I have been watching more and more episodes and I have heard little about Johnny Soprano other than a few mentions and flashbacks. How far was Johnny Soprano up in the ranks? Does anyone know much about his character?

In the first episode, Tony tells Melfi that his father "never reached the heights that he did." Tony was a capo at this time, meaning that his dad probably never got to capo. But it sounds like he did have his own crew, so he was probably a high-up made guy.

When Tony says that "he never reached the heights" like he did, I think he was talking about making the large amounts of money he does and not his rank.

Am I wrong on this? Did anyone else interpret it this way?

That's basically the way I took it. I also thought he was talking about connections, you know with governement officials and things like that.