Johnny Winter, along with his brother Edgar Winter, were nurtured at an early age by their parents in musical pursuits. Both he and his brother, who were born with albinism, began performing at an early age. When he was ten-years old, Winter appeared on a local children's show, playing ukelele and singing Everly Brothers songs with his brother.
His recording career began at the age of fifteen, when his band Johnny and the Jammers released "School Day Blues" on a Houston record label. During this same period, he was able to see performances by classic blues artists such as Muddy Waters, B.B. King, and Bobby Bland. In the early days Winter would sometimes sit in with Roy Head and The Traits when they performed in the Beaumont, Texas area, and in 1967, Winter recorded a single with The Traits: "Tramp" backed with "Parchman Farm" (Universal Records 30496). In 1968, he released his first album The Progressive Blues Experiment, on Austin's Sonobeat Records.
Winter caught his biggest break in December 1968, when Mike Bloomfield, whom he met and jammed with in Chicago, invited him to sing and play a song during a Bloomfield and Al Kooper concert at the Fillmore East in New York. As it happened, representatives of Columbia Records (which had released the Top Ten Bloomfield/Kooper Super Session album) were at the concert. Winter played and sang B.B. King's "It's My Own Fault" to loud applause and, within a few days, was signed to reportedly what was then the largest advance in the history of the recording industry–$600,000.
Winter's first Columbia album, Johnny Winter was recorded and released in 1969. It featured the same backing musicians with whom he recorded The Progressive Blues Experiment, bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Uncle John Turner, plus Edgar Winter on keyboards and saxophone, and (for his "Mean Mistreater") blues legends Willie Dixon on upright bass and Big Walter Horton on harmonica. The album featured a few selections that became Winter signature songs, including his composition "Dallas" (an acoustic blues, on which Winter played a steel-bodied, resonator guitar), John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson's "Good Morning Little School Girl", and B.B. King's "Be Careful With A Fool".
The album's success coincided with Imperial Records picking up The Progressive Blues Experiment for wider release. The same year, the Winter trio toured and performed at several rock festivals, including Woodstock. With brother Edgar added as a full member of the group, Winter also recorded his second album, Second Winter in Nashville in 1969. The two-record album, which only had three recorded sides (the fourth was blank), introduced a couple more staples of Winter's concerts, including Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" and Bob Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited".
In 1984, Winter began recording for several labels, including Alligator Records and Point Blank Records, where he has focused on blues-oriented material. He continues to perform live, including festivals throughout North America and Europe. Winter has headlined such prestigious events as the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Chicago Blues Festival, Swedish Rock Fest, Warren Haynes X-mas jam, and Europe’s Rockpalast. He also performed with the Allman Brothers at the Beacon Theater in Manhattan on the 40th anniversary of their debut. In 2007 and 2010, Winter performed at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festivals. Two guitar instructional DVDs have been produced by Cherry Lane Music and the Hal Leonard Corporation. The Gibson Guitar Company released the signature Johnny Winter Firebird guitar in a ceremony in Nashville with Slash presenting.
In 2004, Winter received a Grammy nomination for his I’m a Bluesman album. Backing him are guitarist Paul Nelson, bassist Scott Spray, and drummer Vito Liuzzi. Beginning in 2007, a series of live Winter albums titled the Live Bootleg Series and a live DVD have all entered the Top 10 Billboard Blues charts. In 2009, The Woodstock Experience album was released, which includes eight songs that Winter performed at the 1969 festival. Johnny Winter is signed to Megaforce Records, who will release a new studio album titled Roots on September 27, 2011. It will include Winter's interpretation of eleven early blues and rock 'n' roll classics and feature several guest artists.
Winter produced three Grammy Award-winning albums by Muddy Waters, Hard Again (1977), I'm Ready (1978), and Muddy "Mississippi" Waters – Live (1979). Several Winter albums were also nominated for Grammy Awards. In 1980, Winter was on the cover of the first issue of Guitar World and in 1988, he was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame.
How Do You Live a Lie
Johnny Winter Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
How do you smile instead of cry?
How do you say that you don't love her
That you don't care, you just can't care?
How do you say to your friends
"My love was wrong, it had to end"?
How do you sleep at night
(Instrumental)
I tried (yes I tried) to tell my heart (tell my heart)
That I (oh yes that I) didn't care (didn't care)
I tried (oh yes I tried) to tell my heart (to tell my heart)
But it won't believe my tears, my tears
How do you live a lie?
How do you smile instead of cry?
How do you say that you don't love her...
That you don't care (that you don't care)
The song "How Do You Live a Lie" by Johnny Winter is a heart-wrenching ballad about the difficulty of living a life filled with deceit and betrayal. The song addresses the question of how one can continue to live a lie and pretend to be happy despite the pain and guilt that they feel. The song begins by asking how one can live a lie and still maintain a smile on their face, in spite of the pain they feel inside. It then goes on to explore the difficulty of admitting to oneself and others that the love they once had is now gone and that they no longer care.
The second verse delves deeper into the emotional turmoil that the singer is going through. It asks how one can sleep at night knowing that what they are doing is not right. The instrumental interlude that follows serves to reinforce the sadness and despair of the lyrics. The third and final verse sees the singer trying to convince themselves that they have moved on and that they no longer care about their former partner. However, the tears in their eyes tell a different story, and they are unable to deceive even their own heart.
Overall, the song is a poignant exploration of the difficulties of pretending to be happy when one is really feeling pain and guilt.
Line by Line Meaning
How do you live a lie?
How can you maintain a false persona that conceals your true feelings and intentions?
How do you smile instead of cry?
How can you hide your emotional distress behind a façade of happiness and contentment?
How do you say that you don't love her
That you don't care, you just can't care?
How can you express indifference towards the person you love, even if you want to care for them?
How do you say to your friends
"My love was wrong, it had to end"?
How do you confess to your peers that you regret ending a relationship and that it was a mistake?
How do you sleep at night
When you know that it's not right?
How do you find peace in your conscience knowing that you are doing something that is wrong?
I tried (yes I tried) to tell my heart (tell my heart)
That I (oh yes that I) didn't care (didn't care)
The singer tried to convince themselves that they were indifferent to their love interest.
I tried (oh yes I tried) to tell my heart (to tell my heart)
But it won't believe my tears, my tears
The singer's own tears betrayed them by proving that their heart still harbored feelings for their love interest.
How do you care (that you don't care)?
How can one pretend not to care when they still have feelings for someone?
Contributed by Dominic E. Suggest a correction in the comments below.