There was a member who ran a "Top Album Of All Time Poll" in 2018: Top Album Of All Time Poll: RESULTS! Haven't seen him on the forum lately. Anyway, the point is, it can be done. Not by me, 'cause I'm still not retired. Not surprisingly, the top 10 had 4 albums by The Beatles, 2 by The Rolling Stones, 2 by Pink Floyd and 1 each by The Who and The Beach Boys.
I love her first three records but she starts to lose me around the time of Blue. I've heard a few albums since and found them very hard work.
Joni, "Help Me" I love that prairie girl, but this is not a favorite of mine. There are things about the vocal inflection that annoy me, even though I think they fit the sort of attempted emotional avoidance that's part of what the song is about. In my personal 500 there would be some Joni, just not this one. Also going from working with Tom Scott to working with Jaco et al was a massive step up. here she is in a backyard in Saskatoon, I think that might be a '58 Biscayne behind her friend.
For me, especially since I'm listening to the entire album when we're doing these, ideally more than once, and basically reviewing the album, too, it's worth not having a chore of doing two albums per day (one for the song list, one for the album list) that aren't on my usual listening rotation. As I mentioned in the album list, I was hoping that could go to every other day, too. No matter how well I know something already, I don't like reviewing, ranking, etc. unless I've just listened to it again, and unless I'm listening to it as I write, too. Really I like to (re)listen to something more than once for that. I don't like to just go by memory and not the actual experience of it. I like to seriously think about it, and in a more critical way than I would normally think about it. I'm also reading a bit about the stuff we're covering, which is something I haven't routinely done for a long time. Usually I just put on music and enjoy it while I'm getting other stuff done. This is the reason, by the way, that I don't post comments most of the time when I post albums, etc. in the yearly threads. Plus I'm trying to get a bit ahead, because I've got some travel ahead of me. It's easier if I can do these when I'm at home. So while at home, I'm trying to do twice as much as I need to when I have the time available (1 album per day for the song thread, 2 albums per day for the album threads). That should enable me to not have to worry about it when I'm traveling/not have to catch up when I get back (at least with respect to writing; with some travel I may have to wait until I get back to post my comments). That's eating a lot into time I usually use for other things, including my own listening rotation. But I don't want to just give up on either thread because it's too much like a chore rather than something I'm enjoying doing. So while I'm running the thread, we're doing a song every other day. I wish the album thread would do the same thing. If you have limited time left to live or something then you'll just have to get as much enjoyment out of this as you can while you're still alive. Otherwise there's really no reason to be in a hurry.
RS #463 "Boom Boom" - John Lee Hooker (1962) Written by John Lee Hooker Per Rolling Stone: Hooker, whose canny blues boogie became a root integer for early rock & roll, said this swinging, swaggering bit of primal thump was inspired by his inability to get to a regular gig on time. “There was a young lady named Luilla,” Hooker said. “She was a bartender [at the Apex Bar in Detroit]. I’d always be late, and whenever I’d come in she’d point at me and say, ‘Boom Boom, you’re late again.’ One night she said, ‘Boom boom, I’m gonna shoot you down.’ She gave me a song, but she didn’t know it.” Keith Richards said of Hooker, “Even Muddy Waters was sophisticated next to him.” That was a compliment. "Boom Boom" reached #60 on the main Billboard chart and #14 on the Billboard R&B chart.
RS #463 John Lee Hooker – “Boom Boom” [from Burnin’] As with Howlin’ Wolf’s Moanin’ in the Moonlight on the album list, not only is John Lee Hooker one of my top 5 blues artists (I don’t know exactly what my ranking would be . . . though as I noted, Howlin’ Wolf might very well be my #1), but “Boom Boom” gets major nostalgia points from me, too, courtesy of my dad. As I wrote in the other thread, blues is one of my dad’s favorite genres. John Lee Hooker is also one of his favorite artists. “His top two artists overall are probably Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis, though, where I’m not sure of the order, and he probably isn’t either . . . My dad is primarily a “roots music” guy, also including country, early rock & roll, doo-wop, r&b, soul, rockabilly, etc.—and his tastes in later music remain pretty closely tied to artists continuing in those traditions or at least very strongly influenced by them. My dad’s tastes were one of about four or five big influences on my own tastes—I’m a weirdo who never really rebelled against his parents. My parents are too hip and libertine/freewheeling for that, and they’ve always been as much like best friends as they were like parents.” Re ”Boom Boom” specifically, it’s one of the first tunes I was aware of, one of the first things cemented in my brain as a kid. My dad plays albums often enough, but he’s really into jukeboxes, and “Boom Boom” was played very often on our jukeboxes when I was a little kid. The Burnin’ album was also frequently spun. “Boom Boom” is so attractively jaunty—it almost makes you want to just bounce along with it, with a feel that’s as much swing as blues(/r&b/rock). The call and response structure is fun. There’s a great combo of looseness/precision, simplicity/complexity--mostly textural complexity due to the number of instruments and the somewhat contrapuntal variety of their details. Hooker’s vocal delivery has an understated, cool blend that ranges from smooth to gruff. The rest of the Burnin’ album is excellent, too, but “Boom Boom” is probably still my favorite track on it. Hooker is a 2nd tier, top 51-250 artist for me. My top 15 songs from the list so far: 1. “Help Me” – Joni Mitchell 2. “Solsbury Hill” – Peter Gabriel 3. “Move On Up” – Curtis Mayfield 4. “Midnight Train to Georgia” – Gladys Knight & the Pips 5. “Boom Boom” – John Lee Hooker 6. "Time After Time" - Cyndi Lauper 7. “Rhythm Nation” – Janet Jackson 8. “Never Too Much” – Luther Vandross 9. "Without You" – Nilsson 10. "You're So Vain" - Carly Simon 11. “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)” – Four Tops 12. “House of the Rising Sun” – The Animals 13. “Come as You Are” - Nirvana 14. “Oye Como Va” - Santana 15. "Baby Love" – Supremes
“Boom Boom” 3/5 – Classic song, but another blues tune that doesn’t resonate with me. Top 10: 1. Help Me – Joni Mitchell 2. Midnight Train To Georgia – Gladys Knight & The Pips 3. Cannonball - Breeders 4. The House Of The Rising Sun - Animals 5. Our Lips Are Sealed – Go-Go’s 6. You're So Vain - Carly Simon 7. Move On Up – Curtis Mayfield 8. Get Lucky – Daft Punk 9. Oye Como Va - Santana 10. I Can’t Help Myself – Four Tops
Not sure, but it might be the same friend that sometimes acts as a go-between for Joni in negotiations with the city, etc. Apparently getting the two plaques done pretty much was akin to the invasion of Normandy.
"Boom. Boom" is great. Long ago my late brother and I taught our baby brother to do a John Lee Hooker imitation - we thought it was the funniest thing in the world for him to toddle around the house going 'How how how how'.
"Boom Boom" Color me surprised. I've heard this before, but for some reason I thought that this was a different song than what it is. In 1979, the Pat Travers Band had a minor hit with a live cover of a song called "Boom Boom (Out Go the Lights)," which I thought was this song, but the Travers song was originally by Little Walter. The Animals released a cover of the Hooker song as their fourth American single in early 1965. It's said that virtually every British band inspired more by the blues than by rock 'n' roll and pop had "Boom Boom" in its repertoire. A later hit that sounds as if it was inspired by "Boom Boom" is "Treat Her Right" by Roy Head (1965) ... "Boom Boom" was Hooker's only hit on the pop charts. He had nine R&B chart hits, including two #1s, but most of those were in the years 1949 through 1951. "Boom Boom" was the last. John Lee Hooker had a much longer career than I realized. I knew of him mostly from the 1950s and 1960s, but he was still alive into the 21st Century (he died in 2001). In the late 1940s, he signed a horrible contract with the Bihari brothers at Modern Records, so whenever someone would pay him upfront, he would record under pseudonyms. Some of them were not particularly creative; for example, he made records as John Lee Booker and John Lee Cooker. Others were marginally better, like John Lee and Johnny Lee. Better still were Birmingham Sam and Texas Slim. He was from the same part of the U.S. as Robert Johnson, but Hooker's "Boom Boom" is light-years away from "Cross Road Blues." I guess it's still technically a 12-bar blues musically, but it sure isn't lyrically. As for me, I like "Boom Boom" but don't love it. It's another song, like the Luther Vandross song most recently, that's in the great middle. I doubt I'd include it on a future volume of A Few of My Favorite Things.
RS #463 "Boom Boom" - John Lee Hooker John Lee Hooker was the first blues artist I became acquainted with back in the day and he still is one of my favorites. Just great blues with a certain pop sensibility. 4/5 and enters my list just below Robert Johnson. 1. Pixies - Where Is My Mind? 2. Carly Simon - You're So Vain 3. Peter Gabriel - Solsbury Hill 4. Joni Mitchell - Help Me 5. The House Of The Rising Sun - The Animals 6. Breeders - Cannonball 7. Supremes - Baby Love 8. The Go-Gos - Our Lips Are Sealed 9. Four Tops - I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch) 10. Robert Johnson - Cross Road Blues 11. John Lee Hooker - "Boom Boom" 12. Daft Punk ft. Pharrell Williams - Get Lucky 13. Cyndi Lauper - Time After Time 14. Santana - Oye Como Va 15. Nirvana - Come As You Are 16. Curtis Mayfield - Move On Up 17. Weezer - Buddy Holly 18. Nilsson - Without You 19. Biz Markie - Just A Friend 20. Kanye West - Stronger
My next door neighbour called me a real looker the other day. Well, voyeur was the actual word she used.
There are two plaques in the Saskatoon ('the Paris of the Prairies'), one in front of where the coffee house where Joni played her first real gig and the other in a park by the river near the new art gallery. I've seen them both when I was in S'toon to visit family. Apparently the negotiations between Joni and the city got a little complicated. She's always come back to see her parents and others, but she's also referred to Saskatoon as "a racist little town/city", which didn't sit too well with some of the residents. And she's right, it is still racist (if not as overtly) but not that little anymore, but it has changed in any number of ways since she grew up there. SK is hard to explain if you haven't lived in Canada.
Boom Boom sounds pretty cool and it's certainly competent; the instruments hang together much better than I might have suspected. While I don't really find the song particularly interesting, it's not significantly different from a bunch of '60s British Invasion stuff (Tobacco Road by the Nashville Teens comes to mind, and that's a song I like a lot more now than I did then). Blues of any sort is far from my favourite style of music, but I like Boom Boom a notch above "lukewarm". It's not the sort of song I'd go back to very often though. Edit: to try to reduce the record number of words and phrases like "but", "although" and "on the other hand" in the original I like this description too!
“Boom Boom” is probably more influential than I realize, but I like the things it influenced more than the thing itself. I can imagine “Boom Boom” sounding very radical in 1962
Boom Boom (John Lee Hooker) Obviously very influential, particularly to the British bands of the 60's. As a song all its own, it is pretty basic and there are a lot of other blues songs I'd put in the same category as this. I'm OK with this being in the top 500. I don't think it would be in mine, but expand it to 1000 (and put a limit on number of songs by each artist) and I could see it getting in there. (3/5) My List: 1. House Of The Rising Sun-The Animals 2. You're So Vain - Carly Simon 3. Buddy Holly-Weezer 4. Cannonball-Breeders 5. Help Me-Joni Mitchell 6. Get Lucky-Daft Punk ft. Pharell Williams 7. I Can't Help Myself-Four Tops 8. Move On Up-Curtis Mayfield 9. Oy Como Va-Santana 10. Baby Love - Supremes 11. Without You - Nilsson 12. Fade Into You-Mazzy Star 13. Come As You Are-Nirvana 14. Our Lips Are Sealed-Go Go's 15. Midnight Train To Georgia-Gladys Knight & Pips 16. Sunday Morning Coming Down-Kris Krisofferson 17. Cross Road Blues-Robert Johnson 18. Solsbury Hill-Peter Gabriel 19. Goodbye Earl-The Chicks 20. Boom Boom-John Lee Hooker 21. Pancho And Lefty-Townes Van Zandt 22. Time After Time - Cyndi Lauper 23. So What-Miles Davis 24. Stand By Your Man-Tammy Wynette 25. Never Too Much-Luthor Vandross 26. Just A Friend-Biz Markie 27. Bad Romance-Lady Gaga 28. Rhythm Nation-Janet Jackson 29. 212-Azelia Banks 30. Cranes In The Sky -Solange 31.Where Is My Mind?-Pixies 32. Welcome To The Jungle-Guns N' Roses 33. Old Town Road-Lil Naz 34. Truth Hurts-Lizzo 35. House Of Balloons-The Weeknd 36. Stronger-Kayne West 37. Back That Azz Up-Juvenile 38. A Milli-Lil Wayne Two in a row that I would definitely have in my top 500!!!! Once I get to a top 40 I'm going to drop the bottom songs if a new song places higher. I'm looking forward to dumping some of these stinkers at the bottom of my list! Only #1-#6 are definite top 500 with 7-19 contenders were I making my own list. #29-#38 would not even be considered for my top 50,000 songs! The countdown is getting better. At one point over half the songs were ones I disliked. Now it is down to less than 1/3 of the songs being stinkers. I hope that percentage continues to dwindle as the countdown moves on! And now over half the songs are ones I would consider worthy of potential inclusion in a top 500. Hope that percentage continues to go upward!
