Living the Blues: Blues Masters [Original recording remastered, Compilation]

John Lee Hooker | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered, Compilation
• Label: Time Life Music/MCA
• ASIN: B000MSET84
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #141,588 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Living the Blues: Blues Masters - Various Artists [1995] I'm Your Hoochie Cooche Man Muddy Waters/Hound Dog Willie Mae Big Mama Thornton/Back Door Man Howlin' Wolf/Baby What You Want Me to Do Jimmy Reed/The Sky Is Crying Elmore James/Five Long Years Eddie Boyd/Boogie Chillun John Lee Hooker/Next Time You Saw Me Little Junior Parker/Baby Scratch My Back Slim Harpo/So Many Roads, So Many Trains Otis Rush/Rock Me Baby B. B. King/You're So Fine Little Walter/I'm a Man Bo Diddley/Don't Start Me Talkin' Sonny Boy Williamson/The Things That I Used to Do guitar Slim/Reconsider Baby Lowell Fulson/Turn on Your Lovelight Bobby Bland/Grits Ain't Groceries Little Milton/Crosscut Saw Albert King/I'd Rather Go Blind Etta James

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Blues Potpourri, February 8, 2009

By 

Alfred Johnson (boston, ma) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Living the Blues: Blues Masters (Audio CD)

February Is Black History Month

As those familiar with this space know I have spent a good amount of ink touting various old time blues legends that I `discovered' in my youth. My intention, in part, is to introduce a new generation to this roots music but also to demonstrate a connection between this black-centered music and the struggle for black liberation that both blacks and whites can appreciate. Like virtually all forms of music that lasts more than five minutes the blues has had its ups and downs. After becoming electric and urbanized in the immediate post-World War II period it was eclipsed by the advent of rock&roll then made a comeback in the mid- 1960's with the surge of English bands that grew up on this music, and so on. Most recently there was mini-resurgence with the justifiably well-received Martin Scorsese PBS six-part blues series in 2003. A little earlier, in the mid-1990's, there had also been a short-lived reemergence spearheaded by the `discovery' of urban blues pioneer Robert Johnson's music.

The long and short of this phenomenon is that commercial record production of this music waxed and waned reflecting that checkered history. I have, in the interest of variety for the novice, selected these CDs as a decent cross-section of blues (and its antecedents in earlier forms of roots music) as to gender, time and type. The following reviewed CDs represent first of all an attempt by record companies to meet the 1990's surge. They also represent a hard fact of musical life. Like rock&roll the blues will never die. Praise be. Feast on these compilations.

<strong>The Sky May Be Crying But You Won't Be

Living The Blues: Blues Masters, MCA Records, 1995</strong>

Many of the artists on this compilation have received individual attention by this reviewer elsewhere in this space. Thus I will highlight some of the lesser known artists who were either one hit johnnies (or janies) and for some reason did not make the blues pantheon. First, however, I must note that any compilation that starts off with "I'm Your Hoochie Goochie Man" by Muddy Waters, an incredible version of "Hound Dog" by "Big Mama" Thornton and "Back Door Man" by Howlin' Wolf is has already paid its way. Add in a laid back Jimmy Reed on "Baby What Do You Want Me To Do", a ripping slide guitar by Elmore James on "The Sky Is Crying", a young and hungry John Lee Hooker flailing away on "Boogie Chillun" and "So Many Roads, So Many Trains" by the smooth Otis Rush and you have not been cheated.

Now for the lesser lights that make this a virtually complete compilation of masters. How about a young but soon to be immortal Etta James on her classic "I'd Rather Go Blind". Or the harmonica player extraordinaire, Little Walter, on "You're So Fine". And "The Things That I Used To Do" by the virtuoso guitarist Guitar Slim. And Lowell Fulsom rocking away on "Reconsider Baby. And.... Well, you get the picture. With the possible exception of Slim Harpo (who had a small body of work due to an early untimely death) all of these masters will be getting fuller treatment in this space later. For now this will give you an idea of what it was like when men and women played electric blues for real.