John Lee Hooker – Black Night Is Falling

When this popped up in the blues bin, I admit I was a little hesitant because here was a John Lee Hooker record I’d never heard of before, and a live performance at that, on a record label I’d never heard of before – so it was just a guess as to what the quality might be. But last Christmas (2023) I was looking around for just one more thing to give my wife, and adhering to her “just buy it” rule when it comes to JLH, I just bought it.

It turns out to be a really good live performance from 1977, and I hadn’t heard of the record or the label because, like the performance, it’s from Montreal. Originally released only on CD in Canada in 1994, this RSD release from 2019

The band was unfamiliar to me – John Garcia on guitar, Steve Jones on bass, and Larry “Wild Man” Martin on drums – and that contributed to my hesitancy – but they work pretty well with JLH on this performance, which is mostly nice long rambles through familiar JLH songs. It is ultimately only 7 songs on four sides, to which I must ask, “why?” I mean, yes, it would not have been possible to include a 17:28 version of “Rock Steady” without going to a double album – granted. But then the fourth side is three “remixes” of “Rock Steady.”

I am old, but I did come from the early days of “remixes,” from the ’80s when nearly every song I loved also came out in 12″ single versions with dubs and remixes tacked on. What I say here represents my opinion. I appreciate nearly every kind of musical endeavor, any time anyone puts themselves out there and tries to do anything – even if it’s not my thing, I appreciate and applaud it.

But:

You are not going to improve a John Lee Hooker boogie by adding your drum loops to it. You are not going to make it more interesting, you are not going to make it more listenable. You are not going to do anything but make for a fourth side that never needed to exist, and that makes me slightly angry if ever I forget that’s all that’s on the fourth side and accidentally flip it over expecting more John Lee Hooker goodness.

Otherwise, this gets a lot of plays around here.