John Lee Hooker ~ Vee-Jay Sides

John Lee Hooker On Campus

Vee Jay's 1964 album John Lee Hooker on Campus is titled to sound like a live recording but it isn't. As part of the Collectables Vee Jay reissue campaign, these 12 tracks originally tried to capitalize on Hooker's emergence on the coffeehouse/college tours he was involved in at the time. This is an electric album that contains excellent material from Hooker, even though the occasional background singers get in the way, attempting to modernize his gritty blues with a smoother soul sound. All of the Vee Jay reissues of John Lee Hooker material are worth having and are budget priced as a bonus. - Al Campbell / AMG

Vee Jay Records 1964
VJLP 1066

John Lee Hooker - vocals, guitar

A1 I'm Leavin'
A2 Love Is A Burning Thing
A3 Birmingham Blues
A4 I Want To Shout
A5 Don't Look Back
A6 I Want To Hug You
B1 Poor Me
B2 I Want To Ramble
B3 Half A Stranger
B4 My Grinding Mill
B5 Bottle Up And Go
B6 One Way Ticket

The Big Soul of John Lee Hooker

There may not be much running time to this LP -- not even 30 minutes -- but John Lee Hooker gives us value for every second there is, and in a totally unexpected setting. Jumping into the R&B and soul explosions of the early '60s -- or at least dipping his toe into them -- he's backed here by the Vandellas, no less, on all but one of the 11 songs here. And coupled with an uncredited band that includes organ accompaniment, among other attributes that one doesn't usually associate with Hooker, he pulls it off. Indeed, he manages to straddle blues and soul far better than, say, Muddy Waters did during this same period; he's still a little too intense for the more pop side of the field, but he's also stretching the appeal of the blues with every nuance on this record, and there are a few cuts here, such as "Send Me Your Pillow" that would have fit on any of Hooker's far more traditional-sounding blues releases; and others, such as "She Shot Me Down" (a rewrite of "Boom Boom"), that are so close to his well-known standard repertory that they slip right into his output without explanation. And the whole album is short enough so that even if he would have gone wrong -- which he didn't -- there was only so far he could have gone wrong. As it is, this is near-essential listening as some of Hooker's most interesting work of the '60s. - Bruce Eder / AMG

Vee Jay Records 1963

VJLP 1058

John Lee Hooker - vocals, guitar

A1 Frisco
A2 Take A Look At Yourself
A3 Send Me Your Pillow
A4 She Shot Me Down
A5 I Love Her
A6 Old Time Shimmy
B1 You Know I Love You
B2 Big Soul
B3 Good Rocking Mama
B4 Onions
B5 No One Told Me