Live At The Cafe Au (Live At Cafe Au-Go-Go/1966)

Chronique

Hooker's appearance on the same bill with Muddy Waters at this trendy mid-'60s nightclub pressed Waters and his band into service as John Lees backup band of the evening. Of course, Waters' brand of blues was far more developed structurally compared to Hooker's droning monochord style, and the perpetual stylistic clash is what largely fuels this 1966 live session, the audio equivalent of the recalcitrant child being dragged by the scruff of their neck. The musical glue that keeps the lid on throughout the performance is Otis Spann's piano. Providing spot-on fills when Hooker frequently ignores the next logical chord change while simultaneously steering the three-electric-guitar attack of the band (Waters, Sammy Lawhorn, and Luther "Snake Boy" Johnson) back into John Lee Hooker land when the Boogie Man goes off on another errant rhythmic or structural bent, Spann makes this session very special. "I'm Bad Like Jesse James" (originally "I'm Mad Again") takes the original storyline from the Vee-Jay version and amps up the foreboding violence level to a nasty degree. The patented Hooker boogie gets trotted out for "She's Long, She's Tall (She Weeps Like a Willow Tree)," and the Waters' band ropes him in to almost conform to standard 12-bar changes, even though he never changes the one-chord pattern on his guitar. Two slow blues, "When My First Wife Left Me" and "Heartaches and Misery" (the last sporting a slide guitar solo from Muddy), both keep the band largely reeled into a monochord pattern, but Hooker's vocals are so impassioned it's a minor concern. A romping "One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer" is next up, followed by three slow ones in a row, "I Don't Want No Trouble," "I'll Never Get Out of These Blues Alive," and "Seven Days," all full of the anger and longing that mark his best work and putting a fitting capper to a historic blues summit. As an added bonus, the compact disc reissue adds the five tracks Hooker sang on from his 1972 Live at Soledad Prison album, deleting the two tracks featuring John Lee Hooker, Jr. on lead vocals from the original issue. This set finds John Lee firmly in his "endless boogie" mode, getting red-hot support from Luther Tucker and Charlie Grimes on guitar and a rhythm section that seems content to keep the groove solid and steady. Two excellent slow blues (the opening "What's the Matter Baby" and "Serve Me Right to Suffer") break up the boogies, with the lengthy "Lucille" sporting a fine solo from Tucker. "Boogie Everywhere I Go" features John Lee, Jr. on second vocals and crowd haranguing, while "Bang Bang Bang Bang" is nothing more than a retitled "Boom Boom" that builds up a fine head of steam until the prison officials literally pull the plug on Hooker and the band, ending the song and the concert. An odd ending to a live album, but perhaps the most fitting and realistic one of all time, given the location.
© Cub Koda /TiVo