Rebecca Gizicki
Syl Johnson promises to "burn 'em up and jam 'em down" Saturday night at the Carolina Theatre.
Chicago soul man Syl Johnson is somewhere between old school and too cool for school. Say something he likes and he won't merely say, "Cool" - that's a mere mortal's answer. He'll say, "Kool & the Gang, man." And of course, it goes without saying that Johnson is the coolest cat in whatever room he finds himself in.
Saturday night, that room will be Durham's Carolina Theatre, where Johnson will headline the Eccentric Soul Revue with the Notations and Renaldo Domino, backed up by a 14-piece band featuring horns, backup singers and a six-piece rhythm section. Arranged by the Numero Group record label, the tour is a throwback to the days when R&B acts would travel in packs.
Johnson, at 75 still one of the grand old men of soul, logged plenty of time on similar tours back in the day. Expect a time-traveling experience.
"The show is a monster, man," Johnson says over the phone from Chicago. "We're gonna burn 'em up and jam 'em down. I play guitar, play harmonica, shoot marbles, look ugly, whatever. Old-school music, that dirty-down '60s and '70s stuff, people love it and that's what we bring."
If you're not clear on who Syl Johnson is, there's little doubt you've heard his music. He had a solid run on the R&B charts during soul's golden era, with hits including 1975's Al Green-composed "Take Me to the River" (later a hit for Talking Heads), 1967's "Different Strokes" and 1969's epochal "Is It Because I'm Black?" Johnson's catalog is available again on "Complete Mythology" (Numero Group), a four-disc box set of 81 soul-burning cuts from Johnson's prime.
Even if none of Johnson's hits ring a bell, it's a lead-pipe cinch you've still heard his music in the form of samples. The opening wail of "Different Strokes" is among the most-sampled pieces of music of all time, both legally and illegally. Public Enemy, Wu-Tang Clan and Kid Rock are among the acts who have used it with permission. According to a lawsuit Johnson filed last month, Kanye West and Jay-Z also used "Different Strokes" on a song from their chart-topping album "Watch the Throne" - but without permission.
"I hope they just pay up so we can take care of business and don't have to go on to court," Johnson says. "Back in the late '80s, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince sampled it and that was the first I heard. 'Damn,' I thought, 'I can't believe it. Why'd they take that off the shelf?' A lawyer friend said there's not much I can do about it. But little did they know it was to become a big phenomenon in my life. Kid Rock, he paid me. Michael Jackson, he paid me. Tupac, Public Enemy, MC Hammer back in the day, they all paid me."
Paying the bills
"Different Strokes" has paid a lot of bills for Johnson over the last two decades, and it was a gold rush that came at an opportune time. After disco's rise eclipsed his style of R&B in the late '70s, Johnson had to go to work in the fast-food business to make ends meet. Then "Different Strokes" re-emerged, and he got back into the music business via the festival circuit in the 1990s. But the Eccentric Soul Revue is his best showcase yet.
"The kids love that old '60s stuff because it's the real (expletive), man," Johnson says. "I mean, Dylan, the Beatles, the Stones, James Brown, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett - where you gonna go after that? You can't top it, you can only try to cop it. I guess the young kids were not born in time, but they discover this stuff and they love it."
That works out well for Johnson, who still puts out onstage even though he's getting along in years.
"You've got a lot of congressmen and senators my age who can talk up there for hours," he says. "Ain't no different from what I do, I just put melodies to it, that's all. Play my guitar, too. Make the guitar talk to 'em, then sing 'em some lyrics. Long as I don't pretend to be young and get to bed at a decent hour, it's good. When I go to sleep at night, my dreams come true."
