onurblues: John Lee Hooker -1948-1998 King Of The Boogie (5-CD Box Set, 2017)

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The Boogie Man

Most of beginners learning to play blues guitar have started by trying to play a John Lee Hooker boogie thinking it was easy. I did it myself in my early teens when I got my first cheap guitar. Apparently simple, but easy ? Not really ! This apparent simplicity probably explains why JLH has become a symbol of blues itself. Ask any ordinary person not really into blues to give you the name of one blues musician he or she knows, there's 80% chance he/she will answer : JLH.

For blues fans, the problem is different : JLH discography is such a jungle that, unless you're a specialized musicologist, it's almost impossible to find your way between his numerous original early recordings (many of them recorded under different pseudonyms), his albums and the myriad of compilations of his work ! This is precisely the interest of this 5-CD 100-song box set which covers 50 years of JLH's endless boogie since his recording debuts in Detroit in 1948.

Elmer Barbee, a Detroit record shop owner, was the first to notice JLH who was playing in clubs. Detecting his potential, he organized in June 1948 the recording of some demos in the small studio he had set up in the back of his shop. He later took JLH to meet one Bernard Besman who had founded a small label called Sensation. On September 3, 1948, JLH recorded his first 13 songs. According to Besman (who produced the first 15 songs of CD 1), at the time JLH couldn't play a boogie rhythm correctly ! But for JLH these first discs were a great reward for his thriving beginnings.

In the 1950s to compensate the meager earnings he was getting from his official labels (Vee-Jay, Riverside...), he recorded quite a number of songs, very often the same ones slightly modified, for other labels under pseudonyms like John Lee Booker (for Chess and Chance in 1951-52, CD1), Johnny Lee (for De Luxe in 1953-54, CD1), John Lee Cooker, Texas Slim (CD1), Delta John (CD1), Birmingham Sam or Johnny Williams... A real Chinese puzzle ! On top of all, JLH had the habit of transforming his memories depending on his mood of the day and who he was talking to !

Things changed in the sixties with the British blues boom and JLH's hit "Boom boom" (1962), followed by his European tour with the American Folk Blues Festival the same year. JLH suddenly burst out in the light and he was the first to be surprised by this unexpected fame. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, understanding that the future of the blues was with white audiences, he was one of the first to play and record with white rock bands, like the British Groundhogs ("Hooker & the Hogs", 1968), and the American group Canned Heat ("Hooker 'n' Heat", 1970).

From then, he never stopped collaborating with rock musicians, on records and on stage. The album "The Healer" (1989) featured guest stars like Carlos Santa, Bonnie Raitt, Robert Cray or Charlie Musselwhite. The experience was renewed with Van Morrison, Santana, Booker T. Jones, Jimmie Vaughan, Albert Collins, Ry Cooder, John P. Hammond, Johnny Winter, Keith Richards, Roy Rogers  ("Mr. Lucky" in 1991, "Boom Boom" in 1992, "Chill Out" in 1995, "Don't Look Back" in 1997). In return, he also guested on many works from rock or blues artists like Taj Mahal, Van Morrison, Lightnin' Hopkins, John P. Hammond, B.B. King or Zucchero…, and even from jazz musicians like Miles Davis or Branford Marsalis.

It's not surprising that JLH attracted young rock musicians when you hear him live on CD4 : his hard boogies like "Shake It Baby" (with Willie Dixon and T-Bone Walker on piano, 1962), "Boogie Chillun" (1962) are nothing but rock'n'roll. "Boogie Everywhere I Go" (with Luther Tucker on guitar, 1972) is even a piece of funk that musicians like Sly and The Family Stone and the likes certainly appreciated. Note that the last five tracks of CD4, recorded in 1983 in Berlin (Germany) and featuring the excellent Michael Osborne on lead guitar, were previously unreleased

This rectifies a common image of JLH as a solitary bluesman playing his boogies alone. This was globally true in the first years of his career but as soon as 1948 he also recorded with small bands where one can discover famous names like Eddie Burns (harmonica, 1949 – guitar, 1966), Eddie Kirkland (guitar, 1953-54), Louisiana Red (vocals, 1953), Jimmy Reed (harmonica, 1955), Eddie Taylor (guitar, 1955-1959 – bass, 1967), William "Lefty" Bates (guitar, 1960-61), Buddy Guy (guitar, 1967), Steve Miller (guitar, 1970), Luther Johnson and Muddy Waters (guitar) and Otis Spann (piano) in 1966 (Live at The Cafe au Go-Go). Not taking of the multiples rock guests on CD 5 mentioned above...

JLH form of blues is evidently a personal, and most of the time electrified, version of Delta blues. Listen to his acoustic "Tupelo Blues", "Good Mornin' Lil' School Girl" and "I Rolled And Turned And Cried The Whole Night Long" (CD 2), it's pure Delta ! Indeed one often forgets that he was born and grown in Tutwiler or near Clarksdale (here again, the truth is not clear) until the age of 15. (His birth year is probably 1917 though it isn't clearly documented, running from 1912 to 1923, and even JLH was often changing version).

In any case he exported his Delta blues to Detroit when he finally settled down there in 1943 after almost a decade of erratic life, soon turning to electric guitar in his new urban environment. Relatively isolated from the Chicago scene where many of his contemporary Mississippi bluesmen like Muddy Waters moved at the same period and developed the Chicago style, JLH worked on his own boogie style.

CD 1 & 2, covering the 1948-1961 period show very well the evolution of JLH. As soon as his 1948 unfiltered solitary boogies, the essence of his style carried by his unmistakable powerful voice was entirely there as illustrated by the iconic "Boogie Chillen'", "I'm In The Mood" or "Dimples", signature songs that followed him throughout his entire career. At the same time, one realizes that JLH was not playing exclusively boogie but also more classic Delta blues like "Crawlin' King Snake", "Moaning Blues", "Goin' On Highway #51" (CD 1) or as already mentioned above, like "Tupelo Blues", "Good Mornin' Lil' School Girl", "I Rolled And Turned And Cried The Whole Night Long" (CD 2). Year after year his guitar playing and vocals got more assured, his blues more sophisticated though always simple (CD 2).

These first two CDs are unveiling a JLH probably less familiar to most listeners but as fascinating as the following ones. CD 3 (1961-1996) is that of full maturity for a JLH who had nothing much more to prove. CD 4 gives a wonderful view of the man's performing skills on stage. Lastly CD 5 features the part of him probably most known to rock audiences : his recordings with the multiple famous guests I've detailed above.

One hundred songs takes several hours to listen, but at no time you disconnect from JLH's fascinating work. Thanks to Blue DeVille's superb Flac rip work, the sound is great, and his scans of the 57-page booklet are essentials. A rare quality retrospective box set for one of the most important musicians of post-war blues. ■