In the meantime, he been working with two other former Blockheads in Norman Watt-Roy and Dylan Howe, on bass and drums respectively, as well as harp man Steve Weston and keyboardist Mike Talbot, formerly of Style Council. Going Back Home, due Apvia Hip-O Records, arrives nearly six months after Johnson’s doctors told him he’d die, and more than a year after he launched what was supposed to be a farewell tour. There’s a symbiotic thrill to “I Keep It To Myself,” as two legends - both of them with something to prove - seem to feed off of one another. Feelgood guitarist who’s been battling pancreatic cancer, smartly tangling with the harmonica, likewise energized by Roger Daltrey. Then there’s Johnson, the punky former Dr. Along the way, he happily inhabits the grizzled crag this lyric demands, and sharply reasserts his own legend apart from Pete Townshend. Wilko Johnson, the longtime guitarist for British blues rockers Dr. Rather than reaching into the toppermost of his age-corrected range, however, Daltrey sits in a gruff comfort zone. The song, which arrives in advance of their collaborative Going Back Home, couldn’t more perfectly fit Roger Daltrey’s voice - weathered, as it is these days, following decades of arena-rock yowling. This is deep blues, reworked by a pub rock band for the ages. I hope that there is.Roger Daltrey is reborn inside this shuffling groove, as Wilko Johnson’s “I Keep It To Myself” transports the longtime Who frontman to an era that predates bombastic rock operas - or even the period when his old band put the “maximum” in R&B. "But who knows? Maybe there's a Part 2 to this record. "He's got a long way to go and he'll be a Type 1 diabetic for the rest of this life," Daltrey says. Daltrey is also optimistic about what lies ahead. Johnson says he hopes that future will include a tour to North America - he hasn't been to the U.S. "My body is getting better and better," Johnson says, "but my mind is still finding it hard to adjust to the idea that the future is once again an indefinite thing." Last spring, Johnson underwent a major surgery that left him, he says, cancer-free. The doctors were stumped, so they ordered a new round of tests and determined they might just be able to remove his tumor. "It's quite a wonderful feeling - actually very, very intense."īut then something odd happened. "I've had many experiences of standing onstage in front of audiences and feeling that this could be the last time," Johnson says, laughing. So the duo decided to take the show on the road, including a performance at London's Royal Albert Hall. It was voted album of the year by Classic Rock magazine. The album did remarkably well in both the U.K. "There's a 70-year-old singer and a dying guitarist it's got so much energy, it's ridiculous!" Daltrey says, laughing. We did it very simply and I think that's reflected on this album."ĭaltrey thinks the album's title track says it all: The experience captured the spirit of going back to the vitality they had four decades ago. The two recorded Going Back Home in a mere eight days, which Daltrey says is one reason the album is so special: "A lot of today's music is made ponderously where people dissect it and they spend hours overdubbing and all this stuff. I'll have a bit of a retrospective of my songs.' " In 1980, he played guitar and performed backing vocals on Ian Dury & the. Feelgood, he left the band in 1977 and formed Solid Senders and The Wilko Johnson Band. Initially, a guitarist, pianist, and singer-songwriter for Dr. "But under the circumstance," Johnson says, "when we finally got to record it, I'm thinking, 'Right, well, this is the last thing I'll do. In the early 1970s, Wilko Johnson (J November 21, 2022) emerged as a pioneer within the pub rock movement. "You know Wilko," Daltrey says, " 'Let's not worry about what we're going to record, let's just go and record anything!' The most important thing of all if you have a year to live is to have some fun."Īt first, Johnson envisioned recording covers of American soul hits from the 1960s. When Daltrey heard, he called Johnson immediately. The guitarist and songwriter was a member of rock band Dr Feelgood in the 1970s, joined Ian. Soon after, news of his diagnosis began to spread. Musician Wilko Johnson has died aged 75, a statement on official social media accounts has confirmed. Johnson opted against chemotherapy, deciding to just let the cancer take its course.
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