So, I am stupidly undertaking the gigantic task of figuring out where the best sounding Hooker can be found on CD and vinyl (78 transfers would be better than some of the CDs, but would easily break the bank just buying a few of the rarer sides) This will not be chronological, more like a "where to find X session in the best quality", and what to avoid. Many thanks to Claus Röhnisch and his huge sessionography pdf which can be found here: The great R&B-files by Claus Röhnisch (But which doesn't cover sound quality concerns for the most part) Hopefully this will help out existing fans and newbies looking for some JLH alike!
First off, the 1948-49 Savoy and related sessions. This release covers everything you need in one tidy place, but there are a few sound quality concerns. The first 7 tracks have been filtered with some sort of awful sounding primitive noise reduction software, making them sound like bad mp3s, and giving very weird spectral graphs with all of the high end sort of "cut out" of the gaps: (Top is what the spectral should look like, and bottom is what's on the CD) Luckily, all of these first 7 tracks can be found on the 1981 Savoy 2-LP set "Southern Blues" from the same masters used for the Savoy CD, but without the processing. The tracks are still quite noisy (unfortunately they're the only sources that exist for those tracks) but are much more listenable without the NR. Apart from that, there are a few easily removable digital clicks and artifacts throughout the CD, but nothing major. Everything past track 7 represents probably the best transfers available of the source material (some of it also appears on the 1990 Krazy Kat "Boogie Awhile" rarities comp, but in much noisier transfers) The Savoy CD is however quite brightly mastered, so turn down the treble a little on your receiver! A essential set for some of those early pseudonym recordings, Goin Mad is an especially good track, one of his best raw blues sides.
For the fascinating 1949 private home recordings (actually recorded in 1951 but changed to avoid the 50 year public domain limit in the UK), the common version of the CD here: ....was unfortunately remastered by the dreaded Jon Astley, and basically takes the original Flyright label release and adds a layer of awful sounding NR making Hooker's guitar sound underwater and adding lots of irritating artifacts to the proceedings, while also removing Dave Sax's great liner notes. It is well worth tracking down a copy of the original release on the Flyright label if you're a fan of this CD! The original edition is free of the intrusive processing and sounds great! A little more hiss never killed anyone Also note that track 19 on both CDs runs about 10% too slow, so drop it into an audio editor and speed it up.
The Krazy Kat CD "Boogie Awhile" has rough sound, but is well programmed, has great liner notes, and is one of my favorite Hooker collections. My favorite collection of early material is the 3 CD Capitol set from the 1990s "Alternative Boogie: Early Studio Recordings, 1948-1952". Great material and sound. One of the best sounding is the DCC "40th Anniversary Album", many essential Bessman tracks with our host's input (but that oddball Abraham Lincoln track at the end always throws me). Some of this is duplicated on the good Ace/Flair CD "The Legendary Modern Recordings", but the DCC has the best sound and the non overdubbed I'm in the Mood so you don't have to deal with the annoying 'Hooker singing with two other Hookers' gimmick of the original issue. Add "Graveyard Blues" on Specialty (with some great early sides in good sound, some duplicated on the Capitol - or seek out the 2 Specialty LPs from the 1970s that were my first Hooker purchases) and you have the best of his early material. "I'm a Boogie Man - the essential Masters (1948-53)" on the Varese label has some interesting early Von Battle sides including the great "Black Man Blues". Rough sound, but better than other releases of this material with added echo and overdubbed drums.
I'll be investigating this one soon, along with the companion 2-LP set that came out at the same time with extra tracks. Believe it or not, all of those tracks sound much better on the original United Artists LP releases from the early 70s. The Capitol set has a lot of unnecessary noise reduction thanks to Bob Norberg. Both the DCC and the UK equivalent "The Detroit Lion" (digitally identical) are essential, amazing sound quality! Either can be had for under $10! If you have "Graveyard Blues" and "Everybody's Blues" on Specialty that covers all of the material from the 70s LPs. Great stuff on there! Unfortunately the Varese CD still has a lot of added reverb, but at least it doesn't have the overdubbed drums. There's a little bit of NR on this one too, still looking for the best source for the King sides.
On the King sides, see if there's a cheapie King CD from Gusto Records. That would likely be the least sonically invasive option.
That would have the overdubbed drums and echo, better off with the NR and echo without the drums on the Varese.
Thanks for the info on the UA LPs, those were long OOP in the 80s when I started buying Hooker, so the Capitol CD set was very welcome when it appeared and I had nothing to compare. "Everybody's Blues" actually adds some tracks that weren't on the LPs, so if you have those two CDs you get all the LP material plus bonus tracks from the mid 50s. I guess there is no perfect option for the King sides.
Some info on the Specialty issued recordings: The two Specialty LPs from the early 70s, consisting of either unreleased or Sensation label issued Bernie Besman recordings were both very nicely reissued in the early 90s as "Graveyard Blues" and "Everybody's Blues", along with almost all of the later 1954 Specialty sessions (from master tape!) as a bonus on "Everybody's Blues". The sound on those two CDs is excellent, no NR or compression nasties to be heard. Many of the Besman sides were excellently transferred from the original recording lacquers back in 1970 (by no less than Dr Demento himself) and still sound excellent. One or two of the tape recorded sides ended up on the DCC 40th Anniversary CD (UK release: The Detroit Lion) where they sound slightly better, being direct from the session master rather than from the Specialty compiled reels. These two were also released in the UK on the Ace label, I haven't heard the Ace issues to compare sound quality wise but most likely they would just be digital clones of the US Specialty CDs.I have a 2000s EU pressed reissue of "Everybody's Blues" and it's identical to the 90s US CD at least, so you shouldn't worry which version you buy. If you have both of the Specialty CDs, this compilation on Ace is completely superfluous. Not only that, some extra mastering is applied (the high end has been cut a little to reduce hiss, and the tracks have been folded to digital mono) so the Specialty CDs are closer to what the actual masters sound like.
Now I'm not sure if this title was "remastered" at one point, but it's well worth avoiding this sack of crap on Capitol Special Products: My issue has both 1991 and 2001 dates and it has some of the worst noise reduction I've ever heard on a major label. One track is filtered so hard there's nothing over 8k. Does anyone have the original 1991 issue to compare?
A little bit of audio nerdery here, the fantastic stomping track from late 1953 "Gotta Boogie" (aka Gonna Boogie) has always had the first note clipped off on CD issues (I'm guessing that a tape editor got a bit rambunctious before @Steve Hoffman got to the tapes in 1991!) so I've gone about restoring it with the best existing sources. Here's a 30 second clip showing the different stages: 1. The master tape as it exists with the clipped intro, directly from Steve's Mainstream CD 2. Boppin Bob Jone's 1993 attempt at repairing the intro for Ace (note he just replaced the first note with one from later in the intro) 3. a straight dub of the intro from the 1962 Crown LP "Folk Blues" 4. the same intro, speed corrected, EQ'd and leveled to match the master tape 5. the fully restored intro Very hard to spot!
Picking up the 2018 Music On Vinyl, Mono vinyl of "Don't Turn Me From Your Door" today from my local shop. Looking forward to this...will give feedback on the sound after a couple of listens...
Please do. This is my favorite Hooker, and I had no idea this MOV reissue even existed until you posted this. Thanks!
Got to enjoy this gem last night. For anyone that might not be totally familiar with this release, it originally came out in 1963, with the songs recorded in 1953 and 1961 (please correct me if I got the years wrong). Of course these were mono recordings. This is just raw JLH with his guitar (mostly electric) and his amazing voice. He always claimed he was at his best and most comfortable performing by himself. There are none of his hits (so to speak) on this album, but what we get is one of the most awesome Blues albums ever made! Check out "Stutterin" Blues" and hear where Townshend got the idea for the vocal stutter on My Generation no doubt. The sound - MOV did a fantastic job with this. 180G and wonderful Mono! The sound is excellent and appears to be an analog source with digital transfer. Do not know for sure though. Vinyl pressed flat and quiet with the music sounding rich as can be, get in your sweet spot and you might get to say hello. Highly recommended and make sure you get the 2018 MOV version, not the Friday Music one. This is a must own for fans of his work and any true Blues fan for that matter! Can't wait for another listen later today!
I highly suspect that the two fully instrumental numbers on the album are not John Lee Hooker, they don’t sound like his style at all. My theory is that when the Henry Stone DeLuxe masters were sold to Atlantic, the master for the actual JLH songs with those titles wasn’t delivered so someone decided to “replace” those two songs. The actual missing songs are included at the end of the Atlantic CD, unfortunately in needledrop form (but still sounding excellent luckily)
They did sound a tad different and will go back and listen very close today...I wonder why there are no credits...
Awesome! By the way that "Garcia album photo" is classic. That album is a masterpiece and I just found a like new original vinyl copy a few months back. Firing up some JLH very soon!
