Amazon.com essential recording

This brooding lesson in the "Three D's" of the blues--despair, death, and desire--is a window into the melancholy soul of Hooker's art. Each of the two discs are separate sets from a '70s solo concert at New York City's Hunter College. And by the time Hooker asks "How deep and how low can you git?" near the performance's end, we already know. It's not merely the profound darkness of these tales--in which Hooker becomes a killer, a TB victim, an abandoned lover--but the pain with which he suffuses his pinched, red-clay voice. Then there's his guitar, constantly working idiosyncratic variations on his patented boogie; sliding and snapping out replies to the tense lyrics of "Jesse James" or his improvised lonesome wail "Tired of Being Your Doggie." Throughout, Hooker exercises his command of tension and drama. --Ted Drozdowski ... Read more

Amazon.com essential recording

This brooding lesson in the "Three D's" of the blues--despair, death, and desire--is a window into the melancholy soul of Hooker's art. Each of the two discs are separate sets from a '70s solo concert at New York City's Hunter College. And by the time Hooker asks "How deep and how low can you git?" near the performance's end, we already know. It's not merely the profound darkness of these tales--in which Hooker becomes a killer, a TB victim, an abandoned lover--but the pain with which he suffuses his pinched, red-clay voice. Then there's his guitar, constantly working idiosyncratic variations on his patented boogie; sliding and snapping out replies to the tense lyrics of "Jesse James" or his improvised lonesome wail "Tired of Being Your Doggie." Throughout, Hooker exercises his command of tension and drama. --Ted Drozdowski ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Everything he does is gonna be funky!
This is as good as a live cd gets. You can feel the excitement in the crowd, the band is tight, Lloyd's voice and guitar are right on the mark with soul, funk and blues. I play him a lot on my Blues Power Show at 1490 KOTY, The Yakima Nation Reservation station. The attitude and funk of the song "Everything I do gonna be funky" is so infectious, that I am considering making it the Show's official song!

When I put this on at a party, it gets even more converts.
This CD was recorded live at the Sierra Nevada Brewery in Chico, party capital of the universe. Lloyd Jones wrote "Can't Get You Off Of My Mind", and though other people have covered it, I like his original version best. This is a cheer-yourself-up-and-get-moving CD. I've seen this hard-working band several times in Portland and Seattle-don't miss 'em! ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Forget the pundits - this is a fine album!
No matter what Grove Press says, this is a fine example of a great live blues performance! ... Read more

Amazon.com

Although propulsive classics such as "Boogie Chillen" and "Dimples" had already established John Lee Hooker among the most electrifying artists within the blues community, his performances at the Newport Folk Festival in 1960 and '63 found him catering to the biases of a broader, younger (and whiter) audience: folk-revival fans who preferred acoustic to electric and country blues to the modern urban strain. Thus, the Detroit-based Hooker did his best to approximate the styles he'd left behind in his native Mississippi a couple of decades earlier. The brooding narrative balladry of "Tupelo" and "Great Fire of Natchez" benefits from this stripped-down approach, and Hooker feels more at liberty to change tempos and keys throughout. But the unplugged versions of staples such as "Boom Boom" barely approach the sensual swagger of Hooker at his most musically potent. This 17-cut reissue includes three previously unreleased tracks, plus another appearing for the first time on CD. --Don McLeese ... Read more

Reviews (1)

The Real Deal
I have never seen a better show than a Buddy Guy show. He is the most amazing showmen around. On this CD he plays Live in Chicago, and the fire is there for sure. And its just he and his regular band, no saxophones, trumpets. As with most of his repertoire from this period, he dont play 'songs'. Basically he wails on the guitar and make up verses from different blues standards. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Slightly odd...
Taj Mahal has put out some magnificent blues albums, particularly his first two albums, but this live recording presents classic numbers like "Stagger Lee", "Statesboro Blues", "Come On My Kitchen", and "Mailbox Blues" in rather peculiar jazz/pop/folk renditions...sort of like "Paul Simon sings Taj Mahal".
Be sure to listen to it before buying. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Death, as they say, can be a good career move. That's a cynical attitude to take toward the passing of one of the greatest legends in blues--in fact, one of the greatest legends of American music--but it's hard not to get cynical in the wake of all the reissues and dusted-off old recordings that have hit the shelves in the wake of John Lee Hooker's death in June 2001. That said, the aptly named The Cream is worth a listen. Recorded in Palo Alto in 1977, this live concert recording captures Hooker in a relaxed mood, taking things easy and jamming with the band. It's a good, solid set, especially in its closing number, "Boogie On," a jamming version of Hooker's classic "Boogie Chillen" that features some nice harp work from Charlie Musselwhite. While The Cream doesn't threaten the pride of place of Hooker's live Newport recording (itself recently reissued), it's plenty satisfying on its own terms.--Genevieve Williams ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Hooker at his chilled out best
I realy dig this album, as it is so smooth and easy to listen to. Very cool, calm and laid back, throw this album on when your looking for something to calm you down. Stand out tracks include "Louise" & "Bar Room Drinking". Not the best place to start out on Hooker, but if your are a hooker fan, or love laid back chilled out blues, then this album is worth its weight in gold.

Sweet Cream
If you like the sound of a wicked electric blues guitar, John Lee Hooker is the man. At least he is for me. Hooker has always been a classic and a lot of fun to listen to. I would recommend this CD to anyone, even if you hadnt heard of the legend before. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Beware this issue!!!
Great concert, BUT be careful if you are looking at the "new" tracks listed. This is just the 2nd Hunter College concert - the same as other issues, BUT unlike most of the others (eg Tomato), many of the tracks do not use the same titles as used in all the standard Hooker discographies. So, if you have vols 1 & 2, don't be tempted as I was into thinking it is perhaps a 3rd bunch!!! It's just a standard Vol 2. (The Vol 1 issue by Blues Alliance is also just the normal Vol 1, but tracks are named like all other issues). ... Read more

Album Description

Remastered and repackaged reissue of 1996 release, currently out-of-print in the U.S.. Originally issued as 'Big Blues', this 1988 recording features ten tracks, including 'Mail B ox Blues' & 'Come On In My Kitchen'. Standard jewel case. 2001 release. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A Smoldering 40-Minute Relic from 1976
Anyone who has been lucky enough to see the Boogie Man in one of his increasingly scant recent performances has seen him surrounded, and arguably nearly smothered by, a large, powerful band. Basking in the rays of a voice that has mellowed like cognac over the years, they might wonder what John Lee sounded like as a stripped-down, one-man show: just him, his guitar, and his abstrusely-timed left foot.

This is it.

Hooker first cultivated his solo electric style in Detroit, but this album comes over 30 years later as a nascent superstar Hooker, wary from the creative limitations of playing with the group Canned Heat, is ready to lay down a live, back-to-basics masterpiece with alacrity. Playing in front of a cozy New York crowd after taking a little nip with a backstage friend, Hooker fully reveals his genius and renders a seminal, smoldering 40-minute relic.

Hooker develops his own genteel rapport with the crowd, not unlike that of B.B. King on Live at the Regal, commenting between songs, taking requests, and thanking them for their cheers and applause, for "the sounds of their hands." Before "I'm Bad Like Jesse James," he implores the audience to "dig the lyrics on this and just dig what I'm gonna do to this cat. 'Cause I'm gonna ruin him this mornin'." This loosens up his crowd and creates a relaxed atmosphere, an atmosphere Hooker feeds off of and then soars into with full stride on the third number, "Dark Room."

Asked about is guitar style, Hooker once said he prefers mean, mean licks to fancy playing. There is a banquet of those licks here, beginning with the ear-splitting tension-breaker after the second verse of "I Miss You So." Hooker continues on with a playful version of "I'm Bad Like Jesse James," diverting quite a bit from the lurid version on Live at the Cafe Au-Go Go album seven years earlier. "Dark Room" showcases John Lee's mastery of blending soulful singing with stinging licks... there is a sublime improvisational moment where he abruptly halts a guitar lick and impetuously beckons his guitar, "Hush."

The lyrics on this album are so powerful and flamboyant one can't tell whether they are improvised or have been revised a thousand times over. On "When My First Wife Left Me," he declares, "Ain't but the one thing that worries me so bad, I hope she ain't learned to call no other man Daddy, You know that's what's worrying me." This phrasing, along with the countless other subtleties of his one-of-a-kind style, is a serendipitous bubble-bath for the Hooker fan, as is the entire record itself. It goes without saying Hooker delivered a well-rewarded encore with "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer." This last classic, like some of his more brilliant works, doesn't really start to shine until three full minutes into the song, with him lyrically improvising a hilarious scene at a bar.

Not surprisingly, this is one of a handful of enduring, select recordings re-issued on the Concord Blues Alliance label, which touts it collection of "classic blues recordings at their most raw, powerful and uncompromising." Effortlessly as it seems, Hooker compromises nothing: this is surely one of his most brooding, visceral, and mature sets ever waxed. ... Read more