John Lee Hooker's Everybody's Blues

John Lee Hooker was an American icon when he passed away a few years ago. The first albums I purchased by him were on the ABC-Bluesway label and the first one was recorded Live at the Cafe Au Go Go in new York with Muddy Waters Band backing him. I still remember when Barrett Hansen (better known today as Dr. Demento) helped compile some blues reissues for the Specialty label. One of these were early, often solo recordings, that were hauntingly powerful. Like reissues of his contemporaneous recordings for Modern (on Kent or UNited) and his Federal 78s (on King), they are amongst his finest works. The CD era saw Hooker reissues thrive in the 1990s, and Specialty issued Graveyard Blues in 1992 and Everybody’s Blues in 1993. My review of the latter appeared in the May 1994 Jazz & Blues Report (issue 191) and reproduced below with minor changes. Both Specialty reissues show as being available. The Modern Recordings I briefly discuss towards the end may be available as a used or collectible.

Fantasy has issued the second of its Specialty John Lee Hooker reissues, Everybody’s Blues. It contains twenty more choice early examples of the King of The Boogie. The first eight recordings are made by Bernie Besman and involve Hooker’s own reworking of traditional blues themes. Hooker’s driving boogie accompaniment, with his calculated extension beyond the 12-bar form, makes Do My Baby Think of Me sound completely different from Little Brother Montgomery’s Special Rider Blues. In contrast, the following Three Long Years Today is a brooding Hooker slow blues. Another similarly styled blues, Walkin’ This Highway, is marked by Hooker’s somewhat violent sounding guitar playing. Four Women in My Life (also issued on Modern) is a stunning, relatively straight rendition of a delta blues theme which sounds like someone is playing rhythm with Hooker, although not credited. Eight of the performances were recorded with a small jump combo who bring a certain amount of chaos to the talking blues I‘m Mad, where Hooker complains menacingly about working hard to take care of his woman while his woman plays around, Boogie Rambler, derived from Gatemouth Brown’s recordings, the jaunty version of Rosco Gordon’s No More Doggin’, and the title cut which is a recast version of Eddie Boyd’s Five Long Years. The final four tracks find Hooker solo again and the version of Percy Mayfield’s I Need Love So Bad illustrates how Hooker can take straight blues lyrics and through his guitar embellishments, his extending a verse past 12 bars, and deliberately not rhyming lines, make a familiar song into what clearly becomes his own slow blues. One would never have guessed its source. The liner notes on this set of vintage Hooker are the same as on Graveyard Blues, the earlier Specialty reissue of Hooker. The two Specialty albums are the two best collections of John Lee Hooker’s early recordings currently available in the United States. The English Ace Records has issued The Legendary Modern Recordings 1948-1954 which may be found at better stores carrying imports. This contains most of Hooker’s most commercially successful recordings including Boogie Chillen and the original I’m in the Mood, and one can only hope that Virgin Records’ Flair subsidiary will make this available in the US soon. Other recommended early Hooker includes the Krazy Kat collection of Joe Van battle recordings of Hooker along with some real obscurities, Boogie Awhile, as well as Do You Remember Me, Hooker’s explosive Federal recordings which are some of the most intense post World War II down home blues recordings made.