John Lee Hooker: “Alone: Live At Hunter College 1976” (2023) Vinyl Review

John Lee Hooker was one of the best, no question about it. He started recording music in the late 1940s, and continued through the late 1990s, with Van Morrison joining him on a few songs on his 1997 album Don’t Look Back. Well, it is now time to look back to 1976, to a concert that John Lee Hooker performed at Hunter College in New York. The show is being released on vinyl as a double album. It’s not the first time music from this concert has been released. This show has an interesting release history, actually. In 1980, the first half of the concert was released as Alone: Volume 1, and then in 1982 the second half was issued as Still Alone: Live In New York Vol. II. (That second volume would be re-issued as Alone: The Second Concert in 1997, and as Alone Volume 2 on vinyl in 2016.) Then in 1989, a 2-CD set of the complete show was released as Alone. On that release, the first half of the concert is labeled as “The First Show,” and the second half as “The Second Show,” rather than “First Set” and “Second Set.” Apparently, it got a vinyl release at that time as well, but in The Netherlands, where the sets were also listed as separate shows. By the way, there was apparently also a 1970 John Lee Hooker compilation record titled Alone, though obviously that record has nothing to do with this concert, just shares the same title. Anyway, this new vinyl release includes a gatefold, and the liner notes are printed there, so while listening, you can have it open on your lap and read a bit of biographical information. The liner notes, written by Kent Cooper, begin, “He will be remembered as the most influential and important blues singer and guitarist of all times.” And that’s no hyperbole.

Side 1

There is a brief introduction, and then John Lee Hooker comes out and tells the crowd, “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” He opens the show with “I Miss You So,” and as soon as he starts to play, the audience claps along, sort of taking the part of a band. For as the record’s title indicates, John Lee Hooker has no backing band at this show. It is just his voice and his guitar, and that is enough. He sounds great here, by the way, his voice kind of smooth at first. “You’ve been away so long/You done me wrong/I miss you so.” He follows that with “Jesse James.” On some other John Lee Hooker albums, this song is listed as “I’m Bad Like Jesse James,” and indeed when he delivers a brief introduction here, that’s the title he uses. And he delivers the song as spoken word. So very cool. This is a totally compelling and mesmerizing vocal performance. “They may cut you/They may shoot you/They may drown you/I don’t know/And I don’t care.” But there is a humor to it. The audience laughs toward the end, and John Lee Hooker himself laughs as he finishes it.

On “Dark Room,” he delivers another fantastic performance. He draws us in so easily with that honest vocal performance, the guitar punctuating his tale of a woman having done him wrong, leaving him alone in a dark room. And seriously, you feel for him here, even before he tells us he’s been crying. There is a great intimacy to this track, to his performance, particularly at the end. After the song, he mentions being depressed, alone, crying the blues away. That’s followed by “I’ll Never Get Out Of These Blues Alive.” He pulls us close, wraps us gently in the blues, embraces us with his blues, his voice somehow telling us it’s going to be okay even as he sings how he’ll never be the same gain, how he can’t go to sleep, how there’s no use in lying down to try. And he sings, “They will bury me with the blues,” that line repeated softly at the end, in a way that is touching and haunting.

Side 2

“I’m going to change the tempo here,” John Lee Hooker says at the beginning of the record’s second side. And he talks about how he enjoys playing alone for a change, rather than with the band. “I can do what I want to do,” he says. And what he wants to do right then is “Boogie Chillun,” bringing the energy up a bit, but also finding intimate moments. He could certainly take folks on a good ride. His control of the room is remarkable. He draws everyone closer again with “When My First Wife Left Me.” The song feels true. It’s blues as confession, as a chance to let it all out. “I’ve been drinking and gambling, drinking and gambling, boys/Ever since my wife been gone/I’ve been drinking, I’ve been drinking/Just about to drink my life away.” He is at the edge, and holding us there with him. And there are some heartbreaking moments, as he sings about being worried that his daughter is learning to call another man Daddy.

Someone calls out a request for “Boom Boom,” and so he plays it, even thanking the person for being kind and patient. Such a gracious performer, which is wild considering how accomplished he was at the point of this concert. Four years later, John Lee Hooker would be singing this song in The Blues Brothers. Here he delivers a fantastic rendition, his guitar running wild at moments. It’s a delicious, raw rendition of one of his most famous songs. The first set then closes with “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer.” And I can see how it was labeled as the first show on that earlier release, for this seems like an encore, since before he starts it we hear a guy say, “Mr. John Lee Hooker, ladies and gentlemen.” This too is a request. When he hears it shouted out, John Lee Hooker says, “I could use one ‘bout now.” The audience claps along as he starts it. It’s a very cool rendition. “I want to get drunk and get her off of my mind.”

Side 3

At the beginning of the third side, John Lee Hooker says, “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.” Then he says he’ll do a “boogie type to open it up, to get you rockin’ in your seats.” So, is it a second show? Or does he mean to open up the second set? I don’t know. And if it is a second show, then are we getting selections from each show, or was each show pretty short, without any repeated numbers? Again, I don’t know, though a sticker on the plastic wrap says “The entire legendary 1976 solo concert at New York’s Hunter College.” Stickers don’t lie, do they? What I do know is the music is excellent. This third side kicks off with “Feel Good.” In this song, he sings that he feels good, and I don’t think you’ll be able to help but feel good too while you listen to this track. That’s followed by “Some People,” the beginning delivered as spoken word, reminding people that they arrived in this world with nothing and will leave with nothing too. “As long as you can survive, and live comfortable, that should be enough to make you happy.” This track has an improvised, off-the-cuff feel.

After that song, he thanks the crowd for clapping, and says he enjoys playing for people because he loves people, and reminds everyone that we’re passing through. He then goes into “T.B.” (which on other albums is listed as “T.B. Is Killing Me”). “You know, I’m going away, I’m going away, baby/And I won’t be back no more/Now don’t you know TB is killing me.” The song is about being sick and finding that suddenly friends are not coming around to see him. That’s followed by “Baby, Please Don’t Go.” He draws people in again with an intimate approach, a soft vocal delivery at the beginning, singing about how his woman left him. “I was begging my baby, baby, please don’t go/We’ve been together so long to separate this way.” He asks her to reconsider, to give it a little more time before she goes. “I know I’ve been wrong, baby/About a whole lot of things, baby.” Again, the blues as confession. This track is so effective, so moving.

Side 4

The fourth side opens with “Mama Killed A Chicken,” a playful number in which he sings at the beginning, “Well, mama killed a chicken/Thought it was a duck/Put him on the table with his legs sticking up.” The audience claps along to this fun track. “Well, just a few of us tonight,” he says after the song, adding that he hopes they’re enjoying what he’s doing. That of course also makes it seem like this is a second show, not a second set, with a smaller audience. Anyway, he then goes into “Hobo.” With this song he gives us the feel of hopping trains, of needing those trains to be our friends. Everything about his playing is real. Nothing feels like an act or like a set of clothes he puts on for the performance. Everything about this feels authentic.

In “Tired Of Being Your Doggie,” John Lee Hooker directly addresses a woman who has made him miserable, telling her, “I love you, but I’ll get by somehow/I love you, I love you, I love you, but I’ll get by somehow/Yes, I will.” Ah, but he hasn’t quite given up on her, has he? After all, he sings, “I wish you would change your ways.” Someone in the room blows on a harmonica. Who is it? No one is credited on the album. And John Lee Hooker brings everyone in by singing that he knows a lot of folks feel the way he does. And after that song, he talks about how so many people are living in misery, that we don’t know what happens behind their closed doors. And he goes into “All Night Long,” bringing the energy up again. There is more power behind his vocal delivery at the start, and he tells us, “The whole world is rocking.” He creates intimate moments in this song too, then draws a response from the crowd when he says, “Say yeah if you feel all right,” and then sings, “I want to rock with you/I want to boogie with you.” That mysterious harmonica player can be heard again, and it seems that John Lee Hooker acknowledges him after the song when he says, “And I want to thank the young man too.” The album concludes with “Crawling King Snake.” “I don’t do it too often,” he says when introducing it. “Once in a while it gets on my mind, and it just won’t go away.” The harmonica player can be heard more on this one. It’s a cool rendition. The record ends with that guy again saying, “Mr. John Lee Hooker, ladies and gentlemen.”

Record Track List

Side 1

1. I Miss You So
2. Jesse James
3. Dark Room
4. I’ll Never Get Out Of These Blues Alive

Side 2

1. Boogie Chillun
2. When My First Wife Left Me
3. Boom Boom
4. One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer

Side 3

1. Feel Good
2. Some People
3. T.B.
4. Baby, Please Don’t Go

Side 4

1. Mama Killed A Chicken
2. Hobo
3. Tired Of Being Your Doggie
4. All Night Long
5. Crawlin’ King Snake

Alone: Live At Hunter College 1976 is scheduled to be released on June 23, 2023 through BMG.