John Lee Hooker : The Best Of 1991

John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1917 – June 21, 2001) was a highly influential American blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. Hooker was born in Mississippi,

He was beloved worldwide as the king of the endless boogie, a genuine blues superstar whose droning, hypnotic one-chord grooves were at once both ultra-primitive and timeless. But John Lee Hooker recorded in a great many more styles than that over a career that stretched across more than half a century.

"The Hook" was a Mississippi native who became the top gent on the Detroit blues circuit in the years following World War II. 

And he just kept rolling along :the 01'Man River of the Blues was going as strong as ever in his seventies , when "Boom Boom" charted in 1992 courtesy of the sales power of global advertising .Three years earlier he'd released "The Healer", not really a comeback as , unlike
many others Bluesmen , he'd managed to dodge oblivion , but a triumphant confirmation of his stature .

Bonnie Raitt , Robert Cray and Carlos Santana were queueing up to play alongside Hooker , who'd
similary worked with Canned Heat and Van Morrison in the early 1970s . In 1989, he joined with a number of musicians, including Carlos Santana and Bonnie Raitt to record the album The Healer, for which he and Santana won a Grammy Award. Hooker recorded several songs with Van Morrison, including Never Get Out of These Blues Alive, The Healing Game, and I Cover the Waterfront. He also appeared on stage with Van Morrison several times, some of which was released on the live album A Night in San Francisco. The same year he appeared as the title character on Pete Townshend's The Iron Man: The Musical by Pete Townshend.

Though similar to the early Delta blues, his music was metrically free. John Lee Hooker could be said to embody his own genre of the blues, often incorporating the boogie-woogie piano style and a driving rhythm into his blues guitar playing and singing. His best known songs include Boogie Chillen' (1948), I'm in the Mood (1951), and Boom Boom (1962)—the first two reaching #1 on the Billboard R&B chart.

Hooker's recording career began in 1948 when his agent placed a demo, made by Hooker, with the Bihari brothers, owners of the Modern Records label. The company initially released an up-tempo number, Boogie Chillen', which became Hooker's first hit single.

His early solo songs were recorded under Bernie Besman. John Lee Hooker rarely played on a standard beat, changing tempo to fit the needs of the song. This often made it difficult to use backing musicians who were not accustomed to Hooker's musical vagaries.

Hooker fell ill just before a tour of Europe in 2001 and died in his sleep on June 21 at the age of 83, two months before his 84th birthday. He was interred at the Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland, California.[20]

His last live in the studio recording on guitar and vocal was of a song he wrote with Pete Sears called Elizebeth, featuring members of his Coast to Coast Blues Band with Sears on piano. It was recorded on January 14, 1998 at Bayview Studios in Richmond, California.


"I'm a man , I love women ,
but I don't put nothin' ahead of my music .
That's my life .
I am the Blues .
I'll never get out of them alive "

Tracks

01. I'm in the mood
02. Boogie Chillum
03. It serves me right to suffer
04. This is hip
05. House rent boogie
06. I'm so excited
07. I love you honey
08. Hobo Blues
09. Crawlin' Kingsnake
10. Maudie
11. Dimples
12. Boom Boom
13. Louise
14. Ground hog blues
15. Ramblin' by myself
16. Walkin' the boogie
17. One Bourbon,one scotch,one beer
18. Sugar Mama
19. Peace lovin' Man
20. Leave my wife alone
21. Blues before sunrise
22. Time is marching

Format : CD

Label : Music Collection International

Serial Number : MCCD020

FLAC Size : 253 MB