John Lee Hooker: Burnin' (60th anniversary, clear red vinyl, indie exclusive) [CRAFT]

Why you'll love it

Craft remastered this 60th anniversary edition from the original analog tapes and pressed it on clear red 180g vinyl in a tip-on jacket. It holds Hooker's signature hit "Boom Boom," which made the national charts.

This edition

• 60th anniversary edition
• Clear red vinyl
• Indie exclusive
• 180g vinyl
• Remastered from the original analog tapes
• Tip-on jacket
• Stereo mix

About the album

John Lee Hooker spent years as a gloriously one-man operation, stomping time with his foot while his guitar did the rest. For Burnin', cut in Chicago on October 26, 1961, he took on a proper band, and what a band it was: Detroit session players who would soon be famous as Motown's Funk Brothers. Suddenly the boogie had horns, a walking bass and a backbeat you could set your watch by.

James Jamerson plays bass, Benny Benjamin drums and Joe Hunter piano, with Larry Veeder on guitar and Hank Cosby and Mike Terry on saxophones. "Boom Boom" struts in first, and the grooves stay tight and danceable through "Process," "Blues Before Sunrise," "Drug Store Woman" and "Keep Your Hands to Yourself." The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings praised its texture and spirit, eleven tracks of uncomplicated, danceable music pushed along by the saxes, every one of them credited to Hooker.

It's the sound of a Delta-born bluesman meeting the rhythm section that was about to change pop music. Hooker kept the foot-stomping, mind you. Some habits are too good to give up.

Also at Kops: more John Lee Hooker on vinyl · browse Blues

Tracklist

Listen

On Vee-Jay / Craft Recordings (cat# CR05192), a reissue of the 1962 album.