In 1989, blues legend John Lee Hooker enjoyed a career revival in the wake of the release of The Healer. Produced by slide-guitarist Roy Rogers, and with a little help from friends like Bonnie Raitt, Robert Cray, and Carlos Santana, the album featured enough contemporary guest stars to attract a young audience unfamiliar with Hooker's enormous blues history. After a decade of sporadic recording (and relative obscurity), Hooker was suddenly a hot property again, and The Healer earned the bluesman a Grammy Award.
Signed to Virgin Records' blues-oriented Point Blank label, Hooker followed up on the success of The Healer with 1991's similarly-structured Mr. Lucky and, a year later, with Boom Boom. Whereas the first two albums of Hooker's 1990s comeback featured slick production and a mix of old and new songs that would be complimented by the talents of a myriad of guest stars, Boom Boom was rougher, less polished, and places the focus firmly on Hooker's classic songs from decades previous. Sure, there were still a lot of guest appearances - Hooker had found a winning formula and he wasn’t about to drop it - but make no mistake, this is John Lee's show.
John Lee Hooker's Boom Boom
The album opens, appropriately enough, with the title track "Boom Boom." Former Fabulous Thunderbirds guitarist Jimmie Vaughan adds his subdued, albeit tasteful notes behind Hooker's sonorous voice and deep-blue fretwork for a powerful recreation of the classic song, a hit for Hooker in 1962. John Lee steps into the spotlight by himself for a Spartan take of "I'm Bad Like Jesse James," a fine example of Hooker's trademark talking blues style. Accompanied by a wicked bad, deeply-toned guitar riff, Hooker's voice barely registers above a whisper, creating a menacing aura and forcing the listener to listen intently to the lyrics.
Guitarist Robert Cray drops by for "Same Old Blues Again," adding his gorgeous tone and hot licks to Hooker's playful reading of the lyrics, creating a loose-limbed take that sounds like a freestyle jam session. Hooker is on his own again for the Delta-dirty "Sugar Mama," his shimmering stringbending creating an odd, hypnotizing effect behind his soulful vocals.
The King Of Boogie
Featuring a four-guitar attack, including the incendiary axe of the legendary Albert Collins, "Boogie At Russian Hill" offers up the original booger-rock blueprint later followed by folks like Canned Heat, Savoy Brown, and Foghat. The up-tempo houserocker features an excited Hooker vocal performance, Deacon Jones' chiming organ riffs, and enough screaming six-string notes to satisfy any blues guitar fan. After such a white-hot rocker, Hooker slows down a bit with the acoustic "Hittin' The Bottle Again," a plaintive country-blues number that offers a strong vocal performance and Hooker wielding a mean National steel guitar.
A fellow blues legend, John Hammond, joins Hooker for the shuffling "Bottle Up And Go," providing guitar and a raging bit of harp on a decidedly Piedmont blues-styled raver. Harmonica wizard Charlie Musselwhite provides a powerful sonic backdrop to Hooker's stream-of-consciousness reading, his lonesome blasts of harp matched in intensity by sporadic shots from Hooker's guitar.
The reissued Boom Boom offers two very cool bonus tracks not included on the original 1992 album. The first, a blistering boogie-blues take on Hooker's 1956 hit "Dimples" features Mike Osborn's rattletrap guitar, and "Ain't No Love In This House," while played at a similar up-tempo, is looser, jazzier, and more reckless, benefiting from Billy Johnson's scorching fretwork and Mitch Woods subtle piano fills.
The Reverend's Bottom Line
Nobody does Hooker like Hooker, and this collection of modernized versions of ten classic John Lee songs is not without its charms. Although such high-profile guest stars as Charlie Musselwhite, Jimmie Vaughan, and Albert Collins definitely add a bit of their magic to the mix, it's Hooker that carries the show. Hooker is in fine form, and Roy Rogers' production is a little less polished and more invigorating than on the bluesman's previous "comeback" albums.
Boom Boom was originally released with an eye towards introducing the blues legend's new audience to some of his signature songs, and to that end it succeeded greatly. Sixteen years after its initial release, the album still sounds good...not as good as Hooker's blistering, brutal recordings of the 1940s and '50s...but good enough to prove that there was still a spark left in the old lion yet. (Shout! Factory, reissue released February 6, 2007)
