Music Review: John Lee Hooker King Of The Boogie The Real Thing
Published August 26, 2006
A new double CD release of John Lee Hooker's recordings from the Detroit era, King Of The Boogie, captures the sound perfectly. A few tracks feature some sparse accompaniment but primarily we are listening to the man himself ripping through the familiar "Boogie Chillen," "Boom Boom," and less well know pieces like "Do My Baby Think Of Me?"
No matter the song, this collection captures the essential components of what made a Hooker song such a unique experience as compared to so many of his contemporaries and those who would follow in his footsteps. Ry Cooder referred to him as "the last of those unstructured, free players", meaning that his music still held true to its rawest and most essential elements.
Close your eyes and listen to the songs on King Of The Boogie and let yourself be caught up in the power of the hypnotic rhythm of the guitar and the continual flow of words accompanying it. If you listen carefully, you might even hear the sound of cotton being picked or the water lapping at the nearby docks where someone's sitting fishing for whatever might live in the mud of the Mississippi River.
If, like me, you've waited and wanted to hear something other than what's promoted as the Blues on a regular basis, or have felt something has been missing from the recordings you have heard, then this collection is for you. John Lee Hooker, King Of The Boogie answers the question of where is the diversity in blues music? But hold on to the discs for dear life, as no one else seems to have come along to fill his shoes and take on his unique style.
John Lee Hooker isn't flashy or stylish; you're not going to get any searing bottleneck guitar solos on one of his albums. What you will get are songs straight from the heart of the Delta – undiluted and unfiltered. Hard-edged and rough like the life led by the men and women who eked out a living under conditions not far removed from the slavery of their parents and grandparents, these songs aren't the prettiest you're ever going to hear, but they are probably some of the most realistic.
Richard Marcus is a long-haired Canadian iconoclast who writes reviews and opines on the world as he sees it at Leap In The Dark and Epic India Magazine.
- Music Review: John Lee Hooker King Of The Boogie The Real Thing
- Published: August 26, 2006
- Type: Review
- Section: Music
- Filed Under: Review, Music: Roots Rock, Music: Blues
- Writer: Richard Marcus
- Richard Marcus's BC Writer page
- Richard Marcus's personal site
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I agreee with the writer about John Lee Hooker. As much as he was fussed over in later life he should have been studied even more intently because he was a "living Fossil" so to speak. Like the alligator that has existed unchanged for millions of years, John Lee Hooker was a classic example of how Blues was played when it was first developed as a new form of music. He stubbornly refused to become contemporary, despite the industry pairing him up with all and sundry. No matter who he played with his style never changed. I've no doubt that his step-father was an actual Blues originator who was there when it was being conceived at the turn of the 20th Century. He taught the young John Lee what he himself had learned and for whatever reason John didn't feel he needed anything else. So we had in our midst a living example of the way it was done, as authentic as any lost Robert Johnson recording. John Lee was boogie-ing before it was even called that.