His image was very recognizable in rock and roll, at least in the one that is forged in gambling dens before a few hundred people.
Dozens of those clubs were toured by Wilko Johnson during his five-decade career.
He would always walk out on stage as if he had received an electric shock seconds before.
His head moving from one side to the other, his eyes wide open and about to pop out of their sockets, his legs shaking, his guitar neck jerking like a submachine gun.
Now that was going out plugged in.
And his way of playing his guitar, almost always without a pick, with all the fingers building a rhythmic saw sound: melody and plucking almost at the same time.
He did it especially in Dr. Feelgood, a fundamental band of what was called
pub rock,
movement that emerged mainly in London pubs and was a precedent for punk.
Wilko Johnson has died in his home at the age of 75, family sources have confirmed.
Actually, Johnson (Canvey Island, Essex, United Kingdom, 1947) had already died.
Or at least that's what they predicted in 2013, when they found advanced pancreatic cancer in him and gave him a year to live.
The guitarist, a stubborn fellow raised in Canvey Island beer pubs, refused chemotherapy.
"I preferred to continue playing than to be exhausted by the effects of the treatment," he told this journalist in an interview for EL PAÍS.
He went to Japan to perform and as if nothing had happened.
A few months later he found a specialist in this type of tumor and removed it.
And until yesterday, when he left for good.
Johnson recounted in that interview the characteristics of the disease before undergoing the operation: "The tumor was increasing in my body and there was a moment when I went out to perform and the guitar balanced on my belly."
Wilko Johnson performing with his band in London, on October 18, in one of his last concerts.
Lorne Thomson (Redferns)
Johnson played many times in Spain, always in small joints and always encouraged by an adoring rock crowd.
Born John Peter Wilkinson, he began playing guitar in the early 1970s with Dr. Feelgood.
The singer was Lee Brilleaux, another element crazy for rock and roll and beer, vocalist and harmonica player.
Together with John B. Sparks (bass) and The Big Figure (drums) they formed the group's classic quartet.
Actually, Dr. Feelgood were pumping out
rhythm and blues,
but with a fierceness and nerve that exemplified punk.
Johnson was in Dr. Feelgood for the first three studio albums: the unmissable
Down by the Jetty
(1975),
Malpractice
(1975) and
Sneakin' Suspicion
(1977).
There were two leaders in the same band and that has never been a good way to guarantee continuity.
The guitarist left and Lee Brilleaux stayed in front, until he died of cancer in 1994 at the age of 41.
The testimony of how tremendous they were in concert is
Stupidity,
an album that does not appear among the best in live history, but it should.
The work, with an iconic cover (Lee Brilleaux blowing the harmonica and Johnson next to him, looking at him with his crazy face), closes with his biggest hit,
Roxette.
In this work, the group offers a demonstration of one of its strengths: giving fury to black music classics (songs by Sonny Boy Williamson, Chuck Berry, Solomon Burke or Bo Diddley).
When the guitarist left Dr. Feelgood he formed the band Solid Senders and played for some time with Ian Dury and Johnny Thunders.
Since then he has performed under the name of the Wilko Johnson Band, editing a dozen works and performing tirelessly.
But his legacy will always be located in the times of Dr. Feelgood.
Only the very followers of that group recognized him when he appeared in various chapters of
Game of Thrones
as Ilyn Payne, a mute executioner.
Curiously, the second biggest success of his career (after
Stupidity,
with Dr. Feelgood) came with one of his latest works,
Going Back Home
(2014)
,
in the company of The Who singer, Roger Daltrey.
Cover of the live album, 'Stupidity', released by Dr. Feelgood in 1976.
Throughout this Wednesday, musicians from various generations are remembering him.
From veteran Jimmy Page (“I am saddened to hear of Wilko Johnson's passing”) to Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos, who wrote on social media: “His unique performance and stage presence touched and inspired many. guitarists, including me.
His talent will be felt for many more years ”.
In Spain, he and Dr. Feelgood influenced bands like Mermelada or Los Enemigos.
Also in darker scenes.
Asked by this newspaper, Ana Curra, a mythical punk figure and member of bands such as Paralysis Permanente, points out: “Wilko Johnson meant a lot to me.
The first concert I went to was Dr. Feelgood.
My brother took me.
And Wilko propelled me into punk.
I will always be grateful to him."
