,'' Johnson said in a recent telephone conversation.
``That's one of the things about Johnson traces his songwriting techniques to his youth, when he took piano lessons and listened to pop songs by groups like The Ventures. First, though, there was Elvis. ``(I remember) Hound Dog and all those things from '57 or '58. I was just 3 years old,'' Johnson said. ``That was the first time I heard rock and roll. I just remember going crazy, thinking this is great.'' Despite his talent, it's somewhat amazing that Johnson is still playing, considering the obstacles that have rocked his career since he began playing as a teenager in Austin, Texas. He first gained notice while playing in a fusion band called The Electromagnets, which led to a contract with the same company that managed ZZ Top. Johnson made a record called ``Seven Worlds,'' expecting it to be released and a tour to follow. Then disaster: His management company held out for offers from major labels, rejecting smaller offers it felt weren't good enough. The result? The record was never released, and whatever momentum Johnson had was lost. To worsen the situation, Johnson was tied to that management company for six years. Finally, in 1984, he escaped and began rebuilding that buzz he'd lost, including a now-legendary appearance on the popular Austin City Limits television series. One person who saw the Texan blister an early version of Cliffs of Dover was Prince, who was so excited he persuaded his label to sign Johnson. ``That's what I was told, but I've never asked Prince about it. Someone told me that he kind of made a call to Warner Bros. and helped convince them,'' Johnson said. ``Only thing I do know is . . . I was negotiating with Warner's for a long time, and within weeks after that show aired, they decided to sign me.'' That led to his debut, an ethereal record called ``Tones,'' which earned Johnson the first of his four Grammy nominations (including one win for Cliffs). ``Tones,'' however, promptly went nowhere, leading Warner to drop his contract. Then Capitol signed him, leading to the 1990 release of ``Ah Via Musicom.'' Which promptly exploded, eventually selling nearly 1 million copies, an almost unheard-of figure for a guitar record. So finally - finally - after the frustrations
and expectations of nearly two decades of playing, Johnson is
getting somewhere. He released his third record - ``Venus Isle''
- last year. He recently finished a tour as one-third of G3, the
gathering of guitarists that included Joe Satriani and Steve And Johnson - a soft-spoken man considered one of the industry's genuine nice guys - says he has finally buried any resentment over his sputtering career. ``Business-wise, I could always get into that. Everyone has a hundred things, what's holding them back, what's undone,'' said Johnson, who turns 43 on Sunday, the day before his show at B.B. King's on Beale. ``There's so many things we just have to kind
of let go of.'' Copyright, 2000, The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, TN. Used with permission. Visitors to this site are authorized to make one printout of the article for personal, non-commercial use only. No additional reproduction or distribution of this article in any form -- including but not limited to electronic, print, photocopy, audio, video and broadcast formats -- is permitted without the expressed, written permission of The Commercial Appeal. http://www.gomemphis.com |
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