The passing comes less than a week after the death of his brother and fellow musician Jimmy Johnson.
Chicago blues artist Syl Johnson has died at 85, less than a week after the death of his brother, fellow blues powerhouse Jimmy Johnson.
“The world has lost two musical giants,” his family said in a statement Sunday.
The Grammy-nominated singer made his name in the 1960s with hits including “Come On Sock It To Me” and “Is It Because I’m Black.” Decades after its 1967 release, Johnson’s song “Different Strokes” became a favorite of dance DJs and was sampled by rap artists including Run-DMC, Public Enemy, NWA, the Beastie Boys, the Wu-Tang Clan, and Jay Z and Kanye West.
He was born Sylvester Thompson in Holly Springs, Mississippi. After his arrival in Chicago at 16, he recorded for the Twilight/Twinight label.
With Hi Records in Memphis, he had his biggest hit in 1975 with a cover of “Take Me to the River,” co-written and first recorded by Al Green. (The song was again a hit four years later for Talking Heads.)
A 2010 boxed set of his work, “Syl Johnson: Complete Mythology,” brought Johnson two Grammy nominations, for best historical album and best liner notes.
In 2017, Johnson produced “Rebirth of Soul,” an album by his daughter, singer-songwriter Syleena Johnsonn, covering ’60s and ’70s songs.
“My dad’s a perfectionist, so it was challenging in that respect,” she told the Sun-Times then, “but it’s also because he comes from that era of music that makes him very judgmental about these particular songs. The music on this record was very precious to him, so he was very judgmental on how I approached it. But it was good, because, in a way, it was a learning experience for me. It was awesome to be able to reinterpret those artists for our time today.”
from Chicago Sun-Times - All https://ift.tt/TdlvbVh
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