Track Listing

1. Boogie Chillen'
2. Crawlin' King Snake
3. Hobo Blues
4. Huckle Up Baby
5. I'm in the Mood
6. I Need Some Money
7. Dimples
8. Boom Boom
9. Shake It Baby
10. Big Legs, Tight Skirt
11. It Serves You Right to Suffer
12. You Know, I Know
13. One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer
14. I'm Bad Like Jesse James
15. Burning Hell
16. Terraplane Blues - John Lee Hooker, Roy Rogers

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #77308 in Music
• Released on: 1995-04-25
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com essential recording
A million or so collections, all from different record labels, document this Detroit blues guitarist's influential boogie-woogie career. This 16-song Rhino CD is an excellent starting point, with definitive versions of Hooker's classics "Boom Boom," "Boogie Chillen'," "I'm in the Mood," and "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer." It's interesting to hear the singer's voice progress from a deep, growling slur to the more polished later material, such as his collaboration with slide guitarist Roy Rogers on Robert Johnson's "Terraplane Blues," but he never lost his bottom-line rawness. --Steve Knopper

Customer Reviews

The Stuff Legends Are Made Of!
Every once in a while, a budget disc comes along that is surprisingly good. Such is the case with Rhino Records release of "The Very Best of John Lee Hooker." On this release, Rhino combines 16 stand out tracks and some nice liner notes which briefly describe the man as well as the origin of each of the tracks. The selection of songs range from Hooker's signature "Boogie Chillen'" recorded in 1948 through "Terraplane Blues" recorded with slide man Roy Rogers in 1987. This is not a comprehensive collection nor was it ever intended to be. Instead, you get a flavor for a younger John Lee Hooker and his amazing guitar work. The recording quality is excellent especially considering the age of the songs. Well worth the purchase.

Not that good...
There are much better John Lee Hooker collections than this one. Half of the songs on this disc are early (pre-1960) JLH, and it's relatively short. Unless you especially like Hooker's early work, I would find a different collection. I much prefer Hooker's later work in which his deep, growling voice is fully developed. I would instead recommend the wonderful The Best Of John Lee Hooker 1965-1974, which has a lot more music from Hooker's best period.

Boogie King
John Lee Hooker, "king of the boogie," is one of the most influential guitarists to ever record. He is also one of the most unique, as his rhythmic and dynamic senses are more free than what one may be accustomed to... he also changes chords rarely, if ever, in some songs. Now i myself have complained about 3 chord bands... this is different, this man hypnotizes you with his awesome, entrancing riffs and licks. This collection is probably the finest one disc compilation of this master's work and belongs in any music lover's collection. If you think that all blue sounds the same and all is 12 bars etc etc (any blues aficionado knows much better than to pay any heed to these ridiculously ill-informed stereotypes), John Lee Hooker is a good place to see that the blues is one of the forms most open for free expression and experimentation.