What? The excellent I Ain't Got Nobody is not even from Hooker? (Isn’t it listed as Hook’s Boogie in the aforementioned reference discography?)
To my ears it doesn't sound a thing like JLH. The studio ambiance doesn't match any of the other tracks too. You'll definitely hear the difference when you compare them!
Are you saying to avoid the AutoRip? And of course, who wouldn't... I will say that the the best CD version I have heard of this release is the P-Vine Japanese 24 bit mini sleeve that was released in 2005. Sounds wonderful. I got this and 6 other titles from this series that came out in 2005 and 2006. The other titles were, Burnin', The Folk Lore, The Big Soul, Travelin" Concert At Newport, and On Campus. All of these titles sound great and are not very easy to find. I got them from a friend that owned a local shop that was Japanese and he would go back to Japan and bring back harder to find tiles from time to time.
I got the CD from Amazon.uk. The sound is atrocious. Distortion all through the CD. They refunded me. It's the 2017 Pickwick/Hallmark CD. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Im-John-Le...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=Z7YWJ94PQDACZGZZJ8S8
Well that explains it and thanks for clarifying! Did not know Pickwick was still putting out their great sounding CD's...joking of course. At least no harm done on your part except you had to listen to an incredible album done bad.
Get the 78s! Modern, Chess, Deluxe, Gotham, whatever, you can’t go wrong. I’ve got six, including Pouring Down Rain, Madman Blues, Ride til I Die, and theyre all monsters. Yes, sport, their full of crackles, but it only enhances the power of those grooves. Otherwise, for the full glory of his 1948-1954 years, go with the six French-Origin 4-Cd sets. Sound varies, but it’s as good as you typically find and it doesn’t get any more comprehensive. As for VeeJay, there’s the Charly box set. Sound again is good but not always, but you get everything, even the stuff with the Vandellas (It’s a heat wave, Johnny!)
Got to listen to 'Don't Turn Me From Your Door" again yesterday. Paid close attention to the songs "Misbelieving Baby" and "I Ain't Got Nobody". No doubt there sounds like there might be another artist on these songs, but to me, it still sounds like JLH is on them as well. Respect your theory as it makes sense, but still think "The Hook" is there also...both these songs are good, but not the standouts like the vocal tracks. Back to the sound quality on this MOV release. Sounded even better the second time around with any surface noise from before, completely gone. For the type of release this is, a very nice job indeed! And of course, glorious Mono!
Do you have the ability to needledrop any of your 78s? I'd love to hear them to compare to the CD versions! The French sets on Body & Soul were actually my original impetus behind this thread. I have managed to upgrade nearly all the tracks on them with better sounding copies (without the typical noise reduction and weird EQ that ruins so many of the tracks)
A follow up to the Specialty recordings, I discovered that there was a 1992 release on the Japanese P-Vine label titled "Alone: The Specialty Sessions 1948-54" which contains a number of interesting things... Firstly, almost all of the Besman recorded tracks (the entirety of Graveyard Blues and the first 8 tracks of Everybody's Blues) are presented here in the same transfers and mastering, but many of them have slightly longer fades, indicating they came from the same digital transfer but are not simply cloned from the US Specialty CDs. Nothing of real musical value in those fades but they're longer nonetheless. The interesting part comes in the second half of disc 2, where instead of the lovely master tape sound of the US "Everybody's Blues", the 1954 Specialty studio tracks are presented in a hodge-podge of different sources, some from needledrops (I'm Mad is from a worn 78!) and some from master tapes, but different transfers to the US CD. The real gems are two alternate takes of "I Been Done So Wrong" and an otherwise completely unreleased in the US track "I Do Like I Please"! One of the alternate takes and the unreleased song previously only appeared on a 1973 re-channeled stereo Specialty compilation in the UK titled "Hooker, Hopkins & Hogg". ("I Do Like I Please" does appear on the French Body & Soul Vol. 6 public domain release, in a very horribly NR'd needledrop from this LP.) Luckily these three otherwise unavailable tracks are in great mono sound on the Japanese CD and don't appear to be needledrops.
All good, thankyou very much for your input though Just a question on your Mad Man Blues Chess 78, what is the matrix on that one? Does the B-side have the intro? Is it dry or with reverb?
It’s U-60, under John Lee Booker. No intro and as scratched up as it is, I’ve got no idea how dry it is. All those early Hookers sounded like they were recorded in Bernie’s basement.
I am sure most are aware here, but wanted to call out the JLH 2018 RSD title "Black Night Is Falling" (Live At The Rising Sun Celebrity Jazz Club) 5/5/77. This is well worth picking up, especially if a fan of his electric performances with a band. The vinyl is pressed nice and very good sound for this type of release. Nice song selection and just a really fun live Blues album on vinyl! Side 1 Chicken and Gravy 6:34 It Serves Me Right To Suffer 5:47 Boom Boom 5:30 Side 2 Black Night Is Falling 8:07 One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer 5:13 One Room Country Shack 7:08 Got my copy on RSD for $21, but I noticed today that Discogs has copies for $14 plus shipping...
Cheers! Apparently the first pressing of that 78 uses the same stampers as the impossibly rare Gone label release, and the later Chess recut omits the intro to Hey Boogie (which is now present on the CD re-releases)
Would you happen to know how the 2012 remaster (8122 79701 4) compares to the original 1992 CD (7567 82365 2)?
Dynamically and NR wise, they're pretty much identical. It really just sounds like they played back the 1992 digital master and EQ'd in a little more high and low end. Go for the original CD for authenticity, it sounds awesome.
So finally, down to the King sides! As many of you will know, these almost invariably turn up on CD absolutely smothered in various levels of reverb, making the already poor sounding recordings sound even worse (the Collectables disc adds another layer of NR to the proceedings making them pretty much unlistenable. You can pretty much avoid any King/Gusto/Charly release of these tracks, but unfortunately two of the worst discs are actually essential!!) For the original 16 King sides, as originally released there are only a few options. The easiest way to get all of them sans reverb and overdubs is the 4 disc 2002 JSP box: Not the greatest mastering as there is a little bit of filtering, but overall this is a great value box which usually finds the best sounding versions of many tracks. Notably this is the only CD where "Thinking Blues" and "Don't You Remember Me" are free from reverb. (There is a recent Japanese Mini LP release of the King "Sings Blues" LP which has almost all of the King sides without reverb, but this has simply been cloned and remastered from the JSP box) Most of the reverb free tracks on the JSP box are taken from the 2000 semi-legal release Boogie Chillen on on the Zircon Bleu label Not a bad little collection for a few bucks but nothing overly essential. Most of the Besman sides here are just Ace masters with extra (tasteful) processing and cleanup. The original source for pretty much all of the King sides these CDs is actually a needledrop of a 1973 UK Polydor release called Slim's Stomp, put together by Dave Sax using his original King 78s (and possibly one master acetate, "Heart Trouble" which sounds a little better than the rest) Upon hearing a copy of the LP, you can tell just how much noise and high end was filtered off the CDs. It's not an audiophile experience by any means, but it's the best sounding copy of these sides, beyond the original 78s (I've been told that only one of the original master lacquers still exists, which would be nice to hear one day) So what about the awful but essential King CDs mentioned earlier? They're not essential for any of the original 16 King sides from 1949, but actually for a 1953 session for DeLuxe that King/Gusto now own. The Very Best Of John Lee Hooker on Collectables from 2002 contains a bunch of terribly mastered and annotated King sides. Lots of NR and very inconsistently applied. However it has the three songs from the 1953 DeLuxe session from the master tapes for the very first time since the original release ("I'm The Boogie Man" and "I Came to See You Baby" were on the original issue of Krazy Kat's "Boogie Awhile" CD, but dubbed from 78), and one of the songs was previously unreleased! ("My Baby Left Me") Luckily the NR was completely avoided for these songs, so they sound great (these three tracks also feature on the Varese Vintage release I'm A Boogie Man: The Essential Masters 48-53, which has two dry King sides as well, but they have simply been cloned from the Collectables CD and NR'd) Sounds good right? You just need that one CD? Nope. In the infinite wisdom of the mastering engineer who did the Collectables CD, he decided the vocal was too dry on "I'm The Boogie Man" so some very non-50's sounding echo was added to the track. God damn it. By some stroke of luck though, Gusto (who own the King catalog and licensed it to Collectables) put out a "gas station $3 special" CD of essentially pirated godawful needledrops of VeeJay recordings called "John Lee Hooker Gets Into The Blues", with terrible bargain bin artwork to boot: And guess what? The last track on the CD is the dry master tape of "I'm The Boogie Man", sounding as good as the day it was cut. "Nightmare Blues"? More like nightmare catalog!
Has anyone heard these yet. John Lee Hooker - Early Recordings: Detroit and Beyond Vol. 1 & Vol. 2 From third man web: TMR-511 John Lee Hooker - Early Recordings: Detroit and Beyond Vol. 1 Third Man is ecstatic to present the first re-issue of John Lee Hooker's seminal and rare Detroit and Beyond recordings on vinyl since their initial release in 1973. These tracks have been heralded by many fans as his best overall collection of recordings as well as his some of his earliest, apart from the 6 recorded by Bernie Besman in 1961. Split between two double-LP volumes and remastered using original master recordings from Detroit's legendary United Sound Systems (not even 2 miles from Third Man Detroit!), these collections are a must for blues and music lovers. Volume 1 includes the killer track "Johnny Lee's Original Boogie (Boogie Chillen)." Black vinyl available everywhere. Limited edition available at Third Man Records' Nashville and Detroit storefronts.
Curious if anyone’s compared the original double LP “Mad Man Blues” comp (1973) with the reissue (1984). Looks like they’ve got different masterings.