The Best of Friends

by

John Lee Hooker

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Blues fans will be pleasantly surprised by this recording pairing the master himself with some of the finest musicians alive today. Special mention should be made of "I Cover the Waterfront" and "Don't Look Back" which feature the soulful voice and guitar of Van Morrison, as well as the familiar touch of Carlos Santana in "The Healer". Last, but certainly not least, adorers of Bonnie Raitt will love the playful duet she and Hooker provide in "I'm in the Mood".

BUY THIS CD, lower the lights, crank up the volume, and be swept away. You won't regret it.

Author Stephen Thomas Erlewine once said something like this about "The Best Of Friends":

"This is for people who like to think they like Hooker, but really just want to hear Eric Clapton wail away."

It sounds a bit like the point of view of an old blues purist, perhaps, but one with a lot of truth to it. Many people who aren't attracted to John Lee Hooker's raw, gritty 40s, 50s and 60s recordings will certainly find these guest star-heavy re-recordings much more accessible, and who knows...maybe some of those who got to know John Lee Hooker when he suddenly popped up on MTV at age 73 can use this music as a "gateway" to the REAL blues.

This is a compilation of songs from the Hook's last five guest star-heavy albums (plus a couple of previously unreleased recordings). There is really nothing here to match Hooker's magnificent VeeJay-recordings, his best ever band backed material, but this is certainly not bad music...with the possible exception of two stylistically challenged numbers, "Chill Out" and "The Healer".

Van Morrison appears on two numbers, "I Cover The Waterfront", and a slow, soulful "Don't Look Back", playing guitar and singing a verse or two, and his contributions are really the only ones which add something new to the songs.

Eric Clapton plays relatively restrained guitar on a pretty good "Boogie Chillen", and "This Is Hip" and "Dimples" get a nice swaggering groove going, although neither of them come anywhere close to surpassing the original recordings.

"Burnin' Hell" is marred by the monotonous guitar playing of Ben Harper, and "Baby Lee" and "I'm In The Mood" are too slick, but "Tupelo" is classic John Lee Hooker, just the Hook himself and his guitar and a piece of plywood to stomp on! And "Big Legs, Tight Skirt" is really good as well, although not as good as Hooker's definitive rendition which he cut for VeeJay in the mid-50s.

Again, this is a pretty good album, especially for "casual" blues listeners, but it does fall a little flat when compared to the gritty and powerful waxings Hooker made when he was in his prime.