36 Blues Masterpieces

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Performer: John Lee Hooker
Distributor: Select-O-Hits

Notes: For a license deal and the price it's difficult to beat these "Solid Gold Collections" issued by Union Square Ltd.. There's not much in the way of packaging, but in a sense, there doesn't need to be. This John Lee Hooker set contains prime Hook -- 36 cuts -- all of them smokers from the man in his rollicking prime from the 1950s and '60s. For example, the first 15 cuts of disc one were cut for Vee Jay. There's one from Tomato, and one from the Artist Alliance, and these are classics -- from "Boogie Chillun'," and "Boom, Boom," to "Big Legs, Tight Skirt," and the awesome "Love Is a Burning Thing." Disc two contains 11 more Vee Jay cuts, three from the Tomato period, and two more independently licensed tunes,. Here are "T. B. Sheets," "It Serves Me Right to Suffer," "This Is Hip," "Nightmare Blues," "House Rent Boogie," "Graveyard Blues," and "She's Long, She's Tall, She Weeps Like a Willow Tree." The assortment is great, of both hits and obscurities. About the only thing left wanting is the lack of "Crawling King Snake," but that's a small complaint. Sound is adequate and the inclusion of detailed cut information is what's sorely lacking in other budget-priced compilations. ~ Thom Jurek

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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