John Lee Hooker - The Best Of Friends
(Virgin Records)
4 1/2 stars (out of 5 stars)
By Tony Bonyata
Talk about a popular guy.
On 81-year old blues legend John Lee Hooker's latest release, aptly titled The Best Of Friends, Hooker has a bevy of longtime admirers and friends, including Van Morrison, Carlos Santana, Robert Cray, Bonnie Riatt along with some other very special guests, playing along side him on a compilation of self-penned blues classics that he has recorded throughout the last decade.
The albums that these numbers are culled from include The Healer (1989), Mr. Lucky (1991), Boom Boom (1993), Chill Out (1995) and Don't Look Back (1997). The inspiration for these collaborations began in 1983 when long-time friend Van Morrison asked to produce one of Hooker's albums. It wasn't long before other well known fans, such as Carlos Santana and George Thorogood, wanted to work with him as well. It was these collaborations, preserved on The Healer, that not only caught the attention of critics and fans, but other artists who would've been happy to exchange their souls at The Crossroads for a chance to record with this living legend.
The Best Of Friends celebrates many of the highlights from these albums as well as adding a few newly recorded numbers just for this release. On the opening number "Boogie Chillin'", a song which coincidentally was his first major hit released exactly 50 years ago, Hooker is fueled by a hot little outfit led by Eric Clapton, who ignites the song with his flammable fret-work like a careless cigarette at a gas pump. Ry Cooder's no-nonsense guitar shows up on the down-n-dirty reworking of "This Is Hip" as well as the 'lust at first sight' blues of "Big Legs Tight Skirt", which also features the raunchy, juke-joint keyboards of Ike Turner. Joined by newcomer Ben Harper on guitar and West Coast blues-harmonica legend and close friend Charlie Musselwhite (Hooker was, in fact, Musselwhite's best man at his wedding) on "Burnin' Hell", Hooker and company drive through this runaway number like a speeding freight train with a one-way ticket to the infernal regions. The band Los Lobos puts so much energy into the rousing tune "Dimples" that it practically picks you up and insists you move, while Bonnie Riatt's sultry voice and laid-back slide guitar conjures up the smell of Jim Beam and Marlboro's in a cramped roadhouse bar on her duet with Hooker on "I'm In The Mood".
While the Latin rhythms and fluid guitar-work of Carlos Santana mixed with Hooker's dusty-dry, Delta-bred vocals seem, at first, a little ill-paired, after several listenings this inter-cultural coupling seems to wear well.
Although the intent of this album is to showcase his collaborations with his highly talented friends, it's the raw, parched Delta-blues of "Tupelo", a stark acoustic number with just Hooker's bleeding guitar, knowing voice and beat of his foot keeping time, that makes us understand why he has made so many friends in the first place.