John Lee Hooker - The Best Of Friends (1998)

John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. He was born in Mississippi, the son of a sharecropper, and rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues. Hooker often incorporated other elements, including talking blues and early North Mississippi Hill country blues. He developed his own driving-rhythm boogie style, distinct from the 1930s–1940s piano-derived boogie-woogie style.
When John Lee Hooker recorded 1989's THE HEALER, it marked the beginning of the most successful period of his career. In the ensuing years, the Hook made a number of commercially and critically acclaimed records that found him playing alongside a host of legendary friends and admirers. THE BEST OF FRIENDS gathers together the cream of these collaborations in one place
John Lee Hooker's recordings for Virgin/Point Blank may have varied in quality, but never in formula. Once The Healer earned reams of praise and, more importantly, solid sales upon its 1989 release, it was pretty much set in stone that every future Hooker album would be painstakingly constructed and boast a plethora of superstar cameos.
The guest stars were designed to bring in a larger audience, who would hopefully be impressed enough to stick around for Hooker's solid stuff, which was usually better than the attention-grabbing, star-studded tracks. Of course, the names are what sold, and Virgin did not overlook that fact, choosing to assemble a collection of highlights titled The Best of Friends in 1998. The title refers to the superstar duets, and while this very well may be the best of those cuts well, almost all of the duets are here, including both the sublime ("I Cover the Waterfront," with Van Morrison) and the mediocre this stuff still isn't as good as Hooker's solo recordings from this era. Which means this disc is primarily for listeners who like to think they like Hooker, but they really just want to hear Eric Clapton wail away.

Track listing

01. "Boogie Chillen"  (John Lee Hooker) - 4:35 
        Featuring - Eric Clapton
02. "This Is Hip"  (Bernard Besman) - 3:23 
        Featuring - Ry Cooder
03. "The Healer"  (Carlos Santana, Chester Thompson, John Lee Hooker, Roy Rogers) - 5:37 
        Featuring - Carlos Santana
04. "I Cover The Waterfront"  (John Lee Hooker) - 6:39 
        Featuring - Van Morrison
05. "Boom Boom"  (John Lee Hooker) - 4:16 
        Featuring - Jimmy Vaughan
06. "I'm In The Mood"  (Bernard Besman) - 4:28 
        Featuring - Bonnie Raitt
07. "Burnin' Hell"  (Bernard Besman) - 4:59 
        Featuring - Ben Harper, Charlie Musselwhite
08. "Tupelo"  (John Lee Hooker) - 3:54 
09. "Baby Lee"  (James Bracken) - 3:43 
        Featuring - Robert  Cray
10. "Dimples"  (James Bracken) - 3:59 
        Featuring - Los Lobos
11. "Chill Out  (Things Gonna Change)"  (Carlos Santana, Chester Thompson) - 4:54 
        Featuring - Carlos Santana
12. "Big Legs Tight Skirt"  (John Lee Hooker) - 5:59 
        Featuring - Ike Turner, Ry Cooder
13. "Don't Look Back"  (John Lee Hooker) - 6:41 
        Featuring - Van Morrison

Credits
John Lee Hooker, Van Morrison - vocals, guitar
Bonnie Raitt - vocals, slide guitar
Eric Clapton, Ry Cooder, Carlos Santana, Jimmie Vaughan, Roy Rogers, Ben Harper, Robert Cray, David Hidalgo, Cesar Rosas, Danny Caron - guitar
Charlie Musselwhite, John "Juke" Logan - harmonica
Gil Bernal - tenor saxophone, background vocals
Steve Berlin - baritone saxophone
Eric Barber - bass saxophone
Johnnie Johnson, Ike Turner - piano
Booker T. Jones - organ
Chester Thompson - keyboards, synthesizer
Bill Payne, Jim Pugh, Charles Brown - keyboards
Reggie McBride, Nick Lowe, Maurice Cridlin, Richard Cousins, Juan Nelson, Conrad Lozano, Benny Rietveld, Samuel Taylor - bass
Jim Keltner, Scott Mathews, Kevin Hayes - drums
Engineers - Samuel Lehmer, Alan Sides, Jim Gaines.
Producers - John Porter, Roy Rogers, Ry Cooder, Carlos Santana, Van Morrison.
Art Direction, Design – Bruce Licher
Executive-Producer – Mike Kappus
Management [Representation] – Mike Kappus
Mastered By – David Bard, Hank Waring
Photography By – Herman Leonard

Companies, etc.
Phonographic Copyright (p) – Virgin Records America, Inc.
Copyright (c) – Virgin Records America, Inc.
Manufactured By – Virgin Records America, Inc.
Glass Mastered At – EMI MFG.
Edited At – Cherokee Studios
Mixed At – One On One Studios, Ocean Way Recording, The Plant Recording Studios, Sunset Sound Factory, Livingston Studios, Bernie Grundman Mastering
Mastered At – Quad Teck

Notes
Release Date: October 20, 1998
Recorded At – Ocean Way Recording, Russian Hill Recording, The Plant Recording Studios, Sunset Sound Factory
Length:  1:02:58
Genre:  Blues
© 1998

Label - Blue Label