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Syl Johnson

A rollicking vocalist and gifted harmonica player, Syl Johnson's blues-informed soul found respectable success as he toiled through the '60s and '70s, but took on a second life as later generations discovered his punchy, celebratory recordings. Johnson scored hits like 1967's "Different Strokes" and 1969's socio-political reflection "Is It Because I'm Black?" but he'd left music behind by the mid-'80s to focus on real estate and his chain of restaurants. As the years passed, samples from Johnson's songs found their way into multiple high-profile rap and hip-hop tracks, and new generations of crate diggers began seeking out the original artifacts. Johnson returned to the studio and the stage in the mid-'90s, and was the subject of both anthology compilations and a documentary film as he released new material like 1999's Talkin' Bout Chicago and 2002's collaboration with his brother Jimmy, Two Johnsons Are Better Than One. Syl Johnson was born Sylvester Thompson in Holly Springs, Mississippi in 1936 and relocated with his family to Chicago in the early '50s. The brother of bassist Mac Thompson and guitarist/vocalist Jimmy Johnson, Syl played with blues artists Magic Sam, Billy Boy Arnold, and Junior Wells in the '50s before recording with Jimmy Reed for Vee-Jay in 1959. He made his solo debut that same year with the Federal label. Johnson toured with Howlin' Wolf from late 1959 until 1962, when Willie Mitchell signed him to Hi Records. Johnson recorded for both Twilight and Hi in the late '60s and early '70s, clicking with the dance/novelty cut "Come on Sock It to Me" and the crackling message track "Is It Because I'm Black?" He had his biggest hit with "Take Me to the River" in 1975, which reached number seven on the R&B charts. Throughout the '70s, Johnson released fun, beat-driven soul on albums like 1975's Total Explosion and 1979's Uptown Shakedown. By the early '80s he had mostly retired from music to focus on other business ventures, but as hip-hop evolved throughout the '80s and '90s, Johnson's songs were sampled by some of the genre's bigger names. Drum breaks and other samples were used in songs by Public Enemy, Wu Tang Clan, Geto Boys, and many others, leading to a renewed interest in Johnson's back catalog and enough attention to inspire him to return to music. The appropriately titled Back in the Game was released in 1994, and he recorded new material prolifically for the rest of the decade and into the next. The next 20 years saw not just new albums from Johnson, but also projects like Numero Group's reverent 2010 anthology compilation Complete Mythology and 2015 documentary film Any Way the Wind Blows, which focused on Johnson's struggles and accomplishments in the second act of his career. Johnson died on February 6, 2022, at the age of 85, just six days after the passing of his brother Jimmy Johnson.
© Ron Wynn & Fred Thomas /TiVo
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