Alembic Guitars Club
Connecting => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: lbpesq on May 09, 2024, 05:32:47 PM
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I was getting my gear together to go to a jam tonight. My wife had the news on TV. Not paying attention, I half heard something about Jimmy Johnson dying! That sure caught my attention! It turns out it was Jimmy Johnson, the 86 year old former San Francisco 49er cornerback.
Bill, tgo
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Whew. There are a lot of us JJs.
Jimmy J
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Well, I knew about our Jimmy (of course), the football guy, the NASCAR guy, the cartoonist, the Chicago guitarist, & the Muscle Shoals guitarist - but the football guy's a new one on me!
Peter (who will admit freaking for a second on the headline when the Chicago blues JJ passed)
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This one got around about me a few years back... definitely a relative by the proximity to family home, and the spelling. I didn't know them... wasn't me, just a weird coincidence.
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Crikey! Thank Gawd "The report of my death is greatly exaggerated".
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Hey we've got a lot of Jimmy Johnson's in Minnesota and there are a number, including the one below, who like "our" Jimmy are also involved in music.
Jim Johnson (Calvin James): A Minnesota rock’n’roll legend, with a career in music that spans five decades
Jim Johnson began his musical career in 1962 as one of the original founders of The Underbeats, playing guitar and eventually singing lead vocals. Through 1968, The Underbeats were considered to be one of the top local dance bands, packing the teen clubs and ballrooms. The group recorded numerous 45’s with local producer George Garrett and hit the local charts over the years, the most popular song being “Foot Stompin’” in 1964.
.[/size]In the fall of 1968, The Underbeats headed to Los Angeles and gained a following there, playing at Gazzarri’s on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood. In 1969, the band evolved into Gypsy and developed a new sound, featuring all original songs and became regular performers at The Whiskey a Go-Go. In 1970, the band released their first album, a self titled double album on the Metromedia label and received airplay with “Gypsy Queen” and “Dead and Gone.” In 1971, another album was released on the same label, In the Garden. The band recorded two more albums, both for RCA. As Gypsy came to an end in the mid 1970’s, Jim released one final Gypsy 45, with a new band lineup, “Magic in My Life”, backed with “Don’t Stop For Nothin’.” Both songs were covered by The Fifth Dimension in 1975, as a 45 and also on their album, Earthbound, produced and arranged by Jimmy Webb on ABC Records, with Florence Larve singing lead vocals on Magic in My Life.Jim stayed in Los Angeles, following the Gypsy era, working as a songwriter and a record producer. A 1977 Universal movie called Slap Shot (starring Paul Newman) included a song in the soundtrack, “Money Side of Town”, written and performed by Jim, with Stan Kipper on drums.Around 1980, Jim got together with Stanley Kipper (drums, percussion and vocals) and Brad Palmer (bass guitar and vocals) and put a new band together, The Steamers, that played in the Los Angeles area. Two attorney’s from New York City, Alan Shapiro and Gary Wishik saw the band perform live and produced (and financed) the bands only album, recorded at Don Casale Studios in Westbury, New York, that was released in 1982. The album was self-titled (with no label name), with ten original songs, six written by Jim, three written by Stanley and one written by all three members. Jim sings lead vocals on five songs, Stanley singles lead vocals on four songs and Jim and Stanley both sing lead on one song. Numerous songs from the album were used in soundtracks for various Universal movies. The Steamers played live and recorded songs for Universal up through 1984/1985. A song written by Jim, “Too Hard to Love You”, was recorded by Ray Charles (with Jim playing guitar) and included on his 1988 Columbia album, Just Between Us.In 1993, Jim returned to Minnesota and played with a new version of The Underbeats and also played with Gypsy for various reunion concerts.Eventually, Jim returned to his R and B roots, playing and recording as Calvin James. In 2003, a CD was released called It Ain’t Over , with eleven songs, including eight original songs written by Jim. The CD features local musicians: Stan Kipper, Bill Lordan, Larry Wiegand, George Hawkins, Bruce Pedalty, Jimmy Greenwell, Vince Denham, Tom Nystrom, Brian Glasscock and Doni Larson. Randy Meisner, from The Eagles, is on background vocals on two tracks. Mike Finnegin, From Dave Mason and other bands, plays keyboards on four tracks. Jim Johnson, with a career in music that spans five decades, is a true Minnesota rock’n’roll legend.
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Yes, MN is a hotbed of Johnsons, Knudsens, Swansons. My father's name was Cliff and at one time there were 40 Clifford Johnsons in the Minneapolis phonebook. I didn't know the Underbeats and Gypsy shared a JJ, how about that!
My best name mixup was a phone call I got while staying at the Parker Meridian hotel in NYC once upon a time:
"Hello?"
"Is this Jimmy?"
"Yes."
"Jimmy Johnson?"
"that's right"
"the bass player?"
"yep, that's me"
"with Reba?"
"... er ... NO!!"
A Nashville bass player named Jimmy Johnson on tour with the great Reba McEntire staying at the same hotel. Love it!
As odd as it sounds, I enjoy the anonymity of having such a common name. It's just fine with me.
Jimmy J (the usual one in here)
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I've wondered a few times what it'd be like to have a little more common name than ours. My internet handle is borrowed from the original spelling; Huncote. It's a small village in the central U.K. that still stands today. Phonetically, it's pronounced like my name is spelled out. Or if you're British, Hun-uh-kut. In 1635 when William of Huncote got here, whoever wrote that down didn't know (or care) to get it right. He had a job to do, and a long line of commoners to get wrote down. And so it began on a new continent.
So I've got this distant relative, waaaaaaaaay out in the Pacific Northwest... has exactly my name, right down to the letter. This other Gregory is descended from one of my great-grandfather's brothers, who joined the U.S. Navy, and never returned to his North Carolina roots. Anyway, on more than one occasion, I have gotten an email intended for him. Initially, it looks totally like a scam. It'll usually be a receipt for something or a hotel reservation notice, something they emailed a confirmation for, and got one keystroke wrong, landing it in my inbox rather than his. Always for someplace in Washington State. I just got another one the other day. We finally got to talk one time when I called the phone number for the 'other' Gregory Honeycutt. "Is this Gregory Honeycutt?" Yes. "Well, you ain't gonna' believe this, but my name is..."
I need to send him the story from WRAL where we got killed in a car wreck that time.
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Jimmy J (the usual one in here)
:)
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For several years someone in Texas with my same last name would send be a big box of commercial BBQ and sauce, thinking I was a relative of some kind. Guess I should have sent them a Christmas card to have kept it up.
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I had an uncle whose last name was Anson and lived with his family in Missouri. Back in the early 60's he discovered that North Carolina had an Anson County and decided it had to be full of long lost relatives. No one could convince him otherwise. So he packs up the family to go meet this previously unknown branch of the family only to find out not one single Anson lived in Anson County, NC.
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I had an uncle whose last name was Anson and lived with his family in Missouri. Back in the early 60's he discovered that North Carolina had an Anson County and decided it had to be full of long lost relatives. No one could convince him otherwise. So he packs up the family to go meet this previously unknown branch of the family only to find out not one single Anson lived in Anson County, NC.
On the other hand, Townes County and Van Zandt County in TX are named after Townes Van Zandt's family (one from each side), and McLean & Stevenson Counties in IL likewise for McLean Stevenson.
And Gerlach Road in Morgan Couty OH is named after my grandparents (but not while they lived there).
Peter
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I'm still disappointed you can't get Cowboys tickets . . . . or go fishing with you in Key West.
Ice fishing ?