We continue our look back to the music of 50 years ago….
In the 1960’s alot of British and later American bands embraced their roots by calling attention to the old American Blues artists that had fallen out of favor. The long-haired kids covered the old guys tunes or in many cases, went into the studio with them to record them for a new generation. It seemed like they all got second acts…Robert Johnson, Leadbelly, Howlin Wolf, Muddy Waters, and…John Lee Hooker. Hooker was born in northern Mississippi, the cradle of the blues and worked steadily as a guitar player after moving to Detroit in the 1940’s. In the 1960s he toured Europe where his renaissance began. He recorded with an English band called the Groundhogs. But it was late in 1970 that he recorded a double album of blues with the American band Canned Heat that was released in early 1971. Canned Heat had played Monterey and Woodstock and featured an incredible harmonica and guitar player named Alan Wilson. Wilson was a music major at Boston University but was such blues fanatic that according to some accounts, he taught Son House how to play his songs when House was re-discovered in the early 60’s (ultimateclassicrock.com) . One side of the record was just Hooker and his ax…the other three sides featured the band and alot of Wilson’s harp. At one point between songs you can hear Hooker compliment Wilson’s playing .It would prove to be the final recording for Wilson who died in September of a drug overdose (some think intentionally) just weeks before Janis and Jimi succumbed to that lifestyle as well. Hooker player on for years after this and even played with Canned Heat again including a tour in 1978 but “Hooker & Heat” is a great document of a great American Bluesman supported by some of his white acolytes and it became his first album to hit the Billboard Charts.
Here it is…grab a cold one and get down with the blues!
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