Customer Reviews

Free Beer & Chicken

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

 

 

This album is one of the most excellent oddities in the Boogie King's catalogue. This is best described as John Lee Hooker does a funk album. Definitely not for blues purists. There are a few straight up and down blues numbers like 'Settin' on top of the world', and 'Five Long Years', but other numbers find John dropped straight into a well-oiled, psychedlic funk machine (replete with violin solos!). I'd recommend this album to open minded John Lee Hooker fans, and also those who are into Funkadelic. 5 star weirdness.

Not for the blues purest. Strickly for the fans of Mr. Hooker. Not my fav CD but still captures his musical stylings.

Hello there... This is an excellent heavy party album - sit around by the camp fire, drink beer and don't bother talking cause the music will drown you out. John Lee Hooker at his best. I'm only a 20 something - but I love it - so does my Dad - bridge that hippy generation gap with this one...

When I first read about this album I couldn't wait to get hold of it.
Johnnie Lee goes funky?!!
Damn. I like the sound of that!
He's always had that groove thing going and a voice that could work with pretty much anything.

You'll find 3 really fat tracks on the album; "Make it funky" - the purest funk track on the album,
and worth the prize of the album alone, "713 Blues/714 Blues", a hard and greasy cooker and
a very groovy rendition of "Bluebird."
By the way, it's only 9 songs on this album, not 12 as it says in the track listings. "713 Blues/714
Blues" is one recording split in two, and the last 3 songs listed are a rather strange medley,
badly put togheter. That's a shame, because on part b)Nothin' but the best, the horns and Hooker
have hit a baaad groove.
On the same medley you also get a guestspot from Joe Cocker, sounding like he had whiskey and
acid for breakfast, and never came around to food! You can hear Hooker laughing in the background
at 03:25 when Cocker belts out something, and sounds like a drunk man screaming in his sleep.

5 stars is too generous, but it's a solid four star album, and I give it an extra star just for
finding out about this lost gem, and maybe attract the attention of others.

I was delighted when I saw this album was available for order. I'd heard it years ago on LP on a pretty awful turntable (definitely lent to the ambience, if nothing else) and liked it at the time. Unlike the greatest hits albums, this is a true snapshot in time. I'd definitely recommend that any fan (or even the curious) check this album out.

I have pretty much everything JLH has ever done but I'd never heard of this one. A bit leery at first (not a huge 'funk' fan), I have to admit this is just great. I've often thought Joe Cocker owed more than a little to Hooker so it's a real pleasure to hear the two of them together on a couple of numbers. I disagree with a few of the the reviewers that blues purists will hate this album. However, any who do should open their minds a bit. The violin solos alone are worth the price of admission. You just know the air was thick with clouds of weed (and more than a few glasses of bourbon, scotch, and beer) when this was recorded. Wonder if there's an obscure heavy metal Hooker album out there somewhere...

I've owned this album since the original vinyl version. This is not the typical Delta Blues one expects from JLH but perhaps IMO a sample of perhaps his most unique work. Blues purists may hate it but lovers of musical genius will love it. When artists radically depart from their known styles they usually fall flat on their face but not in this case. Just shows how much of an amazing talent he was. The songs are a mixture of blues and funk with a heavy whiff of psychedelic, weird instrumentation and has not aged over the years. Has even a flavour that hip hop lovers would appreciate and one does not need drugs to get spaced out on this music. The structure of the album is like a loose dope hazed ad-lib filled jam session with several notable guest musicians and artists who really shine also. None of them seems to take this recording session seriously, its all great fun and I like all the spontaneous one liners. Hard to decide which are best tunes, Bluebird and Setting on top of the World stand out for me. But the other tracks are so groovy. This is one great party album or to play at a cool bar late at night.

So this may be the greatest album I've ever listened to. I drink a great amount of beer. I'm usually 5 sheets to the hurricane by the time I walk in the office. Nothing beats being plastered on miller lite at your office job. I'm usually slurring my speech in an important meetings and have installed bumpers along the walls so I don't hurt myself walking down the hall. Some of my decision making isn't really great when I'm hammered, according to my boss. I gave this hot chick a $32 an hour raise one day because she looked totally hot. I found out the next day, she was kind of bigger than I thought. I had to tell her I couldn't give her the raise, but if I'm drunk I might sleep with her. I guess that is called sexual harrassment. My excuse was that I was drunk and didn't know what I was saying. So we've established that I love beer, now on to chicken. I could eat Popeyes spicy chicken for every meal, it's that freakin good. I'll bring a 13 piece bucket into work with me in the morning with a sixer and I'll spend the whole day scarfing down chicken and drinking cold ale. I never wash my hands so it looks like I rubbed crisco on my keyboard because it's so greasy. All my work computer is really fo is surfing porn. I'll cruise porn, hammered off my butt with greasy chicken fingers from 9(I come in late) to 4(I leave early). My coworkers love me because I help the bottom line. Free Chicken? MMMMMM Free Beer? MMMMMM. Folks, we've got a winner.