The Very Best Of

Performer: John Lee Hooker
Artist: Roy Rogers; Otis Spann; T-Bone Walker
Producer: James Austin (Compilation)
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Personnel includes: John Lee Hooker (vocals, guitar); Roy Rogers, T-Bone Walker (guitar); Otis Spann (piano). Includes liner notes by Mark Humphrey. Digitally remastered by Bill Inglot and Ken Perry. Hey, what a concept! A John Lee Hooker compilation with detailed liner notes and discographical documentation! Hats off to Rhino for putting together this well-produced CD, with photos, record label and release date information, and a detailed essay by Mark Humphrey. There's no way to reduce Hooker's 50+-year output to a single album, but Humphrey's essay does a good job of showing how the 16 included cuts trace a thread through the bluesman's prodigious and lengthy career. The early essentials are here: the solo guitar-and-voice cuts that made Hooker's reputation out of Detroit, singles like "Boogie Chillen'," "I'm in the Mood," and Keith Richards' favorite "Crawlin' Kingsnake." The latter half of this collection runs to band cuts drawn from THE REAL FOLK BLUES, a couple of live recordings, and, coming full circle, a version of Robert Johnson's "Terraplane Blues" that features Hooker singing to the guitar accompaniment of slide whiz Roy Rogers. Rogers went on to produce Hooker's THE HEALER, the album that brought elder bluesman Hooker back into general circulation in the early '90s.

John Lee Hooker is the most elemental of the electric blues giants. His spooky musical minimalism--plaintive yet powerful vocals coupled with guitar work alternately haunting and toe-tapping--has inspired countless artists, from contemporaries like Slim Harpo to acolytes the Rolling Stones. Few, however, can summon up the inexplicable erotic charge at the heart of Hooker's best performances. The patented "boogie" rhythm upon which seemingly every blues-rock and hard rock band of the 1970s wrought variations was virtually invented by Hooker. One of the most-recorded post-war bluesmen, Hooker released records on countless labels, working much of the time in Detroit and Chicago. He kept working well into his eighties, his style growing ever more refined and penetrating.

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