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John Lee Hooker - 50 Years:John Lee Hooker Anthology Audio CD

A fair review of the John Lee Hooker "50 Years:John Lee Hooker Anthology" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all John Lee Hooker reviews here, or go back to the John Lee Hooker tabs.

John Lee Hooker Band: John Lee Hooker
Title: 50 Years:John Lee Hooker Anthology
Rating:
Release Date: 2009-02-17
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Boogie Chillen' 2: Hobo Blues 3: Hoogie Boogie 4: Crawlin' King Snake 5: Huckle Up Baby 6: Let Your Daddy Ride 7: John L's House Rent Boogie 8: I'm in the Mood 9: Dimples 10: I Love You Honey 11: No Shoes 12: No More Doggin' 13: I Need Some Money 14: Teachin' the Blues 15: Boom Boom 16: She's Mine 17: Big Legs Tight Skirt 18: It Serves Me Right to Suffer 19: Bottle Up and Go 20: One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer 21: Let's Go out Tonight 22: I Cover the Waterfront 23: I'm Bad Like Jesse James [Live] 24: Peavine 25: Jealous 26: Healer - John Lee Hooker, Carlos Santana 27: I'm in the Mood - John Lee Hooker, Bonnie Raitt 28: Same Old Blues Again - Robert Cray, John Lee Hooker 29: Boogie at Russian Hill - Albert Collins, John Lee Hooker 30: Kiddio - Charles Brown, John Lee Hooker 31: Chill Out (Things Gonna Change) - John Lee Hooker, Carlos Santana 32: Don't Look Back - John Lee Hooker, Van Morrison

You can't beat some good Hooker!
I of course had to have a lot more of JLH so I own pretty much all his stuff seeings' how's he's about my favorite blues artist. This is a great collection of his stuff! With all the "collections" of musicians where they put a lot of the same stuff on like 3 or 4 "anthologies" or "collections" you get tired of trying to get all of an artists' stuff but an average fan could get by with this.


4 1/2 stars. A very credible attempt to summarize John Lee Hooker's entire career
I have a two-CD collection featuring just Hooker's band-backed 60s recording (Tomato's "The Early Years"), and if an equal amount of time was to be devoted to every phase of his career, you'd end up with a ten-disc box set. When an artist has recorded for fifty years, and for an incredible amount of different labels, two discs really isn't a lot.

So, the "50 Years" anthology isn't everything you could ever want from the Boogie Man. But if you're just looking for a good, career-spanning compilation which has the "must-have" songs, this is one of the best. Rhino's 31-track "The Ultimate Collection 1948-1990" comes close, and Hip-O Records' 20-track "The Definitive Collection" is probably the best single-disc Hooker-compilation on the market, but this one pretty much leave all others in the dust. Unless you want to spring for the 2006 "Hooker" box set from the Shout Factory label; that one is a whopping 84 songs.

Casual listeners will note that "Boom Boom" is here, of course, and so is the swaggering "Dimples", the bar boogie "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer", and the gritty slow blues "I'm Bad Like Jesse James" and "It Serves Me Right To Suffer".
There are bare-bones solo performances here, just John Lee Hooker and his guitar and a piece of plywood for Hooker to stomp on. There are swinging, band-backed "middle-era" numbers like "Big Legs, Tight Skirt" and "Bottle Up And Go". And there are a few songs from his latter-day "super star" period, including a duet with Van Morrison on "Don't Look Back" (and, unfortunately, the misguided "Chill Out", too).
"I'll Never Get Out Of These Blues Alive" is missing, which is a shame. . . but you can get that one on the magnificent "Live at the Café au Go Go"-album which you are going to want anyway!
I would have made a couple of other substitutions as well, but since nobody asked me, this is what came out of it, and it is in fact very, very good. Newcomers would do very well indeed to start either here or with Hip-O's aforementioned "Definitive Collection".


You can see a complete list of all John Lee Hooker discography, or go back to the John Lee Hooker tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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