John Lee Hooker - Essential Works 1956-1962
Tracklist
Information
- Artist : John Lee Hooker
- Label : Masters of Rock
- Format : 2 x 12" (140g)
- Genres : Blues
- Estimated shipping date : Delivery within 2 to 7 days
Description
John Lee Hooker is still probably the most striking blues figure of the 20th century. The power and originality in the voice of John Lee Hooker, combined with his distinctive guitar, earned him a huge reputation in the Forties and Fifties. Beginning in Detroit, he conquered the audience the first time he walked on stage with just a guitar, before he moved on to every stage beyond his native Michigan. Between 1948 and 1954 he would record Sally Mae, Boogie Chillun, Hobo Blues, Crawling King Snake or I’m In The Mood … with his music appearing on many different labels, among them King, Modern, Regent, Acorn and Chance. That period is the subject of the John Lee Hooker album in the “BDBlues” series (BDBL182). Hooker started his career with the VeeJay label in 1955, and those recordings sealed his reputation as an essential blues voice. His later work with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and Canned Heat (Hooker’n Heat), plus many other European or American artists, allowed him to widen his audience and become an international star with a blues, jazz and rock following. In the Sixties and Seventies, Hooker became a household blues name, with bestselling records regularly listed in the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. The 27 VeeJay titles that are included on this album are at the heart of the John Lee Hooker style, and every one of them is a blue diamond.
It is the fusion of Gospel, Blues and Jazz that gives birth to new rhythms during the 50’s in the United States. Black artists are the first ones to associate upbeat tempo with jazz and blues. But it is a revolution of the minds that gives to the 50’s its frenetic momentum that rocks the old world into the modern world. Every single area is touched by the revolution : music and painting, obviously, but also and maybe mainly society at large, ways of consuming, the new industrial era, urban life, advertising, marketing and design. The movement develops in every dimension. Rock’n’Roll is the permanent mark left by the youth of that time, embracing the new world and giving it the rhythm that fits.
The Masters of Rock collection traces back the history of these great Rock’n’Roll figures without whom Rock and music in general would not be what they are today. And just like a natural phenomenon, Rock was born at the same time as the LP, absolute revolution in the music world which marked every generation since 1950 and until today. The world could not go round without the collection that pays homage to Vinyl Records and Rock’nRoll : Masters of Rock