John Lee Hooker

A dark, slow-moving collection of grooves in Hooker's one-of-a-kind style. The highlight is definitely his anti-drug sermon in the middle of "Kick Hit 4 Hit Kix U (Blues For Jimi & Janis)," but the whole thing slinks around being cool the way any good John Lee Hooker music does. A host of rock musicians make special guest appearances.

The black blues legends playing with the white up-and-comers. I guess Sonny Boy
Williamson II started it all about six years ago with his Live With the Yardbirds album.
Successive years have seen a record-rack full of similar efforts ... from Muddy Waters,
Lowell Fulsom, Furry Lewis and Otis Spann .. all resulting in quasi-successful albums that at
times effectively blended the old urban, Texas/Chicago post-war Fifties sounds... More >

I like this double-lp more than either of two recent Bob Hite efforts. Hooker 'n' Heat (Liberty) features too much unaccompanied Hooker and tends to play on his status of a minor blues relic with hot-off-the-tape studio rapping, although the last side really boogies, as the saying goes. Coast to Coast Blues Band (United Artists) collects 14 20-year-old masters, mostly previously unreleased solo takes. The white audience hasn't much changed Hooker's sound, so the timeliness of Endless Boogie is an unmitigated plus, and producers Bill Szymczyk and Ed Michel get a relaxed groove out of a cast of supporting musicians (Brown, Miller, Davis, Radic, Naftalin) who can boogie Canned Heat right out of the studio. (Grade - B+)