Bill Paxton, actor best known for Twister passed away from surgery that go as planned Saturday. He was 61.
As we reach to the end of the month, it's safe to say that winter has been absent here. Except for a system that dusted the roads with snow and a 20 degree day this weekend, we're back in the 40s again. Forecast do suggest a more active weather pattern, but not a snow and cold event. Our third straight winter of above temps and less snows. And for the third straight month, the most viewed blogs were were the December ones, Amanda's Rants and the 2016 Christmas blogs 1, 2 In an attempt to dispute the Blogger ratings, I deleted the Greg Lake RIP in favor of a update instead. It was not that worthy and whatever the reason Blogger decided this one was top 10 worthy I have no idea and promptly made the defiant deleting. To which there's only 9 rated blogs all time. I thought The Swinging Steaks Blog should be there, since they have a link to my blog on their site. So I can't trust the Blogger stats, since there should be 10 all time entries and only 9 show up. A joke upon itself, I doubt if I am actually getting over 200 views per day. Ever so much the skeptic that I am.
Brook Hoover's last performance with Shock Treatment, The Ramones Tribute Band was last Saturday Night in the Campbell Steele Basement but I chose a wasted evening finding out that the Meixcan place in downtown Anamosa has shut their doors (on a Saturday Night?) and was closed and ended up Chinese down the road, and then off the backroads to Troy Mills to see my friends The Acousta Kitties play the Dam Bar only to find that they canceled due to Cathy Hart's going to ER for an irregular heartbeat. She's fine now and the show will be rescheduled (I can never that fucking word scheduled, re or otherwise). Buddy Archbremmer is now playing in Lipstick Slick with Karie Skogman and he did a fine debut at CRL the other night.
For Black History Month, I decided on John Lee Hooker, the late great blues boogie man and he has something like 3000 albums out, mostly compilations and such. John Lee Hooker with his one note boogie chord managed to be a big part of the music scene for close to 60 years, even appearing with in The Blues Brothers movie of 1980. Like Lightning Hopkins, Hooker demanded a cash up front for recording and usually most of his records were recorded in a single setting. There's plenty of his 1949 and 1950 blues sessions on various labels, Savoy put together a interesting set with an unknown drummer and Eddie Kirkland (Low Down Midnite Boogie) and DCC Classic issued John Lee Hooker's 50 Years Of Hooker, the Sensation Years which shows John Lee in remarkable form, with Kirkland helping out. The hits were on Modern with Crawling King Snake and I'm In The Mood and Virgin/Flair issued that around 1992 thereabouts. With Henry Stone overlooking the Miami Sessions of the early 1950s, Atco issued Don't Turn Me From Your Door, it's basically Hooker alone, Stone would work again with Hooker for the Stax Record That's Where It's At! and Sitting And Thinking in the late 60s but Hooker alone could be somewhat mundane too.
Hooker had two winning streaks. The first was when he went to Vee Jay Records and started using a a full band. Basically the Vee Jay albums were the overall best with Burnin, and I'm John Lee Hooker being the classic albums. In true fashion Vee Jay would paste together tracks that didn't make it to the album on other ones (John Lee Hooker In Person, On Campus, The Folklore Of JLH). There were a couple attempts to get the soul music buyers to purchase Hooker's albums (the interesting Big Soul Of John Lee Hooker, side 1 of On Campus). The end results were not exactly classics, the female singers on Big Soul clashes against Hooker's boogie sensibilities, but it's still listenable. Vee Jay compromised on On Campus, with one side to the soul music but side 2 is Hooker back to doing what he likes best, the blues alone. I also have mixed feelings on Live At Newport, to which Hooker is playing unplugged with a bass player in tow, it tends to drag rather than boogie, compare this with Muddy Waters Live At Newport and it's night and day. No matter how many times he tried, I Cover The Waterfront always puts me to sleep. For a curio document, Live At Newport is worth hearing once.
The second winning streak came when he went to BluesWay/ABC. He made a pit stop at Impulse to come up with Serves You Right To Suffer when Bob Thiele set him up with jazz artists to work in a blues setting. It really does work since Thiele picked Connie Kay to play drums and Kay provides a tight beat to Shake It Baby and a subtle light brush work on the title track. Chess Records did this the same way but adding veteran blues players for the Real Folk Blues albums to which they had a hit with One Bourbon One Scotch And One Beer and I Put My Trust In You. The Impulse sessions was a one off, the Chess Sessions his second stop there (he recorded an album for them back in the 1950s) but with BluesWay, Hooker came up with Urban Blues, a 1968 hard boogie blues romp with former players on his Vee Jay albums (Al Duncan, Eddie Taylor) and before that, a live recording with Muddy Waters Blues Band and the man himself (Life At Cafe Au Go Go) which gave us a the classic version of I'm Bad like Jesse James. But this era was Hooker would jam with just about anybody that threw money his way or if the label threw money his way to record with other bands. He did this with The Groundhogs (a long lost reissue for Castle/Sanctuary worth seeking out) and then with Canned Heat (with meandering results which most folks took notice-a best of Hooker And Heat reveals more of Hooker going it alone with harmonica from Bob Hite or Al Wilson). While purists enjoy Never Get Out Of These Blues Alive more, I like the more rock influenced Endless Boogie to which Hooker pairs up with Steve Miller, Jesse Ed Davis, Carl Radle and the ill fated Jim Gordon. But at this point Hooker was going for a more boogie sound rather than blues, why this worked better for Steve Miller and a pick up band more than Canned Heats is open for debate. But it was beginning that from here on out Hooker would record more with guest stars on later albums, although he would record on his own for Tomato for such albums like The Cream or Alone. Nevertheless, the ABC years would end quite quickly and Hooker would move on to minor labels.
In 1989 Hooker got a surprise successful album called The Healer, which Chameleon Records managed to reissue the John Lee Hooker Vee Jay albums. The Healer would figure in phase 3 of Hooker's comeback. Bonnie Raitt gave new meaning to the song I'm In The Mood and Carlos Santana would help out. I'm In The Moon won a Grammy in 1990. Hooker would signed up with Pointblank/Virgin and he would basically round out the years revisiting his old hits with guest stars, The Best Of Friends basically picks the highlights of those albums. John Lee would appear on Big Head Todd's version of Boom Boom around 1996 thereabouts. His last album Face To Face would appear in 2003, two years after his passing, it was issued via Eagle Rock Records.
We're not sure when John Lee was born, had he lived today he would be celebrating his 100th year on the planet (early bios had him born in 1911 but the guess is that 1917 was his actual birth). Even his website does not have the complete discography and let's face it, there's always be a few ones missing or omitted. I probably have reviewed about 30 of his albums and most are a good time, the exception being If You Miss Im, I Got Im, a sloppy and half assed setting with Earl Hooker (a C grade in my book, being if you like to hear how Hooker fit in with the other Hooker (Earl that is), you're welcome to it. The Vee Jay albums tend to be reissued the most. Chameleon Records had the first go at it, the later Collectibles and then Shout Factory all reissued those albums. There are good best of Vee Jay albums, (I have three of them, Chameleon's overview The Hook the most recommended but since that's out of print, Concord is putting out Whiskey And Wimmen in March, it's more economical than the The Hook but if you haven't heard Hook, this is where to start). MCA did put out a good overview (1965-1974) but it has been replaced by The 20th Century Masters Collection which chops the fat down. The Best of 1965-1974 does have the good (Bad like Jesse James, One Bourbon) among the bad (The Waterfront, Bluebird) and I don't know, Never Get Out Of These Blues Alive goes on forever. Buyer Beware. The Rhino best of tries its best to compile the best songs from Hooker's recording output and is a so so sampler. Even as uneven as it gets, both the Rhino and MCA albums are definite overviews.
My recommendations:
The Modern Recordings (Virgin 1995) The original I'm In The Mood is here.
Don't Turn Me From Your Door (Atco 1992) Early Hooker going at it alone
I'm John Lee Hooker, Burnin, The Forklore Of John Lee Hooker, The Best Of John Lee Hooker- The Vee Jay albums of note.
Live at Cafe Au Go Go (and Soledad Prison) MCA 1993 One with Muddy Waters and if you can overlook the one with the out of tune guitar player this shows John could play the blues, the CD also tacks on a truncated version of Live At Soledad Prison to which his son John Lee Jr's songs get left off but this probably the best example of Hooker's patented boogie rock and roll
It Serves You Right To Suffer (Impulse 1965) Hooker was the only blues artist on this jazz label, even with paired with jazz musicians, Hooker could teach them to boogie.
Urban Blues (Bluesway/ABC 1968) Hot and sweaty blues with a Detroit bounce.
Endless Boogie (ABC 1971) Better than Hooker and Heat and his best boogie rock album
The Healer (Chameleon, later on Capricorn, then Shout Factory 1989) The comeback album that enabled John Lee Hooker to keep boogieing with the best and choice of his musician friends till his passing in 2001.
Best Of Friends (Virgin 1996) The best of the jams with guest musicians.
Some other reviews:
Wicked Liz/The Bellyswirls-Hulathrong (Self Released 2005)
Basically out of Bettendorf but have been around for 15 plus years, Liz and company delivers high quality garage rock, somewhat like Bonnie Hayes and The Wild Combo had Alanis Morrisette led The Wild Combo. Starts out rocking with Up And Down and Pico, but on It Hurts Me, Liz channels an inner stalker, crazy lady pleading with return back to her love interest after being dumped, last time a song like this captivated me was Kasey Chambers's Stalker from the Bittersweet album. Produced by Tom Tatman of Catamont studio fame, which is another feather in this band's cap. Yet another Iowa band making good music. Who would have thunk it?
Grade B+
The Human Beinz-Nobody But Me (Capitol 1968)
On the strengths of their two singles, the title track which is one of the all time party rock songs and to me the follow up was even better, Turn On Your Love Light which didn't chart as high, this band then pretty much stock the rest of the album with filler. For the most part Foxy Lady does polish up the Hendrix version, a nice bar band take of that song and Dance On Through is a fun listen. Outside of that, their hippy dippy music wasn't all that great and if you have to sit through farces like Black Is The Color Of My True Love, you really begin to hear how dated this band has. The best of these would be The Shaman which benefits from a nice bass guitar riff. It's Fun To Be Clean has to be heard to be believed. The band benefited from being on Capitol by a nice sounding record but unfortunately it means nothing if you don't have decent music to remember you by. Collectibles reissued the album in 1993 with no bonus tracks. Mono mixes of the hit singles should have been included.
Grade C+
John Lee Hooker-40th Anniversary Album (Sensation/DCC 1988)
Recommended on the fact that Steve Hoffman cleaned up the sound big time, Hooker is in fine shape during the 1951-1952 sessions with Eddie Kirkland on board which helps big time. Hoffman also includes the 1948 hit Boogie Chillen (which Modern would issued later on). Although John Lee is credited for writing the songs, he does "borrow" from the likes of Elmore James (It's Hurts Me So, complete with a one note organ riff that is fun to hear), Little Walter (I Got The Key) and whoever thought up Let's Talk It Over. I'm also guessing I'm In The Mood might be the original version but since Hooker recorded this song many time I might be wrong. The House Rent Boogie is also in a working form as well, but I tend to enjoy uptempo Hooker more than I do than his slowed down stuff. Hooker would continue to redefine these songs many time over but these sessions with Bernie Besman recording are worthy. The birth of the boogie
Grade B+
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