John Lee Hooker ~ Vee-Jay Sides

John Lee Hooker - Burnin'

The blues is such an interesting genre. Traditional, often derived, often brilliant in it’s simplicity, and often credited as being the basis upon which all rock n’ roll has been built. One thing is for certain about the blues – it’s simple. And when something is simple there will always be millions of imitators and very few genuine articles. Well John Lee Hooker is not only one of the few genuinely brilliant bluesmen, he’s arguably the greatest and most influential of the whole lot, and his album ‘Burnin’ stands as testament to this argument.
You open an album with a track like ‘Boom Boom’ and it’s over isn’t it? You’re sold on the quality of the man by the time he crushes you with ‘that’ voice in the first line of the first verse. You’re then trapped under the gravelly vocal and the wonderfully stilted and simple instrumentation for about a minute before John Lee opens up the shuffle pattern with a Ray Charlesesque vocal swoop/call to arms for the band. By the time ‘Boom Boom’ comes to a close you’re left wondering if music gets anymore tasteful than what you’ve just heard, and whether anyone else before him has knocked you flat with their voice like John Lee just has.
It has to be so hard to maintain the standard of a track like ‘Boom Boom’ throughout an entire album. It’s easy to step into the typical label formula of stacking the singles at the top of the order and then dropping everyone slowly and steadily into mediorce moments down a track list. However, this ain’t one of those albums. From the opener onwards John Lee sounds nothing less than inspired and completely involved with what rests at the heart of these tunes, and as such, the listener feels a similar connection to the material from start to finish. It must be said that this not an easily accomplished feat when looking at traditional blues music which is limited in terms of structure and progression, however with ‘Burnin’ John Lee Hooker undoubtedly achieves this level of continuity.
There’s such an amazing atmosphere to tracks like ‘A New Leaf’ and ‘I Got A Letter’ as set up by the simplicity and relaxed feel of the instrumentation and then drilled home by Hooker’s greatest asset – his voice. There’s genuine feeling behind the man’s words in the same way there is with Howlin’ Wolf. In this writer’s opinion that is the one crucial element that sets the truly great bluesmen apart from those who think that in order to help them understand the blues they need to go on down to Clarksdale Mississippi and take a photograph of the exact place that Robert Johnson met with and sold his soul to the devil. There are certain things that most will never understand, and there are certain parts of the ether that most will never be able to tap into. However, John Lee Hooker ain’t most people and that untouchable sound behind his voice on this record helps assure us of this. ~ Roland Ellis / Pig River Records

Vee-Jay Records 1962, Chicago
VJLP 1043

Bass – James Jamerson;  Drums – Benny Benjamin;  Guitar – Larry Veeder
Guitar, Vocals – John Lee Hooker;  Piano – Joe Hunter
Saxophone [Baritone] – Andrew "Mike" Terry;  Saxophone [Tenor] – Hank Cosby

A1 Boom Boom
A2 Process
A3 Lost A Good Girl
A4 A New Leaf
A5 Blues Before Sunrise
A6 Let's Make It
B1 I Got A Letter
B2 Thelma
B3 Drug Store Woman
B4 Keep Your Hands To Yourself
B5 What Do You Say

John Lee Hooker - Concert At Newport

Best review I could find was for a reissue which includes this album and bonus tracks called "Live At Newport" on the Vanguard label...

Live at Newport is an addition to the already huge pile of archival John Lee Hooker releases (one that will surely continue to grow as licenses to Hooker's myriad recordings for different labels exchange hands). What differentiates this release from many of the others is that it focuses on a pair of acoustic performances from the bluesman, a rarity in the Hooker catalog. In the early '60s, at the height of the "folk scare," Hooker stepped in front of crowds -- at clubs, coffeehouses, and festivals -- with his acoustic guitar. Live at Newport is split between two performances at the Newport Folk Festival -- a solo shot from 1960 and a set (or set highlights?) with upright bassist Bill Lee from 1963. The former is stunning for its clarity, reveling in a warmth that can only be attained from placing a microphone in the vicinity of a man with an acoustic guitar, turning the levels way up, and absorbing everything: the scratch of the pick on the strings, the echo of the performer's foot as it taps on the platform, the bristle of buttons as they graze the back of the guitar, the intake of breath. The first cuts on the disc are exquisitely rendered, with a great sense of dynamics inherent in Hooker's patented free blues style. The sound quality of the latter tracks leaves much to be desired, with Hooker's guitar often getting lost in the ambience of the room or the muffled thump of Lee's bass. Still, there is some wonderfully intimate playing as Hooker simultaneously leads and plays off of Lee's parts. ~ Jesse Jarnow / AMG

Vee Jay Records 1964,  Newport Festival
VJLP 1078
Guitar, Vocals – John Lee Hooker

A1 I Can't Quit You Now Blues
A2 Stop Baby Don't Hold Me That Way
A3 Tupelo
A4 Bus Station Blues
A5 Freight Train Be My Friend
A6 Boom Boom Boom
B1 Talk That Talk Baby
B2 Sometimes Baby, You Make Me Feel So Bad
B3 You've Got To Walk Yourself
B4 Let's Make It
B5 The Mighty Fire