The Very Best of John Lee Hooker [Rhino]

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. This 16-track collection sweats down Rhino's two-disc anthology to a lean, mean and essential single disc. Here are the earliest recordings that established Hooker as a major blues artist -- "Boogie Chillen," "Hobo Blues," "I'm In the Mood," "Crawlin' Kingsnake," and "Huckle Up Baby" -- and they sound better here than on most other collections, reverberating with a clarity that belies their age. The rest of the set follows Hooker's move toward working with bands not always in step with his erratic timing, but still producing classic blues on favorites like "Dimples" and "Boom Boom." If you're going to own only one Hooker collection, add this one to the shopping basket. ~ Cub Koda 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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