Customer Reviews

50 Years:John Lee Hooker Anthology

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When an artist has recorded for fifty years, and for an incredible amount of different labels, two discs really isn't a lot. I have a two-CD collection featuring just Hooker's band-backed 60s recording (Tomato's "The Early Years"), and if an equal amount of time was to be devoted to every phase of his career, you'd end up with a ten-disc box set.

So, the "50 Years" anthology isn't everything you could ever want from the Boogie Man. But if you're just looking for a good, career-spanning compilation which has the "must-have" songs, this is one of the best. Rhino's 31-track "The Ultimate Collection 1948-1990" comes close, and Hip-O Records' 20-track "The Definitive Collection" is probably the best single-disc Hooker-compilation on the market, but this one pretty much leave all others in the dust. Unless you want to spring for the 2006 "Hooker" box set from the Shout Factory label; that one is a whopping 84 songs.

Casual listeners will note that "Boom Boom" is here, of course, and so is the swaggering "Dimples", the bar boogie "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer", and the gritty slow blues "I'm Bad Like Jesse James" and "It Serves Me Right To Suffer".
There are bare-bones solo performances here, just John Lee Hooker and his guitar and a piece of plywood for Hooker to stomp on. There are swinging, band-backed "middle-era" numbers like "Big Legs, Tight Skirt" and "Bottle Up And Go". And there are a few songs from his latter-day "super star" period, including a duet with Van Morrison on "Don't Look Back" (and, unfortunately, the misguided "Chill Out", too).
"I'll Never Get Out Of These Blues Alive" is missing, which is a shame...but you can get that one on the magnificent "Live at the Café au Go Go"-album which you are going to want anyway!
I would have made a couple of other substitutions as well, but since nobody asked me, this is what came out of it, and it is in fact very, very good. Newcomers would do very well indeed to start either here or with Hip-O's aforementioned "Definitive Collection".

I think my title just about sums it up. I love the blues in general but must admit the appeal of John Lee Hooker always escaped me. I mean, I acknowledged his talent, but his songs so often seemed murky and to my mind tiresome.

After listening to this anthology, I think I must have bought a whole bunch of badly mixed, and badly selected sides. He has a subtle rhythm unmatched by most American artists--it seems to be very African actually--and the songs have a great drive. For me, the early cuts, where Hooker is just accompanied by his cheap guitar and foottapping were a total revelation. Powerful doesn't begin to describe it. And the classic song Boom Boom which I had always liked just jumps out in this mix. The music is so exciting I am a little down I didn't spring for the big box set.

So I guess I am a John Lee Hooker fan NOW. If you have listened to the man and didn't understand what the fuss was about, this anthology is a great place to start. If you are already a fan--well, you probably think I was pretty dumb not to see what was so obvious, and I just have to hang my head and shame and order---

ONE BOURBAN ONE SCOTCH ONE BEER!

This is a great collection of his stuff! With all the "collections" of musicians where they put a lot of the same stuff on like 3 or 4 "anthologies" or "collections" you get tired of trying to get all of an artists' stuff but an average fan could get by with this. I of course had to have a lot more of JLH so I own pretty much all his stuff seeings' how's he's about my favorite blues artist.