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Les Reader Pens Johnnie Johnson Tribute
Noisy Paper
February 2001
Les Reader, a Roxana-based blues-rocker, Purple Heart-decorated Vietnam vet, and long-time Johnnie Johnson fan, has written and recorded a unique tribute to the piano legend. The song is called "Go, Johnnie, Go," and can be heard on Reader's new CD, Hidden Tracks. Reader wants radio stations in St. Louis to play the song, in tribute to the man many have called the "father of rock and roll." He's a one-man promotion machine to that end, and is trying to persuade stations with restrictive formats to give the record a spin.
"When people hear ths song, I want them to forget about 'Johnny B. Goode' and Chuck Berry," says Reader. "I wan them to think of Johnnie Johnson. The song is Johnny's personality put into sound."
Johnson himself plays on the catchy, smoothly-produced tune, along with the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir. How "Go, Johnnie, Go" came about, along with Les Reader's unlikely collaboration with Brian Wilson some years back, makes for a compelling story, and NoisyPaper will take a detailed look at Reader's long, strange trip in next month's issue. Reader's CD is available through www.mindgangsters.com. As for Johnnie Johnson, he'll be serving as Grand Marshal for the Soulard Mardi Gras Grand Parade, commencing at 11 AM on Feb. 24.
Plus, from NoisyPaper, Issue 14, March 2001:
In the meantime, Reader hopes people will check out his latest album, Hidden Tracks. Besides the Johnson tribute, it features pleasant, bluesy chuggers like "Poverty Blues" and "It's Just Not Right," the Buddy Holly-influenced "About You," and a terrific, countrified stomper called "Their World," which features a genuinely touching set of lyrics about appreciating the sights and sounds of nature, and finding that world more meaningful than the world of man. But if any song points up the winding, often torturous road Reader's traveled, it's a track entitled "The Wasteland." Reader sings: "My eyes can't see, my hands can't feel/And I can't tell what's right or real/I feel their eyes stare at me/I hear them whisper about the freak/And I'm one step in the wasteland/And it's heavy on my mind/I'm gonna make it to the other side/The sun is gonna shine."
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