Hooker with a heart of gold
John Lee Hooker Plays and Sings the Blues Chess LP 1454. Early fifties recordings (When Hook was a younger stud) compiled and released by Chess in 1961. Personnel: John Lee Hooker vocals; guitar. (Eddie Kirkland guitar on “Just Me and My Telephone”.) Studs Terkel writes the liner notes. Another cool cover photo by Chess house photog Don Bronstein. This is back porch music from the heart of the Delta. “Although he often reworked themes by earlier bluesmen during this period, it was rare that Hooker outright covered another artist’s material. So his riveting interpretations of Muddy Waters’s ‘Please Don’t Go’ and Big Maceo Merriweather’s ‘Worried Life Blues’ peak this collection”
(56 votes, average: 4.41 out of 5)
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September 21st, 2009 at 10:42 am
Wow! I’ve heard versions of “Baby Please Don’t Go” by Muddy Waters, Mose Allison, and Van Morrison, but never one by the mighty John Lee.
September 22nd, 2009 at 6:52 am
Wow is right! Anyone know how I could get my hands on a copy of this? Is there a CD or MP3 version out there somewhere?
October 29th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
I’ve loved this record ever since I was a teenager, and this was my first exposure to real blues (and also John Lee Hooker); other than Jimmy Reed, this record was pretty much all I had to begin with. Genius from start to finish. “Mad Man Blues,” “Worried Life Blues,” etc.
This is the slowest and most soulful version (though still boogieing, of course) of “Baby Please Don’t Go” that I’ve ever heard.