Johnny Winter And Little Richard At Cobo Hall, March 18

On Thursday evening, March I8, Detroit was treated to a rare visit trom Johnny Winter and Little Richard, two heavy-duty rock and rollers who have continued their activity into the 70's.
The show started out with a bang as Little Richard unleashed his repertoire of rock and roll classics "Tutti Frutti," "Long Tall Sally," "Rip It Up," "Directly From My Heart to You" -  backed up by a hard-rocking collection of young R&B veterans called the Originators. Richard hasn't changed a bit since his early days as one of the real originators of rock and roll, and with his current band he puts on a show in the grand tradition which is good for lots of laughs along with the pounding beat and Richard's insane lyrics.
Little Richard and the Originators got the mighty high of the evening when they brought up a few people from the audience to dance on stage during "Long Tall Sally." People all over the cavernous hall were twisting and jumping around in their seats while their representatives churned about on the big stage with Richard and the band. This set was a sho' nuff rock and roll good boogie music show -that's what Little Richard's about, for sure.
On the other hand, Johnny Winter won the undying love and attention of his audience - about half a house - with a show which offered only Winter's unfailing guitar artistry in front of a non-descript. mechanical back-up trio (2nd guitar, bass and drums). Obviously a crowd favorite Johnny strutted on stage to the Stones' "It's All Over Now" and breezed through a long set of well-known material, including "Rock and Roll Hootchie Koo," Dylan's "Highway 61," Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode." the traditional "Rock Me Baby" and the Stones' "Jumpin' Jack Flash."
Winter was crippled by a drummer (as usual) who seemed locked into the most monotonous backbeat bang-bang-bangbang imaginable, a device which severely undercut Winter's hot guitar leads on tune after tune. The longer the set went on, the more irritating grew the drummer's unimaginative hacking, until it was a relief when the band finally left the stage.
Most of the audience wasn't so picky, however, and Johnny Winter and Co. were called back for more and more of that smoking guitar. Now if he could just hook up with Little Richard's outfit - my oh my,  wouldn't that be fun?

- Bernadette Harris