The now-deceased Johnny Winter’s late-career work on Alligator, Virgin, and Point Blank Records reversed the (d)evolution?) of increasingly polished rock/pop-oriented records released during his stint on the Columbia/Blue Sky labels (Saints & Sinners and John Dawson Winter III to name just two). But it was the albino Texas bluesman’s comeback album of 1973, Still Alive Alive And Well, that sowed the seeds of that artistic restoration: featuring two covers of the Rolling Stones–including the Goats Head Soup cull “Silver Train” he hammers out on this video–“Let It Bleed” (as well as Bob Dylan’s “From a Buick 6” on the remaster), Winter struck then maintained the ideal balance between authentic blues and visceral rock and roll.
