Customer Reviews

Boogie Chillun

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a great "mood" blues cd. That guy below talking about how bad the guitar playing is doesn't get it. It's not how hard something is to play, it's what the songs do for you. I can't stand these technical snobs always talking about how hard and fast they can play....they only play with there brains, this comes from the heart.

I don't know what the previous reviewer is talking about!Primitive! You don't understand the true relationship between the African music culture and Delta Blues if you don't get this!Hooker is at HIS BEST WHEN HE'S ALONE! This is the stuff that makes him a legend;not his band CD's. This is one of John Lee Hooker's greatest Cd's,EVER!If you don't feel this, you got a Hole in your Soul!

Blues music at its best, when it is raw and simple, sorrowful and mean. Hooker's "inept" or "bad" guitar playing is perfect here. It is ragged and unusual, and his little mistakes add to the broken feeling of the songs. He sounds like a broken-hearted witch doctor. It's amazing. Good grief, how boring and criminal would this album be if it was John Lee singing over somebody playing perfect, totally predictable blues guitar? It makes no sense, and anyone who longs for that doesn't get John Lee Hooker, or the blues for that matter. Why don't you ask Keith Richards? He got a huge amount of his rhythm guitar style from John Lee. Of course if you think John Lee is inept then you probably think Keith Richards is sloppy and that Mick Jagger can't sing, so nevermind. It's people who like clean, overproduced, safe, boring blues music who have nearly killed the blues as an artform, and made it something for middle-aged suburbanites to go see on their Honda Goldwings on Friday nights at some restaurant near a mall. Get this album and turn it up and and experience some real blues, raw and nasty and completely profound.

This CD is one that I always end up coming back to when the hard times hit. John Lee bares his soul on this one and his vocals are delivered with conviction and pure emotion. The CD consists of 19 tracks and are just Hooker and his electric guitar. The setting sounds like a small club or coffee house (every once in a while you can hear dishes or glasses clink) and the applause is sometimes edited out at the end of some songs, making it seem as if Hooker is playing without an audience. John Lee really knows how to deliver when it comes to singing about a relationship gone bad. Songs like "I'm Gonna Keep On Walking" and "You Gonna Miss Me" perfectly articulate feelings on lost love. He also sings of the effects of depression on "I Just Can't Hold On Much Longer". Although it sounds bleak, this is John Lee Hooker at his most intimate. With the exception of a few faster songs, the majority of the music is mellow blues with soulful vocals, actually pretty relaxing. Overall, the amount that I've played this disc in the years since I bought it has made this a worthwhile purchase, and to me it remains one of the best examples of the incredible blues of John Lee Hooker.

I'm afraid the guitar playing is way too primitive for me. To call it rudimentary would be very complementary, I mean its just bad. What else would call playing in which the guitarist randomly hits open strings on his guitar without any thought to harmony? A first year guitar student could play as well. Which is a shame as much of this music is very emotional, Hookers vocals and storytelling are both strong. That's why I gave this CD 3 stars rather than one. But personally I'd rather listen to Elmore James, Lightnin' Hopkins, Charlie Patton or Robert Johnson before solo Hooker, at least at this stage of his career. Those guys can write a tune AND play, expecially Johnson. In later years Hooker became a much better and unique guitar player and on his earlier 50's recordings when he plays with a band, he sounds fine. But on Boogie Chillun his guitar playing is wanting, so I'd avoid Boogie Chillun unless you're a Hooker completist.

Update/rebutal to the reviewers above me: Hey its not about the guitar technique but the fact that Hooker can BARELY play at all. His voice is marvelous and if this was an accapella album it would have been a heck of a lot more enjoyable. In fact the only kind of blues I can enjoy is the primitive hence my reference to Charlie Patton or Lightning Hopkins guys who either NEVER played with bands or did it very seldom, but there's a difference between primative and completely inept. I never said Hooker was better in a band context, just that at this stage his guitar bugged me. His vocals are amazing and as I said in my original review emotional. Like Louis Armstrong once said there's only two kinds of music: good and bad. This falls in the good catagorie.