Hooker (Box) [Best of, Box set, Original recording remastered]

Whether or not one will buy this killer box set may depend on the amount Hooker material you have in your collection. There's no question that this magnificent box set is the dinfinitive collection of John Lee Hooker material. It covers his entire recording career from the late 40's through the 90's. Still, it's a drop in the bucket considering the vast wealth of material he recorded over his 50 year career. One wouldn't be able to carry or afford his entire recording output. For new fans or people who may be a little "thin" with Hooker material, this is, without a doubt the way to go. As for me, I'm OK with John Lee Hooker cd's, but I do see this on my shelf in the near future. I mean what the heck, it's all Hooker and it's all good.

I do think they could of extended the set to another disc of material, along with a DVD of vintage Hooker in concert. They did it with the recently released Buddy Guy box set, "Can't Quit the Blues", with rave reviews. Anyway, no matter which way you slice it, you're getting quality John Lee Hooker material with this set. I consider this box set essential.

One more note for anyone who may be interested in early Hooker material. There's a 10 CD box set out there with vintage, mostly solo, Hooker recordings. I'm talking Johnny Lee with only guitar and a big o'l stomping foot. This isn't recomemmed for wimps, strictly die hard fans who enjoy this type of stuff. The better news is that the set is under $25.00. If you type in John Lee Hooker through Amazon, you'll come up with about 600 Hooker titles. You'll get a headache looking at all of them. But, if you type in John Lee Hooker: Portrait, which is tha name of this killer box set, you'll come to the page of this box set. I got a little pissed because the page didn't include any info on the set. I mean, I like to see what I'm buying. So I bought the set, brand new for around $25.00. I wrote a reveiw on it, and painstakenly inclucded the entire track listing, so anyone who may be interested can see the song titles. Remember, this set is for die hard fans only!!

I hope this reveiw helped all fans of John Lee Hooker. Thanks for reading.

This lavish boxed set is the first attempt to provide a comprehensive survey of John Lee Hooker's lengthy career. Hooker was active for more than 50 years, and in the early years recorded under a variety of pseudonyms so this is quite a daunting task. The first couple of CDs cover the early groundbreaking solo recordings he made for labels like Modern where his ominously pounding foot and over-amped guitar propel classics like "Boogie Chillun" and "Let Your Daddy Ride." Slowly expanding his band to include second guitar (usually Eddie Burns) and drums he moved on to Vee-Jay and Chess for the blasting "Mad Man Blues" and deep down in the alley for "Tupelo Blues." After years toiling on the blues circuit, the blues revival found him touring around the world as the "king of the boogie" and disc three shows him recording with the blues-rock band Canned Heat on "Burning Hell" and waxing his immortal ode to alcoholism, "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer." The final disc shows the elder statesman/lion in winter recording with a variety of blues and rock luminaries most successfully a simpatico relationship with Van Morrison that produced two gems, "I Cover the Waterfront" and "Don't Look Back." The liner notes and discographical information is very good with nice essays and photographs. Longtime Hooker collectors will have most of this music already, but those looking for an overview of the great musician's entire career should be pleased.

This Cd set is a bit pricey but is out there for about $40.00 if you look hard enough. What a set! If you like blues, and I mean REAL blues, you will love this. If you're the type of blues fan that needs loud, fast , Stevie-Ray wanabees on CD, this is not for you. This set is way over due, has great sound, and spans Hooker's entire career. This guy was the real deal and there are few of his kind left. If you really love pure blues, this set will not disappoint.