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Is it me or was/is Rick Derringer a very underrated guitarist?

Wally

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Joined
Feb 27, 2003
Messages
3,535
I have been a fan for along time. I was dancing to and playing that McCoy number he wrote when I was 14. I never have seen that video, though! Here is the actual video....with Sloopy letting her hair down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoZ5JL3gmHo

Kept up with him during the J. Winter days. I saw Derringer as the warm up for Nam Halen on VH's first tour in 1978. I was impressed by Van Halen, but I like what Derringer did more at that time....at least, I was drawn to his music more.
 

zoommutt

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Nov 15, 2003
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1,448
I remember as a teenager looking at the back of the album Edgar Winter's Shock Treatment and seeing the band trying for the androgynous look. Yikes! But to me, as a teenager, Rick looked like a girl to me. Great album.
 

Wally

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Feb 27, 2003
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3,535
To the tune of.....well....you know.....

''Androgeny, androgeny shaping my world....
Living, Loving....is he is lady?!?"

eeeehaw......It is a wild, wild world.....some females are men
some boys are girls.....

Nowadays, checking the package is not a defining moment....gender identity is no longer a physical thing, is it?
What once was learned is now invalid?!?! I am glad that I don't have to explain things to a child in this day and age.

Oh, zoommutt, I remember seeing that album for the first time, too....in magazines since I was overseas. When I was coming back 'to the world', as we as oversea miltiary servicemen called it in those days, in 1975, I wondered to myself IF I was going to see that 'fashion' on my way home. I walked out onto the sidewalk from the airport in San Francisco. There was a fellow who had to have been as tall as I am..6'5"... towering even higher in about 6 inch platforms and dressed in exactly the same fashion as what is on that cover of that album. I said to myself.."Welcome to the world!".
 

Dave P

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Oct 13, 2001
Messages
976
The last time I was at a Dallas show, Rick blew George Lynch off the stage.
 

Midnight Blues

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Feb 20, 2011
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1,703
I remember as a teenager looking at the back of the album Edgar Winter's Shock Treatment and seeing the band trying for the androgynous look. Yikes! But to me, as a teenager, Rick looked like a girl to me. Great album.

I remember back in the '70s when these two albums were out at about the same time and fairly close to one another on the shelf:

rickd_zps59cda44c.jpg


Throw-in Suzi Quatro too:

suzi-quatro-121114-235x190.jpg


I much preferred Rick's stuff though.
 

shermanpup

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Joined
Mar 1, 2019
Messages
3
Rick Derringer was and is an incredible guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer.
I met him a couple times. He is a little guy but jeez his live album in the 70's.
His band Derringer was the first band i ever saw perform live. He opened for
Aerosmith at Madison Square Garden. WOW
Saw these guys 4 times before they broke up, first was in my home town and they backed up Aerosmith and made them look unprofessional as they were. Danny Johnson is a great player with killer tone ,phrasing ,and note selection , listen to Drivin sideways and Sailor. Then saw them with Boston twice, and finally at Soldier Field in Chicago Rick said "I want them to hear us in Indiana" when he came out
During Beyond the Universe They rubbed the guitars together by the bridges for a sound effect,and then backed up from each other and swung their guitars by the straps and on the third swing they tossed their guitars to each other , and I am talking about 15" high and about 25 " apart and then they threw them back to each other. And with their real guitars, an old Gibson Special and a BC rich Mocking bird . I have never seen anyone ever do this before or after , not Hendrix or Jimmy Page or EVH. The Bass player Kenny Aaronson and the drummer Vinny Appiece were on time too. These guys embarrassed some of the bands they backed and a better guitar duo never existed in hard rock. The radio was not kind to them either. Then came ED in 78, saw that one too up close ,mighty impressive to see the not yet famous ,hungry Van Halen and the White and Black stripped guitar. The 70's rocked with live R&R
 

Arnold M.

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Mar 29, 2018
Messages
296
Listen to Johnny Winter And Live or Edgar Winters Roadwork album ... Rick Derringer was amazing. ... waaay underrated in his time
 

efpe

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Aug 18, 2013
Messages
89
Edgar Winter‘s Roadwork Album is one of my all time favoutires!
Gruhn offers some of Rick‘s guitars for quite a time...
 

Tom Wittrock

Les Paul Forum Co-Owner
Joined
Aug 2, 2001
Messages
42,567
Edgar Winter‘s Roadwork Album is one of my all time favoutires!
Gruhn offers some of Rick‘s guitars for quite a time...

I saw them live at that time. One of my greatest concerts ever and Rick kicked ass the whole show. :yah

And they were opening for Black Sabbath! :hee
 

agogetr

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Joined
Jan 22, 2019
Messages
451
tobacco road!
speaking of the rock n roll hall of fame have the doobies been inducted? i know inxs and janet jackson have.
 

LeonC

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Joined
Aug 30, 2002
Messages
799
Slide on "Showbiz Kids" is, I think, all he played on. He's certainly not underrated by me. The band "Derringer" that he had in the late '70's-80's was one of the best live acts of the time. I'm talking about the lineup w/ Danny Johnson, Kenny Aaronson and Myron Grombacher. Incredible band.

Also played the solo on Chain Lightning, right? And what a fabulous solo that was!

To answer the OP's question...at least in the US, he was absolutely not the least bit underrated. Every rock/blues guitar player I knew was well aware of Rick's skills and track record. He was a bonafide badass and we all knew it.
 
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