F16C Christmas: John Lee Hooker – Blues For Christmas

By , December 20, 2012 12:07 pm

Example

John Lee Hooker
Example

Listen/Download John Lee Hooker – Blues For Christmas

Greetings all

I hope all is festive in your corner of the world. Even if you don’t celebrate Christmas you can still catch a wave of good will (but look out for the tsunami of consumerism) and bask in the sweet, holiday vibe.

Though I have posted tracks by blues artists in the space before, they have almost exclusively been of the soul/funk crossover variety.

This is not one of those.

The mighty John Lee Hooker is one of my favorite artists.

That said track I bring you today is not one of his finest, though it may well be his drunkest.

The Hook himself doesn’t sound all that inebriated (though he does at one point cry out ‘I’m wasted!”, so there’s that…), but the backing “band” is something else entirely.

“Blues for Christmas’ was recorded in 1959, and it sounds like Hooker finished up his 12th set of the night, started out the door and then, struck by inspirado rounded up the drunkest, least competent bunch of has-been be-boppers he could find and dragged them into the studio.

It was there that they cracked open another 50 gallon drum of atomic egg nog and set to work.

To describe the recording as “woozy” doesn’t really do it justice.

You can almost hear the horn section nodding off in the background, their eyes getting more and more bloodshot, the wind coming out of their axes potent enough to knock a buzzard off a shitwagon.

There are points where you almost wonder of the trumpet and sax players accidentally picked up each other’s instruments by mistake.

The only thing that could make it better would be a superannuated ecdysiast lazily swinging her well-padded hips to the beat (the tenor player even breaks into ‘Night Train’ for a few bars).

It may not be the merriest Christmas song around, but you definitely get the sense that a whole lot of merriment was had earlier in the evening.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back on Monday with more holiday cheer.

Keep the faith

Larry

 

Example
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).

Click here to go to the ordering page.
Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

Example

Example

 

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

3 Responses to “F16C Christmas: John Lee Hooker – Blues For Christmas”

  1. Mingus Al says:

    One of my favorites every Christmas, specifically for the obviously shambolic nature of the session. Which makes it sound, as you say, as if it was recorded at the end of a looong Christmas party. Of course, Hook himself was seemingly always able to sound great, no matter how “off” the rest of the music was (often including his own playing).

    According to my sources, I believe this was actually recorded in 1954, in my glorious hometown (and Johnny Lee’s adopted hometown) of Detroit Michigan USA. But, as with so many things Hooker, the truth is obscure and I have seen dates ranging from 1949 to 1959 for this recording, as well as a variety of personnel (not sure I’d want it known if I were in that horn section…).

    As always, thanks for all the wonderfulness you post. Hope you and yours have a great holiday season and a very happy and healthy New Year!

  2. […] Click here to go to Funky 16 Corners to check John Lee Hooker “Blues For Christmas” […]

  3. Larry says:

    Mingus Al
    You may well be right about the date, especially listening to the horns and their faux be bop filigree at the end.
    I think Hooker was a giant, right up there with the Chess biggies (maybe bigger than some).
    He really is a bridge between the raw, acoustic sound of the prewar South and the electrified sound of the postwar North.
    There are times where he starts to flow outside the “regular” tempo and soar off into a whole new thing.
    Brilliant singer too.
    Thanks for the kind words about the blog, and have a great holiday and a Happy New Year as well.
    Larry

Leave a Reply

New Comment Capcha System = Simple Math! * Time limit is exhausted. Please reload CAPTCHA.

Panorama Theme by Themocracy