Happy Birthday Keith Richards *Come See About Me, Indeed- The Driving Blues Of John Lee Hooker

Click on title to link to YouTube's film clip of John Lee Hooker and Bonnie Raiit performing "I'm In The Mood For Love". WOW!

DVD Review-August 18, 2008

Come See About Me: John Lee Hooker-The Definitive DVD, Eagle Rock Productions, 1992

In a recent entry in this space on July 18, 2009 entitled, "The Boogie Chillen” Man- The Boogie Blues Of John Lee Hooker", I made the following comments about this seminal blues artist:

“I have poured out kudos to the likes of Howlin’ Wolf, Skip James, Son House, Bukka White and an assortment of other legendary male acoustic and electric blues guitar players in this space. I have not, until now, mentioned the name of the legendary blues artist John Lee Hooker, although he belongs up there with those other above-mentioned names. Why? Well, frankly, it is a question of tastes. Other than an occasional song here or there John Lee Hooker does not “speak” to me, a term that means something to me in the blues context. Sure his guitar smokes when he is on. He always had more than enough black and white bands (Canned Heat, for one) clamoring to back him up and certainly his lyrics (with a few “politically incorrect” exceptions common to the genre) drove his message home. But we never connected at that “soul” level the way Wolf, Son House or the recently discovered (by me) Bukka White do. This happens. But I know enough about the blues to know that John Lee Hooker will “speak” to others. Legends are like that.

So given the above comments what is classic here, according to my tastes. Well, hell “Stella Mae” is one of those here or there songs Hooker songs I mentioned above that I liked. Others may like the much covered “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer”. (This may be the best way to state my case- George Thorogood’s version “speaks” to me.) “Peace Lovin’ Man” and “I’m In The Mood” are exemplars of Hooker’s boogie guitar style.”

After viewing this DVD compilation (definitive or not, that after all is trade puffing) all I can say is oops, maybe I spoke just a little cavalierly above. Maybe it was because I viewed this DVD while we are having a heat wave here in the Northeast and his driving and sensuous blues riffs have come alive like in sultry old plantation and African roots days. Check out “I’m In The Mood For Love” in a duo with Bonnie Raitt to see what I mean. Or with Van Morrison on “Baby Please Don’t Go”. How about “Boom Boom”? Or “Hobo Blues" with the ubiquitous Ry Cooder. Or the masterpiece Hooker classic “Boogie Chillen” with Eric Clapton and The Rolling Stones”. Most of this is mature work so maybe that counts for its appeal to me now. Let me just say-WOW!

"Baby Please Don’t Go"

Baby, please dont go
Baby, please dont go
Baby, please dont go
Down to new orleans
You know I love you so
Baby please dont go

Baby, your mind done gone
Well, your mind done gone
Well, your mind done gone
Left the county farm
You had the shackles on
Baby, please dont go

Before I be your dog
Before I be your dog
Before I be your dog
To git you way down here
I make you walk alone
Baby, please dont go
Hey

Baby, please dont go
Baby, please dont go
Baby, please dont go
Down to new orleans
You know I love you so
Baby, please dont go

Before I be your dog
Before I be your dog
Before I be your dog
Git you way down here
Make you walk alone
Baby, please dont go

Know how I feel right now
My baby leavin, on that midnight train
And Im cryin

Baby, please dont go
Oh, baby please dont go
Baby, please dont go
Down to new orleans
You know I love you so
Baby, please dont go
Lets go

Before I be your dog
Before I be your dog
Before I be your dog
To git you way down here
I make you walk alone
Baby, please dont go, yeah

Alright

*Walking With The King- The Blues Of B.B. King With Eric Clapton

Click on the headline to link to a "YouTube" film clip of B.B. King and Eric Clapton performing "Riding With The King".

CD Review

Riding With The King, B.B. King and Eric Clapton, Reprise Records, 2000

Over the past couple of years I have spent a fair amount of time reviewing various blues artists who “spoke” to me when I first got interested in the folksy county blues of the likes of Son House and Skip James back in the folk revival days of the early 1960s. And then the steamy city blues of Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. Now those last named two came out of the country, the Mississippi Delta cotton country, but when they went north to Chicago and got some electricity they transformed themselves and the genre. No question.

The blues, especially the country blues, got a great impetus from the folk revival of the early 1960s, as the country blues of Son and Skip along with Mississippi John Hurt got more play from young, mainly Northern urban folkies who “discovered” them. The real impetus behind the “discovery” of the likes of Muddy and Wolf, as well as one of the two artists under review here, B.B. King, was the “British invasion”. While we teenagers on this side of the Atlantic were hung up with Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis, and rightly so, the “lads” in England like The Rolling Stones, the Beatles, and the other artist featured here, Eric Clapton, were trying to get every blues record, city or country, they could lay their hands on.

Thus it seems fitting, in a way, that B.B. King and Eric Clapton, clearly two ambassadors for the blues should team up and let it rip through some of the classics of the genre. Now I have a confession to make. Although I have spilled much ink in this space on many old time blues artists, some well known, others strictly for aficionados, I have not mentioned B.B. King, except in passing. This is solely a matter of personal preference. B.B. and his ever present “Lucille”, with the exception of a few early numbers, never really “spoke” to me like Howlin’ Wolf, for one, did.

There is no question, however, that B.B. is a master on the guitar. Nor any question that he is a great bluesman in the old fashion sense and no question that when he teams up with Clapton here they “smoke” on some of the songs. So that only leaves what is good here. Well, certainly the title track, “Riding With The King”, the country blues classic, “Keys To The Highway”, “Worried Life Blues”, and “I Wanna Be”. Those will keep you jumpin’.



"Riding With The King" Lyrics


I dreamed I had a good job and I got well paid,
I blew it all at the penny arcade,
A hundred dollars on a cupid doll,
No pretty chick is gonna make me crawl,

And I teetered the way to the promised land,
Every woman, child and man,
Get your caddilac and a great big diamond ring,
Don't you know you're riding with the king?

He's on a mission of mercy, to the new fronteir,
He's gonna take us all outta' here,
Up to that mansion, on a hill,
Where you can get your prescription pill

And I teetered the way to the promised land,
Everybody clap your hands,
And don't you dirts love the way that he sings?
Don't you know you're riding with the king?
You're riding with the king!
Don't you know you're riding with the king?

A tuxedo and a shining green burning five,
You can see it in his face, the blues is alive,
Tonight everybody's getting their angel wings,
Don't you know you're riding with the king?

I stepped out of Mississippi when I was ten years old,
With a suit cut sharp as a razor and a heart made of gold.
I had a guitar hanging just about waist high,
And I'm gonna play this thing until the day I die.
Don't you know you're riding with the king?
Don't you know you're riding with the king?
(You're riding with me baby)
(You got good hands)
(Yes, you're riding with the king)
(I wanted to say B.B. King, but you know who the king is)