SYL JOHNSON

Syl Johnson was born Sylvester Thompson near Lamar, Miss., in 1936, the sixth child of a harmonica-playing farmer and his wife. When Sylvester was almost 10, his father migrated to Chicago, where he found work, at which point he sent for his wife and kids one by one. Sylvester and his brother Mack arrived in 1950, and almost before they were in the house, they discovered their 13-year-old next-door neighbor sitting on his porch playing a guitar.

The kid was Sam Maghett, later known as Magic Sam, and Syl was amazed at how well this new kid played guitar, something he'd picked up from his childhood friend Matt "Guitar" Murphy. Soon, Mack, Sam and Syl had a little band. Sam's uncle, "Shakey Jake" Harris, an established player on the Chicago blues scene, grabbed Syl for his band in 1955, and soon Syl was in demand as a studio guitarist. One day, at a session for Vee-Jay Records, Calvin Carter, whose sister co-owned the label, heard Syl singing and said he'd like to make a record with him. Syl went home and wrote a couple of songs, then stopped by a "record your voice" machine to make a little demo. Then he got on the bus, and was walking from the bus stop to Vee-Jay to remind them of the label's promise. Halfway there, he saw the King Records office, and decided to go in there instead.

Ralph Bass, who oversaw King's Chicago operations, took the homemade record into his office, played it a couple of times while Syl waited in the lobby, made a phone call to the home office in Cincinnati, and came back to tell Syl he had a deal. The label boss, Syd Nathan, didn't like the name Sylvester Thompson, so he changed it to Syl Johnson. Syl signed to King's subsidiary Federal, where he cut 14 sides between 1959 and 1962 that were very much in the style of Federal's big star, Freddie King. The later ones sounded more like the music that was big in Chicago's West Side clubs, where Syl played music halfway between blues and soul. Chicago in those days was a jungle of tiny record labels, and Syl recorded for a number of them. If these records had sounded better, he might have had hits.

"Falling in Love Again" paired him with Barry Goldberg, who ran with the University of Chicago blues crowd — which also included Paul Butterfield, Mike Bloomfield and Nick Gravenites — but the tiny TMP-Ting label it was on didn't have a chance. It wasn't until 1967 that Syl Johnson ever saw the charts.

"Different Strokes" made the Top 20 on the soul charts and grazed the bottom of the pop charts in 1967, but it would turn out to be the most important record he'd ever made. It was on Twilight, a label he partially owned, although it soon changed its name to Twi-night, for some reason. Syl spent 1967 and '68 looking for another hit, and got one after some recording in Memphis.

"Dresses Too Short" was the product of a growing friendship with Memphis producer Willie Mitchell, and was recorded with the same band that would make Al Green famous, but Johnson still wasn't making enough to justify moving, and in 1969, in Chicago, he created his first masterpiece.

"Is It Because I'm Black" is reminiscent of Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On," although it's more conventionally played, and the album version, more than seven minutes long, is a landmark. The song sold, too, but the album didn't, despite its amazing version of The Beatles' "Come Together" and several more socially conscious tracks.

It was about this time that Willie Mitchell snapped Johnson up, and he spent the '70s making hits for him on the Hi label. When that was over, Syl Johnson returned to the Chicago clubs. He'd done okay, but he was about to become rich: With the coming of hip-hop, someone discovered the first six seconds of "Different Strokes."

It's been sampled legally more than 50 times and Syl Johnson's gotten paid each time.

1950s: Early life and recording debut

Born in Holly Springs, Mississippi, he moved with his family to Chicago in 1950, where blues guitarist Magic Sam was his next-door neighbor. Johnson sang and played with blues artists Magic Sam, Billy Boy Arnold, Junior Wells and Howlin' Wolf in the 1950s. He recorded with Jimmy Reed for Vee-Jay in 1959. He made his solo debut that same year with Federal, a subsidiary of King Records of Cincinnati, backed by Freddie King on guitar.

1960s: Career at Twinight Records

Johnson began recording for Twinight Records of Chicago in the mid-1960s. Beginning with his first hit, "Come On Sock It to Me", in 1967, he dominated the label as both a hit-maker and a producer. His song "Different Strokes", also from 1967, is included on the breakbeat compilation album Ultimate Breaks and Beats.

Like other black songwriters of the period, he wrote songs at this time exploring themes of African-American identity and social problems, such as "Is It Because I'm Black", which reached number 11 on the Billboard R&B chart in 1969.

1970s: Hi Records and Willie Mitchell

In 1971, the producer Willie Mitchell brought Johnson to Hi Records, for which the two recorded three albums, which generated a number of singles. Produced in Memphis with the Hi house band, these albums contained the hits "We Did It", "Back for a Taste of Your Love" and "Take Me to the River", his biggest success, reaching number 7 on the R&B chart in 1975. However, at Hi Records, Johnson was always to some extent in the shadow of Al Green, commercially if not artistically. Mitchell also chose to use mainly in-house compositions rather than Johnson's original songs.[citation needed]

Reviewing one of his last albums for Hi, 1976's Total Explosion, Robert Christgau wrote in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981): "Johnson has tended to disappear in between Willie Mitchell and Al Green, but on this LP he takes his harmonica up to the microphone and stands clear as a lapsed bluesman. Good move. His voice is still shriller, and more strained than Green's, but that can be a satisfying distinction in the right context."

1980s: Retirement

After his years with Hi ended, Johnson produced two LPs for his own Shama label, the second of which (Ms. Fine Brown Frame, 1982) was picked up for distribution by Boardwalk Records. The title track of that album was Johnson's last hit record.

Around the mid-1980s, Johnson started a fast-food fish restaurant and mostly retired from performing, making only occasional appearances at blues clubs. 

1990s: Return to music

In 1992, Johnson found out that his song "Different Strokes" had been sampled by several rappers, including Wu-Tang Clan, Public Enemy, Kool G Rap, Hammer, and the Geto Boys. This stimulated his interest in making comeback in the music industry.He recorded the album Back in the Game, released by Delmark Records in 1994, which featured the Hi rhythm section and his youngest daughter, Syleena Johnson.

Johnson has been one of the most sampled artists, largely from "Different Strokes" and "Is It Because I'm Black". He feels passionately that taking music from an original artist without proper compensation constitutes theftand has sued other artists for copyright infringement

Personal life

Johnson is a brother of the blues guitarist and singer Jimmy Johnson and the bassist Mack Thompson.

Johnson appeared in an episode of the TV One reality series R&B Divas: Atlanta, in which he offers advice and encouragement to his daughter Syleena before she gives a live performances.

Syl and his family appeared on Iyanla: Fix My Life, by the request of his daughter Syleena, to help her mother and the alcohol addiction.