Condition: Used
John Lee Hooker – Plays & Sings The Blues
Label: Chess
Catalog#: CH-9199
Format: Vinyl, Album, LP
Record: VG+ VG++ few light scuffs
Cover: VG+ ringwear, some minor wear and creasing (see our pic)
Country: US
Released: 1986
Genre: Blues
Style: Electric Blues, Country Blues, Delta Blues
Tracklist
A1 The Journey 3:37
A2 I Don't Want Your Money 2:58
A3 Hey, Baby 3:22
A4 Mad Man Blues 2:39
A5 Bluebird 2:55
A6 Worried Life Blues 3:00
B1 Apologize 2:57
B2 Lonely Boy Boogie 3:16
B3 Please Don't Go
Written-By – M. Morganfield 2:26
B4 Dreamin' Blues 3:02
B5 Hey Boogie 2:59
B6 Just Me And My Telephone
Bass – Eddie Kirkland 3:14
Credits
Vocals, Guitar – John Lee Hooker
Written-By – John Lee Hooker (tracks: 1 to 8, 10 to 12)
Notes
All cuts recorded in Detroit, late 1952, except "Mad Man Blues", "Hey Boogie" (Detroit, late 1951), "Dreamin' Blues" (Detroit, 1951) and "Just Me And My Telephone" (Detroit, 1951 or 1952)
John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1917 -- June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist, born near Clarksdale, Mississippi. Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally closest to Delta blues. He developed a 'talking blues' style that was his trademark. Though similar to the early Delta blues, his music was metrically free. John Lee Hooker could be said to embody his own unique genre of the blues, often incorporating the boogie-woogie piano style and a driving rhythm into his masterful and idiosyncratic blues guitar and singing. His best known songs include "Boogie Chillen'" (1948), "I'm in the Mood" (1951) and "Boom Boom" (1962), the first two reaching R&B #1 in the Billboard charts.
Like other recordings from Hooker's early studio sessions, these tunes bristle with driving energy and ripple with the power of his shouted declarations. This is back porch music from the heart of the Delta, jolted to larger-than-life proportions by the electricity powering Hooker's guitar and by his own strong desire to quit sweeping factories and begin cleaning up on the charts. Although he often reworked themes by earlier bluesmen during this period, it was rare that Hooker outright covered another artist's material. So his riveting interpretations of Muddy Waters's "Please Don't Go" and Big Maceo Merriweather's "Worried Life Blues" peak this collection of solo turns that were recorded for Chess in 1951 and '52.
With little more than the steady stomp of his foot, the virtuosic hum of his guitar, and his famously murky voice, John Lee Hooker makes blues magic. These are wry, witty, beautifully simple songs, and if you don't find your foot tapping in time to the rhythm at least once, you haven't been paying attention.
Considering these songs were recorded 50 years ago, the sound is remarkable pristine and pure, with the exception of the disc's liveliest tune, the pleasantly scratchy "Mad Man Blues," and "Hey Boogie." There's at least one odd hiccup-- track 8, "Lonely Boy Boogie", ends abruptly in mid-song-- but otherwise, this is a satisfying and soulful record for those in need of a blues fix.
John Lee Hooker feat. Van Morrison - Baby please don-t go
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