Burnin' [B&N Exclusive]

by John Lee Hooker

Overview

John Lee Hooker's 1962 album Burnin' is one of the most revered titles in his discography. While his earliest sides featured only his guitar and a stomp board, he also cut sides with a second guitarist or harmonicist. During the late 1950s, he usually played in Detroit with his Boogie Ramblers. Burnin' was recorded in a single day in a Chicago; it paired Hooker for the first time with a full, live electric band in the studio. The musicians were brought in from Detroit, all session aces familiar with Hooker from his years of playing clubs on Hastings Street: keyboardist Joe Hunter (not Ivy Joe Hunter), bassist James Jamerson, guitarist Larry Veeder, and drummer Benny "Papa Zita" Benjamin, with saxophonists Hank Cosby and Andrew "Mike" Terry -- the very first incarnation of Motown's globally renowned house band, the Funk Brothers. The set opener is single "Boom Boom." It growls to life with saxes, piano, and shuffling drums offering a rowdy vamp. At the midway point, Hooker, playing in an uncharacteristically tight fashion, delivers a shout worthy of Ray Charles, then delivers a stop-time guitar hook, signaling the band to rise up and drive the boogie. (The single charted at R&B and in the Hot 100.) It's followed by "Process," a slow walking blues offering steamy piano and sax work. Hooker's leads thread the verses, his shambolic shuffle working just behind the drum kit shuffle. "Lost a Good Girl" was one of the guitarist's club staples, a real crowd-pleaser for dancers thanks to its laconic, Chicago-meets-New Orleans groove. His reading of Leroy Carr's classic "Blues Before Sunrise" is rendered as an elegant piano and horn-driven walking blues with killer solo guitar work from Hooker, cutting jagged lines between verses. He answers with the house-rocking "Let's Make It," another of his live nuggets. The dialogue between horns, piano, snare, and Hooker's sung cadences are lusty, strident, boastful, and fun. His guitar shuffle is loose, almost buzzy, but swings like mad. While there isn't a weak moment here, there are other highlights, too, such as the low-down, sexy "Drug Store Woman" and the woolly "Keep Your Hands to Yourself (She Belongs to Me)," which makes full use of the propulsive vamp in "Tequila." He hits the seam exactly where jump blues meet rock & roll on the raucous closer "What Do You Say?" ~ Thom Jurek

Product Details

Release Date:	02/24/2023
Label:	Barnes & Noble
UPC:	0888072460973

Tracks

1. Boom Boom
2. Process
3. Lost a Good Girl
4. A New Leaf
5. Blues Before Sunrise
6. Let's Make It
7. I Got a Letter
8. Thelma
9. Drug Store Woman
10. Keep Your Hands to Yourself
11. What Do You Say

Album Credits

Performance Credits

John Lee Hooker   Primary Artist,Guitar,Vocals
Alan Wilson   Guitar,Harmonica,Piano
Larry Veeder   Guitar
Andrew Terry   Sax (Baritone)
Benny Benjamin   Drums
Joe Hunter   Piano
James Jamerson   Guitar (Bass)
Henry Cosby   Sax (Tenor)
Adolfo de la Parra   Drums
Henry Vestine   Guitar

Technical Credits

John Lee Hooker   Composer
David Arnold   Composer
Mason Williams   Producer
Leroy Carr   Composer
Joe Josea   Composer
Calvin Carter   Recording Producer,Producer