Record of the Day: John Lee Hooker, “That’s My Story”

John Lee Hooker, “That’s My Story” (Cd Riverside 000252180)

If you are a blues fan it is useless to talk to you about this album, since you will probably have already worn it out through listening; if you don’t know this musical genre well then get this work without hesitation, the work of one of the most illustrious bluesmen in history, whose career lasting over forty years was a model of artistic coherence and determination in tackling different stylistic trends who have followed one another over the years, always remaining rigorously faithful to their own poetics made up of sparse phrases where each note acquires a significant specific weight.

Often relying solely on his unmistakable voice and guitar, John Lee Hooker managed to distill the very essence of the blues, giving us immortal pages where most of the time we remain anchored to a single key for the entire song; this harmonic static nature is transformed by Hooker into a true musical transcendence, where every superfluous detail is discarded to reach the very heart of the music, drawing on expressive depths unattainable for other musicians perhaps more technically skilled than him. When Hooker sings “Boogie Chillin'” setting fire to the powder there is no need for any rhythm section, the performance is enthralling like few others and when he tells us his autobiography compressed into a few minutes in the song “That’s My Story”, even the silence seems to vibrate in front of those few chords slowly torn with the fingers from the guitar, almost forcibly extracted from the darkest areas of one’s soul.

This album is from 1960 and is recorded mostly alone with the exception of three songs which feature the great jazz musicians Sam Jones on double bass and Louis Hayes on drums; but it is Hooker who dominates everything with his deep voice, which can be at times nostalgic (“I Believe I’ll Go Back Home”), threatening (“Gonna Use My Rod”), ruthless (“I Need Some Money”), full of desperation (“Wednesday Evenin’ Blues”), indignant and caustic as she paints a vitriolic portrait of a politician in “Democrat Man”.

Every nuance of the soul is explored by Hooker with confidence, through the gaze of a man who has seen many and no longer seems to be amazed by the various characters in this perennial human saraband.

Carlo Boccadoro, composer and conductor, was born in Macerata in 1963. He lives and works in Milan. He collaborates with soloists and orchestras in different parts of the world. He is the author of numerous books on musical topics.

This text is taken from “Lunario della musica: A record for every day of the year” published by Einaudi, courtesy of the author and the publisher.