Beginnings U428996537123

Celebrating the 75th anniversary of three top 10 R&B singles – Hobo Blues, Hoogie Boogie and Crawlin King Snake. This 4-track EP includes the bonus track, Hastings Street Boogie, which is also celebrating its 75th anniversary.

It was sixty years ago, in June 1964, when John Lee Hooker entered the British singles charts for the first time withDimples,peaking at #23. The track had been cut for the Vee-Jay label in America some eight years prior in Chicago.Boom Boom,issued in the UK in 1963, had already caught the ears and feet of the nascent mod movement. Both songs became live staplesonthe British blues scene, withThe Animals covering both on their debutUKLP issued later in 1964.

But in 1952, way before the sharp-suited mods were attracted to John Lee Hookers equally well-cut look and infectious music, the British Vogue label had issued Hoogie Boogie, recorded in 1949, on a 78rpm disc. Blues music was for the aficionado back then, and the four tracks on this EP hark back to those earliest recordings by John Lee Hooker. Hobo Blues, Hoogie Boogie, and Crawlin King Snake all went Top 10 in the US R&B chart in 1949.

This is unadorned John Lee Hooker, getting to the heart of his blues and boogie, just guitar, vocal, and tapping foot, 15 years before his music caught the ears of a wider and enthusiastic British audience. Decades may have passed, but the music remains fresh and vital.

This EP is housed in a beautiful period-era sleeve drawn and designed by Niall McCormack.

Tracklist

SIDE ONE
HOBO BLUES
HOOGIE BOOGIE (instrumental)

SIDE TWO
CRAWLIN’ KING SNAKE
HASTINGS STREET BOOGIE