Johnny "Guitar" Watson - Untouchable! The Classic 1959-1966 Recordings
Release Date: September 18, 2007
Label: Ace Records (CDCHD 1180)


Like many a journeyman bluesman, Johnny "Guitar" Watson led something of an itinerant recording life during much of his career, wandering from label to label in the 1950s and 1960s with just a little chart success. Untouchable! does a great service to collectors by assembling 27 tracks from 1959-1966, many of which, surprisingly, had not only never previously come out on CD, but had never been reissued in any form. While in general these are blues/R&B crossover sides, there's more variety than one might think, and though the hopping between styles makes it a little uneven, it makes for a better listen in one gulp than you might expect. There's some relatively straight blues, particularly in the earlier sides; there are rather more blends of blues/R&B with pop than many blues fans might realize exist, sometimes on covers of pop standards, and sometimes employing strings; and there are cuts, particularly in the mid-'60s selections, that verge on out-and-out soul. It's true that the three songs most likely to be familiar to general blues and rock fans are among the very best material here, those being "Looking Back," which was covered by John Mayall's Bluesbreakers (with Peter Green on guitar); "Cuttin' In," a 1962 Top Ten R&B hit and one of Watson's most effective fusions of blues (with biting guitar) and orchestration; and "Gangster of Love," one of Watson's signature tunes (though this 1963 King single, fine as it is, is not his original version). But everything here is at least OK, and much of it is above average to excellent, even on some tracks where the influences of others like Clarence "Frogman" Henry, the Olympics, the Temptations, and Ray Charles are obvious. There might be a little less guitar pyrotechnics than some straight-ahead blues fans would like, and it's unfortunate that a few interesting cuts referred to in the liner notes from this period were not available for licensing. But overall it's a solid overview of a time when Watson was among the more interesting (and certainly overlooked) artists building bridges between the blues, R&B, and soul. --Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide


Veteran photographer Brian Smith has good reason to remember the night of 3 April 1965 that R&B legend Johnny “Guitar”’ Watson played Manchester’s Twisted Wheel club, with sidekick- Larry Williams, “It was the first time I took out my wife [39 years married, last June] - though I still stuck to the job in hand and buggered off to the ‘Wheel All-Nighter’ after I had put her on the bus home. I got a few decent black and whites on at Twisted Wheel, and then a couple at the Princess Club, same week: on stage, and some posed too.”

Some of Brian’s best shots adorn the booklet of this Ace collection of what might be termed JGW’s ‘missing years’ - those between his first flurry of success as a guitar- crushing mid-50s bluesman, and his reivention as a 60s soul hero. For the first half of the 1960s, Johnny bounced from label to label in an effort to recapture the chart success that he had first found with Modern’s RPM subsidiary. He had few hits along the way, but he made a whole lot of great music and “UNTOUCHABLE!” represents the first time that almost all of it has been gathered together. 

Watson’s longest residency of these years was with King Records, for whom he cut the sublime Cuttin’ In – which became his biggest hit of the 1960s, in 1961. He also cut the definitive reading of his anthem Gangster Of Love for King, as well as a bunch of highly-potent sides that have since become cherished items among those who collect New Breed R&B in all its forms. Prior to King, he also made great one-off singles for Class and Arvee that successfully approximated the sound of his peers the Hollywood Flames (who backed him on his Class 45) and the Olympics (who probably did the same on our title track). The original version of his classic, Looking Back, is here, as are a clutch of post King sides that nowadays sell for between £200 (Ain’t Gonna Move) and £400 (Big Bad Wolf) among today’s Northern Soul hardcore. All in all, “Untouchable!” paints a fascinating picture of a man who had the will, and found the way, to bridge two eras of black music, prior to his greatest success. 

With another must-have item for blues and soul collectors, young, cool and in his prime, here is the late, great Johnny “Guitar” Watson. --Tony Rounce, Ace Records
Track Listing:
1. The Bear aka The Preacher And The Bear
2. One More Kiss  
3. Untouchable  
4. The Eagle Is Back  
5. Looking Back  
6. Johnny Guitar  
7. Posin'  
8. Embraceable You  
9. Broke And Lonely  
10. I Just Wants Me Some Love  
11. Cold, Cold Heart  
12. The Nearness Of You  
13. Sweet Lovin' Mama  
14. Cuttin' In  
15. What You Do To Me  
16. The Chance You've Got To Take  
17. Gangster Of Love  
18. You Better Love Me  
19. In The Evenin'  
20. I Say I Love You  
21. Those Lonely, Lonely Nights  
22. Baby Don't Leave  
23. Ain't Gonna Move  
24. Wait A Minute, Baby  
25. Oh So Fine  
26. Big Bad Wolf  
27. You Can Stay But The Noise Must Go 
  

Great R&B and soul by Johnny "Guitar" Watson before he hit that funky spot!
Personal picks:The Bear, Looking Back, Sweet Lovin' Mama, Cuttin' In, Gangster Of Love and Wait A Minute, Baby.


Enjoy!