Customer Reviews

John Lee Hooker - Come and See About Me: The Definitive DVD

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

John Lee Hooker was the last of the unstructured real country Bluesmen. He was a semi-urbanized Robert Johnson-style one man band and was even born in Clarksdale, Mississippi where WC Handy had first seen slide guitar playing. I can remember seeing John Lee in Central Park in 1967 playing second fiddle to Al Kooper and the final stages of the Blues Project. He came out all alone, no band, just a chair and blew them totally away. You can't beat the real thing! This DVD is a definite must have for any Blues fan. As the ranks of real Blues originals diminishes we need to cling on to these type of records. This compilation is well edited and put together. It is over two hours long which is what Blues fans want.

The songs are a great overview of JLH's career including his classic Newport Jazz Festival appearance and his famous 1965 European American Folk Blues Festival version of "Hobo Blues". Also included is a track from his excellent 1980s "Maintenance Shop Blues" appearance (I wish they would re-release the Albert King Set!).

All in all this is a wonderful compilation. It shows Hooker in all stages of his playing; by himself, with various guest artists, with bands and of course with Santana doing "The Healer". I would also strongly recommend the two JLH DVD's from Vestapol: "John Lee Hooker and Friends" and "John Lee Hooker:Rare Performances"(Amazon can get these by Special Order). This DVD is must for all Blues and American Music fans!

I dont often purchase "archival" performances on DVD due to the often poor quality of both picture and sound. This one, however transcends the archival dust truely conjures up old nuances and feelings that modern bluesmen rarely pull out of the hat. Johns 1965 performance of "Hobo Blues" is a tribute to his dark and smoothly melodic blues. "Im in the Mood" with Bonnie Raitt, raises gooseflesh on me like no other wonderfully performed, almost extemperaneous blues rendition either modern or historical. This collection of both very old and performances from the sunset of his life is full of rare jewels that keeps me poping the DVD back into the player. I applaud and thank the Estate of John Lee Hooker for allowing us the ability to bring him into our homes. He is truely missed, but I hear him all the time listening to Van, Eric, Bonnie, Susan and even myself when I perform. He lives on in us.

I keep going back to this DVD to hear "Boogie Chillen", where the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton are the backup band, just to hear him sing and play. The inspiration for most of the Brisitsh rockers of the 60s and 70s, as Carlos Santana points out he influenced everyone in rock. On this DVD you notice Van Morrison, Santana, Clapton and others lifting his licks in their styles.

Great foot-stompin' boogie, but also killer blues from a giant talent. Not so much a greatest hits as an exploration of his style in role in defining the sound for blues rock.

Well worth the price.

I've watched this 4 times now. It's amazing how JLH could give you so much with and E chord and that steady driving foot stomp. The high points of this DVD for me were the interviews with JLH and the duet of "In the Mood" with Bonnie Raitt. This is a first class performance. I would highly recommend that anyone reading this review---who loves blues and blues history---buy this DVD.

This DVD got 4 stars due to some great footage and interviews that I have never come across. The only down side is the fact that due to limited live recordings available, not only for Mr. Hooker, but all the blues greats, there is a fair share of footage that is also from other sources. It is a reminder of what a crime it is that these great musicians cannot be replaced, and we failed to record their work as we should have for future generations.
I hope we are not allowing current greats slip by the wayside.

this is a pretty good documentary on mr. hooker. i would like to have more older archive material though. most of the material was from the '80s and '90s. i didn't think much of the live set with foghat and thought paul butterfield's harp playing pretty mediocre. charlie musselwhite is interviewed, but he does not play, unfortunately. what is strangely missing from this dvd is any material with or interviewing anyone from canned heat, tony mcphee and the groundhogs, john mayall or eric burdon. they have all been heavily influenced and played with sir john. this is a good dvd but hardly a definitive one.

John Lee Hooker is a national treasure and anyone who grew up loving the blues, as I did, will have to have this DVD in their collection. Don't even consder passing on this one.

This is a collection of John Lee Hooker songs, some from concerts some not. There are some real Gem's here, and the sound quality is very good for as old as some of these recordings are. This is a real Blues Man playing and singing REAL blues. I have a number of his CD's, including his "Gold Collection" CD (Gold CD's) that sounds great! I'll definitely get more of his DVD's in the days to come. (I know he's gone now) This one's a great start due to the sound quality, I'm sure it's been remastered though. The video is mostly very good also, some in B&W and some in color but overall very decent. I really enjoyed watching this bit of history.

I wish Amazon had a 3 criteria rating that would make for a quicker, more accurate and fair rating of Cd's, DVD's and Blu-ray's.

1. Performance
2. Quality of Audio
3. Quality of Video (for DVD's and Blu-ray's)

1.****
2.*****
3.****

Artists that wish to have there performances recorded and recognized should be held to a standard. Poor Audio or Video, no matter how good the performance, is still a bad product. Those who would still purchase sub-standard Audio or Video quality recordings and rank that product highly just because of performance are not doing the industry or the band justice. Demand better and we will get it, settle for less and that's what you'll get.

If you love the blues, you will love this DVD: plain and simple. It features one of the all-time greats and a lot of his music, all done by him.

This has more of a concert feel to it than a documentary. It does span three decades of John Lee Hooker's singing career, so you get both Hooker seen in many concerts and you also get many famous singers talking about him. You see some black-and-white footage of him way back in 1960 at the Newport Jazz Festival, through other TV and concert performances, all the way to the 1990s. Mostly, you hear him sing, and that's why I got this DVD.

"The Boogie Man," as John Lee refers to himself here, had a unique sound of his own and he knew it. He isn't that modest about where he stands among blues greats, but who can argue? Not me, because I enjoyed every song in here. The nine-minute "Boogie" number he does with Foghat and Paul Butterfield ALONE is worth the price of this DVD. It had me tears just watching and listening to it. It's just an unbelievable number.

As Bonnie Raitt comments here, whether Hooker performed alone with just his guitar, or with a band and an electric guitar, "he was the real deal." On this disc, you can watch Hooker and a dozen other big-named musicians, all of them good and all of them big fans of this blues legend. Even some not-so-big names help out with some nice instrumentation. I don't know who the piano player was on "Boom, Boom, Boom," since he isn't listed, but he was fantastic.

As mentioned, this DVD is a lot more music than documentary and that's fine with me. I just want to hear this guy sing and play. It's blues at its best.

If you recorded John Lee off TV in the 90's than you have as good as it gets. The Ultimate John Lee performance is with Van Morrison of "Don't Look Back", it is not on this disc. Instead you get Baby Please Don't Go. I mixed this up with other J.L. performances. Watch Him on Youtube instead.