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John Lee Hooker: That's My Story


mikeweil

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I had this on vinyl.

Sold my collection several years ago.

Haven't heard it since.

Certainly was a unique item in Hooker's discography.

As I recall it was pretty laid back.

Seemed like Hooker was pretty oblivious to what was going on behind him.

Jones & Hayes were somewhat reticent sounding.

Overall worth a listen, but not in the pantheon of any of those present IMO.

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My opinion:

I consider "That's My Story" to be one of the less interesting Hooker recordings. Jones and Hayes just slum through it, laying down a steady beat. In fact, if they had tried to do anything more, it probably would have been worse. As a result, it is certainly highly listenable Hooker, just not anything approaching his most powerful work.

On the other hand, I think that "It Serves You Right to Suffer" is prime product. John Lee is clearly inspired by his musical surroundings on this one.

Edited by John L
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I am partial to the earlier recordings that appeared on Modern, King, and various other labels. They have been packaged and repackaged so many times that it is difficult to recommend single disks. On the other hand, this one is a fine single disk collection of vintage Hooker that includes all the early hits:

f46244jl30e.jpg

On the other hand, It would be more than worthwhile to pay 10$ more and get the whole shabang:

f31985bwo3n.jpg

Most of his Vee Jay recordings are excellent too, although (as is pretty much the case with the early recordings too), you want to listen in small doses. As good as it is, it can get a bit repetitive. They are available on various collections. His more recent comeback albums with guest stars have interesting moments. The Healer is probably the place to start.

An alternative top notch sampler of his whole career would be:

d373524yjwb.jpg

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John Lee Hooker

The Classic Early Years 1948-1951

Vol. 1

Boogie Chillen 

Sally Mae 

See See Baby 

She Was In Chicago 

Stomp Boogie 

Who's Been Jiving You 

Black Man Blues 

Poor Joe 

Good Business 

Boogie Woogie 

Helpless Blues 

Goin' Mad Blues 

Low Down Midnite Boogie 

Landing Blues 

Morning Blues 

Drifting From Door To Door 

Hobo Blues 

Howlin' Wolf 

Crawling King Snake 

She Ain't Good For Nothin' 

Cotton Pickin' Blues 

Must I Wait til Your Man Is gone 

We Gonna Make Everything Alright 

Miss Rosie Mae 

Highway Blues 

Vol. 2

Hoogie Boogie 

Graveyard Blues 

Whistlin' And Moaning Blues 

I Love To Boogie 

Miss Eloise 

Burnin' Hell 

I Had A Dream 

Nightmare Blues 

Late Last Night 

Wandering Blues 

Don't go Baby 

Devil's Jump 

I'm Gonna Kill That Woman 

Moaning Blues 

The Numbers 

Weeping Willow 

Miss Sadie Mae 

Sometime 

Forgive Me 

Heart Trouble Blues 

Slim's Stomp 

Miss Lorraine 

Talkin' Boogie 

Road Trouble 

609 Boogie 

Vol. 3

No Friend Around 

Wednesday Evening 

Canal Street Blues 

Playin' The Races 

Huckle Up Baby 

Let Your Daddy Ride 

Goin' On Highway 51 

The Moon Above 

She Left Me By Myself 

No Mortgage On My Soul 

My Baby's Got Somethin' 

Decoration Day Blues 

Boogie Chillen No. 2 

Roll 'n' Roll 

Crying All Night 

One More Time 

I Don't Be Welcome Here 

Welfare Blues 

Turnin' Gray Blues 

The Story Of A Married Woman 

Mad Man Blues 

Boogie Now 

Thinking Blues 

Don't You Remember Me 

Give Me Your Phone Number 

Vol. 4

Notoriety Woman 

Never Satisfied 

Moon Is Rising 

Please Have Mercy 

John L's House Rent Boogie 

Queen Bee 

You've Got Another Man 

If You Need My Lovin' Baby 

Nobody To Talk To Me 

Prison Bound 

Bumble Bee Blues 

Questionnaire Blues 

Real Gone Gal 

Little Boy Blues 

My Daddy Was A Jockey 

Mean Old Train 

Catfish 

Louise 

I'm Going Away 

Tease Me Baby 

Streets Is Filled With Women 

Me And My Woman 

Whistle Done Blown 

How Can You Do It 

I'm In The Mood 

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Well, you might start with disk 1. That is the beginning, and it never really got any better. Disk 2 also has some very strong material, really equally strong. If you don't have it, be sure and also bring in "I'm in the Mood" from disk 4.

If fact, if you want to mix up tracks from disks 1 and 2, prime tracks from disk 1 include:

Boogie Chillen

Sally Mae

Stomp Boogie

Black Man Blues

Poor Joe

Helpless Blues

Goin' Mad Blues

Landing Blues

Morning Blues

Drifting From Door To Door

Hobo Blues

Crawling King Snake

and from disk 2:

Graveyard Blues

Whistlin' And Moaning Blues

Miss Eloise

Burnin' Hell

I Had A Dream

Nightmare Blues

Late Last Night

Wandering Blues

Devil's Jump

I'm Gonna Kill That Woman

Moaning Blues

The Numbers

Weeping Willow

Heart Trouble Blues

Slim's Stomp

Edited by John L
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That's good advice. The Flair disc IS a wonderful single disc compilation. Some of my favorite blues this Modern/Bihari Brothers material, though I really do enjoy the VeeJay material, and the latest reissues of the VeeJay stuff on Collectables sounds really good--I have two from the Collectables series, and all the others on an earlier late eighties cd series that sounds fine as well.

John Lee (along with T-Bone Walker and B. B. King) I find truly inspiring!

Edited by jazzbo
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No Hooker collection is complete, though, w/o "I'm Bad Like Jesse James", recorded @ Cafe Au GoGo. Ain't nothin' like it.

Good point!

I should have added a warning that one drawback of the first recordings discussed above is that they have poor-mediocre sound quality. If sound quality is extremely important to you, there exist early recordings almost as powerful as those listed above in excellent sound on the various early collections on Chess, most notably:

d07207l441v.jpg

Then there is this gem of major significance on Atlantic:

f33796ch3u3.jpg

Edited by John L
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