John Lee Hooker

Spot on. The king of the blues.

John

Steve

you will of course all remember one of jlh's numbers:

"you're gonna miss me when i'm gone"

too true.

respect

ken

I'm having a tribute afternoon for John. I first heard Mr Hooker on Radio Active and bought The Healer the next day. It's still one of my favourite albums.

Jay

Stop moaning, take out your best whisky, listen to JLH and have a great time !

Cheese - may all beings be happy

I saw Eric Clapton Saturday night in NY. He walked out alone to the stage of Madison Square Garden, carrying just an acoustic guitar, and sat down on a stool. With great feeling, but no pretense, as if he were in someone's living room, he simply said by way of starting the show, "This one's for John Lee", and proceeded to play a beautiful version of "Driftin'Blues". That he could make such a simple comment, with no more explanation, says volumes about what folks like Clapton, the Stones, Van Moorison, the Dead and countless others have done to acknowledge their elders and inspirations from the folk and blues worlds, and to try to offer up some of the spotlight back to perfomers they loved.

The show, as always, should go on in those sad moments of group loss. Fellow musicians often offer the greatest appreciation of another artist. Whether it was the flattery of imitation, Clapton recalling his own inspiration drawn from the originators of the blues and John Lee in particular, or a combination, I felt all show that I was seeing Clapton play with more feeling and intensity than I recall in the many shows I have seen him play over nearly twenty five years. His tribute to John Lee was indeed fitting. The blues sang out in the New York night. Even fans of EC's more pop material grew animated as he dug into the blues numbers. And boy did he dig!

We have all lost a great one. I hope you all enjoyed some nice reminder of his art, maybe in your home, maybe on a friendly radio station, maybe seeing some band, somewhere, playing for a room full of people.

His passing is such a loss to Music. I was reading 'bdnyc' write up and that gig must have been very moving.

Dev