John Lee Hooker: Plays & Sings the Blues (2 bonus tracks) [WAX TIME]

Why you'll love it

This limited Wax Time pressing is on 180g vinyl and adds two bonus tracks, "Baby, You Ain't No Good" and "The Road Is So Rough." AllMusic's Bill Dahl called it filled with gems from Hooker's heyday.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Limited edition
• 2 bonus tracks

About the album

John Lee Hooker spent the late 1940s and early 50s in Detroit turning the Delta blues into something electric, hypnotic and entirely his own, a driving boogie you can feel in the floorboards. Chess gathered a dozen of his 1951 and 1952 recordings for this 1961 album, with sessions produced by Joe Von Battle, Bernie Besman and Leonard Chess, some of them first heard as singles.

Hooker's guitar and that deep, dark voice sit front and centre. "The Journey" opens with a slow, brooding walk, "Mad Man Blues" and "Bluebird" rumble along, and "Hey Boogie" and "Lonely Boy Boogie" stomp. He takes on Big Maceo's "Worried Life Blues" and Muddy Waters' "Please Don't Go," and "Just Me and My Telephone" turns a lonely evening into a deep groove. "Dreamin' Blues" and "Apologize" show his quieter, more intimate side, just voice and guitar.

Rolling Stone ranked Hooker No. 35 on its 2015 list of the 100 greatest guitarists, and records like this show why one chord, played with enough conviction, is plenty. We've passed this on to the staff guitarists; they remain unconvinced.

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

Tracklist

Listen

On Chess / Wax Time (cat# 772281), a reissue of the 1961 compilation.