![]() Wilko Johnson has looked his illness in the eye with that same unblinking stare that he’s played a lifetime of music with. Going Back Home’s lone cover is a powerful cover of Bob Dylan’s “Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window” – the entire band playing as if their very lives depended on it. The title track kicks things off with a blast of slashing Telecaster and never looks back, with tunes ranging from the bluesy wail of “Keep On Loving You” and the hip-bump of “I Keep It To Myself” to the punk funk of “Keep On Loving You” and the album’s one “quiet” moment, the pensive “Turned 21”. And on vocals? Well, that would be another old-schooler: Roger Daltrey, whom you may know from his years with another band of ruffians, The Who.ġ0 of the 11 songs on Going Back Home are fresh takes on Wilko-penned classics. Going Back Home finds the guitarist joined by longtime wingmen Norman Watt-Roy (bass) and Dylan Howe (drums), along with veteran keyboardist Mick Talbot and blues harpman Steve Weston. Johnson says the decision was an easy one: he declined any treatments, strapped on his Telecaster, and started playing as much rock ‘n’ roll as he had time for.īesides live shows (“We did our ‘farewell tour’,” says Wilko with a laugh “Now we just do tours.”), Johnson made the time to record a studio album. You could attempt to look his style up, but there’s no point – Wilko wrote the book.įast-forward to January of 2013: diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic cancer, Johnson was told he would be dead by October – with the possibility of extending things a bit if he wanted to undergo chemotherapy. Bare-handed and wielding his picking arm like a crazed lumberjack, Johnson proved that one man and a black Telecaster could construct a wall of roaring chords, somehow firing off wailing leads in the midst of it like a sniper atop his perch. Mad-eyed and unblinking, lurching/darting/back-and-forthing about the stage, Johnson introduced the world to his own brand of rhythm/lead guitar. Feelgood, his image has been as unique as his guitar playing. album charts.īut the 66-year-old Johnson has never done things quite like anyone else.įrom the first moment Johnson caught the public’s eye back in the early 70s with the British pub rockers Dr. Yeah, #metoo.The simple fact of the matter is Wilko Johnson isn’t supposed to be with us at this point – let alone playing slam-banging, foot-stomping rock ‘n’ roll with a new album that debuted at the number three spot on the U.K. ![]() Those who think that if you haven’t got anything useful to say, you probably shouldn’t. There are those who will wonder why he’s bothered. It’s utterly unessential stuff, unremarkable in every way. Meanwhile, an ill-advised cover of Stevie Wonder’s “You Haven’t Done Nothing” is just a bloated corpse of the original, all the life – and soul – sucked out of it by a spectacular lack of judgment and poor pacing. Take “Certified Rose”, in which Daltrey channels his inner pub singer to deliver unfathomably awful word choices: “I never want you to close/’Cos you’re the one I have chose/To be my certified rose.” That might sound like soul to some, but to these ears it’s Paul Shane with strep throat.ĭaltrey imbues Stephen Stills’ “How Far” with distinct echoes of The Who and familiar territory suits him better, but “Where Is a Man to Go?” is bloated by the sort of banal cliché and shopworn sentiment that clothes this collection. The opening Motown-esque shuffle of the title track offers some promise, but Daltrey’s voice sounds like it’s straining at the leash and desperate for a fight. The album is a collection of covers and Daltrey originals, which despite an ensemble of capable musicians, including Pete Townshend, seems to be almost completely devoid of the soul he's so keen to recreate. Not really, is the answer – the songs take care of that. His rejection of the zeitgeist also extends to his latest album, As Long As I Have You, of which he says, “This is a return to the very beginning… to a time when we were playing soul music to small crowds in church halls… now, I can sing soul with all the experience you need to sing it.” So, does his recent outburst cloud our judgment of this new offering? One rock musician who recently came under scrutiny is The Who frontman Roger Daltrey, after calling the #metoo phenomenon “obnoxious” and “salacious crap”, before adding, of his extra marital activity, “Come on, men are men,” and “there have been times when I’ve hurt her and that’s upset me.” Sending hugs, Rog, sending hugs.
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