John Lee Hooker -- Delta Blues with a Louisiana Twist

John Lee Hooker--His Best Chess Sides is a collection of songs that Hooker recorded on the Chess label from 1950 through 1966. Even though that's roughly a sixteen year period, most of the songs in this fifteeen track collection were recorded from 1950 through 1952--Hooker's career took somewhat of a hiatus and he didn't record again for the Chess label until late 1965 and early 1966. All the songs in this collection were written by John Lee Hooker except for Worried Life Blues, penned by Maceo Merriweather, and I'm In The Mood, which Hooker co-wrote with Bernard Besman. I'll tell you more about the music in a moment--first, a few words about this monumental bluesman.

Even though John Lee Hooker was born and raised in the Mississippi delta, his style of blues differed from his contemporaries in the Clarksdale area. His father left the family when Hooker was five years old, and Will Moore soon became his stepfather. Moore was a blues guitarist who had grown up in Shreveport, Louisiana, where the type of blues being played was different from that being played in the delta. Hooker always claimed that "That's where I got my style from, identical like me, identical", referring to the blues style of Will Moore. In Deep Blues, Robert Palmer described Moore's influences as follows:

"Moore had grown up in Shreveport, Louisiana, and the brand of blues he'd learned there was very different from what was current in the Delta. It was basically hypnotic, one-chord drone blues, with darkly insistent vamping, violent treble-string punctuations, and songs that fitted both traditional and improvised lyrics into a loose, chant-like structure..."

As the liner notes to this album aptly point out, this perfectly describes the music of John Lee Hooker.

Perhaps the biggest attraction that this album has for me is its homemade feel. Recording techniques were very primitive in the early fifties, and that's apparent in the texture of the vocals and guitars on many of these songs. Couple that with the fact that most of the tunes feature only Hooker and his guitar, sometimes accompanied only by foot-pats, and you have an album that might just as well have been recorded live in someone's garage. That's precisely the allure of this music--the smoky, primal earthiness of Hooker's style is underscored by the stark musical landscape of the arrangements, allowing this man's immense talents to shine through.

John Lee Hooker passed away earlier this year, but I think it's safe to say that his music will continue to influence musicians for years to come. His musical disciples read like a list from the Rock 'N Roll Hall Of Fame--artists like Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, George Thorogood, and The Doors have all covered Hooker's songs, and many others cite him as a major influence on their musical styles.

Here's the track list for John Lee Hooker--His Best Chess Sides:

1. Mad Dog Blues
2. Louise
3. Ground Hog Blues
4. High Priced Woman
5. Leave My Wife Alone
6. Sugar Mama
7. Walkin' The Boogie (alternate)
8. Bluebird
9. Please Don't Go
10. Blues For Big Town
11. Worried Life Blues
12. I'm In The Mood
13. Let's Go Out Tonight
14. The Waterfront
15. One Bourbon, One Scotch And One Beer

Any student of the blues should own this collection--if you get it, you'll get in on the ground floor of the career of one of the greatest blues men of our time. And I'll tell you something else--when you listen to this music, you'll probably hear a little bit of some of your favorite rock and blues musicians in there somewhere. Hooker's influence is just that pervasive.

Thanks for reading.