Customer Reviews

Blues Kingpins

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All 6 Blues Kingpins cds are good----18 tracks on each, clean remastering. This is a fine compilation of early John Lee.

Many of Hooker's early compilations sound too similar from track to track and can get boring after awhile. I had his 2-disc early 50's chess collection that was like that, and it had poor sound quality to boot. In this "blues kingpins" collection, virgin records has come up with most of Hooker's early hits from 1948-55. The remastered sound is as good as can be expected from these early sides. The tracks are done in a chronological order. At the beginning of the disc, you get the raw, primitive hits of "boogie chillen" and "sally mae". All you get here is Hooker by himself singing and playing guitar while stomping his foot to the beat. As the tracks move forward, you will hear others accompanying John, such as another guitar player, a drummer, a pianist, and even a horn section near the end. The variety brought in by these other musicians on later tracks make the cd as a whole more enjoyable to listen to from beginning to end. The packaging for this cd is very nice, with a cardboard fold-out case. The pull-out booklet of liner notes by Bill Dahl is excellent and informative as well. I am mystified by the lack of interest here at amazon for this disc, since it is buried down at the bottom of his list of best selling cd's. Regardless, i highly recommend this early collection!

This is a terrific compilation of essential John Lee Hooker. If you don't have any of his CDs, this is a great one to start with. It begins with "Boogie Chillen" and his seductive guitar groove lifts you up and takes you for a ride through the Mississippi Delta for 15 terrific tracks. Hooker packs more soul and sensuality into his moaned plea, "I'm in the moooood, I'm in the mood for love," than any X-rated gangsta rapper or torch-singing wannabe. To hear him play his foot-stomping boogie beat is to hear the blues in its most primal, dangerous state. A must-have. Excellent liner notes, too.