Time: 40:54
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 1966
Styles: Blues
Art: Front
1. Bad Luck and Trouble (4:02)
2. Waterfront (4:13)
3. No One Pleases Me But You (2:24)
4. It's Raining Here (3:22)
5. It's a Crazy MIxed Up World (4:16)
6. Seven Days and Seven Nights (3:39)
7. Mai Lee (3:29)
8. I'm Losing You (3:53)
9. Little Girl Go Back to School (3:52)
10. Little Dreamer (4:19)
11. Don't Be Messin' With My Bread (3:20)
John Lee Hooker backed by The Groundhogs, recorded in June 1964 or May/June 1965, released in 1965 or 1967, recorded live or in a studio - such are the uncertainties found in the John Lee Hooker discography. To make matters worse there are numerous issues of this album with different names, different covers, the same 11 tracks but sometimes in a different order with different titles - the 1970 Wand release dubbed in some horns, the 1972 release claimed John Mayall was there (he wasn't). So if you are looking around for old John Lee Hooker albums be careful or you could end up with a pile of albums that turn out to be the same thing. I don't know that much about The Groundhogs - a British blues band that stuck with the blues while others were gaining greater fame by joining in with the first wave of Britpop. There were a number of collaborations between the older American bluesmen and young British worshipers recorded in the 1960s and they don't seem to be generally liked by blues aficionados - but I enjoy this, without thinking it's one of Hooker's great moments. Maybe there is nothing particularly distinctive about The Groundhogs, but they play with respect, professionalism and a love for the music. On the quicker tracks they thump along and I can't help feeling they are not the best band to be backing Hooker - his voice isn't the strongest blues voice, its power is gained through its intimacy, a storyteller whispering in your ear, so against the raucousness of the band he looses much. And he is not one of the great blues guitarists, but he is one of the great accompanists, the beauty of his playing being in the way it interacts with his voice - and a lot is lost here in the general noise. But the slower tracks are better, they breed an intensity. The beauty of this album is that the faster numbers tend to be at the beginning and it gradually slows down, so it is as though the musicians start off tentatively, a little uncertain, knock off a few numbers to check each other out, but them as the evening goes on they relax, maybe have a few drinks between songs: they begin to feel the songs, be part of them. The first side is O.K., the second is much, much better.
...And Seven Nights FLAC
2 comments:
Thanks Flash! :)
Post a Comment