Review: John Lee Hooker - That's My Story (1960)
Tracks: 1) I Need Some Money; 2) Come On And See About Me; 3) I’m Wanderin’; 4) Democrat Man; 5) I Want To Talk About You; 6) Gonna Use My Rod; 7) Wednesday Evenin’ Blues; 8) No More Doggin’; 9) One Of These Days; 10) I Believe I’ll Go Back Home; 11) You’re Leavin’ Me, Baby; 12) That’s My Story.
REVIEW
There is no sense in pretending, I think, not to understand the real reason why Hooker had two record contracts going on at the same time in the early 1960s — and if you don’t want to hear it from my lips, well, here it is quite succintly stated in the opening track of the album, which is in itself a country blues arrangement of Berry Gordy’s, Janie BradÂford’s, and Barrett Strong’s classic ‘Money (That’s What I Want)’. Given that the latter had only just been released (August 1959) when John Lee Hooker went into the studio to record That’s My Story (February 9, 1960), one has to note the man’s surprisingly keen interest in the conÂtemporary pop scene — ‘Money’ did not even have the time to become a smash hit for Motown before it was whisked away and reinterpreted by Hooker... without giving either Gordy or Bradford any credit, but I think he might have assumed that they just appropriated it from somebody else, anyway, just as it’s always worked in the happy old pre-copyright days. Regardless, the song would make a hell of a lot more cash for Berry Gordy and Motown than it would for John Lee Hooker — even if JLH is definitely more believable than Barrett Strong when he sings about how your lov’n’ gimme such a thrill, but your lov’n’ don’ pay my bill.
And this very fact is admirably ironic: I do not see much reason other than financial for Hooker to have been pumping out records for two labels at the same time with such impressive speed, yet it is also clear that, due to his uncompromising (the cynically minded would probably say «lazy») style, he could hardly have hoped to make a lot of money on either of those, and definitely not with his Riverside contract — at least the Vee-Jay sessions occasionally produced a hit single or two, whereas these acoustic recordings could only be of interest to a small bunch of folk blues enthusiasts. On the other hand, it is also true that the invested effort was minimal. That’s My Story was cut on a single day, with Hooker accompanied by two side players from Riverside’s pool of jazz musicians (Sam Jones on bass and Louis Hayes on drums) — and, just as it was with Travelin’, it feels very much as if he were «composing» this album right on the go, selecting rhythms and riffs from his trusty pocketbook and making up lyrics with no prior thoughts at all.
Again, singling out individual high- or lowlights is barely possible: the only proper «song» on the album is ‘I Need Some Money’, and even that one disintegrates into grumbly rambling after the first couple of verses, with Hooker much more interested in re-enacting a tense family squabble over finances than producing a pop hit. After that, all it takes is establish a mellow-but-ominous acoustic blues groove, lay back, and spew out some talkin’ blues (only occasionally polished into singin’ blues) on whatever topic springs out at any given moment. It’s all very honest, life-like, minimalist, devoid of surprises, and, true to the album’s title, having to do with John Lee Hooker’s «life creed».
Even when we finally get to the title track, which comes last on the album, expecting, perhaps, to hear some interesting revelations about what it was that made John Lee Hooker into John Lee Hooker, all we get to know is that "I was only 14 years old when I hit the road, I left Mississippi, I come to Memphis, Tennessee", after which it was Cincinnati, and then Detroit, Michigan ("I been there ever since"). "I had a hard time, now I’m doin’ alright". Come to think of it, what else would we be expecting to hear? That the night he was born, the moon turned a fire red? That his father was a gambler down in Georgia and he wound up on the wrong end of a gun? That he’s a-runnin’ down the road, tryin’ to loosen his load? Forget all that pretty poetry bullshit, it’s all self-mythologizing narcissistic crap anyway. Just let ol’ John Lee Hooker tell it to you the way it really is. The day you end up with tears on your face by the end of the song instead of falling asleep in the middle of it is the symbolic day your atman finally connects with the brahman.
For me, that day is quite a long ways away, because, honestly, That’s My Story tries my patience much more than The Country Blues Of John Lee Hooker, where songs like ‘Tupelo Blues’, with minimal effort, still managed to churn up a primal feeling of religious terror. That’s My Story does no such thing; all of its songs are fully and completely centered on the album’s protagonist and the simple chores he has to go through on a daily basis in order to survive — such as, for instance, chase away a pesky guy rooting for his wife (‘Gonna Use My Rod’ — I originally thought this one was about the ancient art of wife-beatin’, but turns out that JLH thankfully inverts the cliché and is planning to use his rod on the pervy seducer instead), or, in an interesting and rare foray into political matters, openly endorse the Democratic Party (‘Democrat Man’), complaining about how "Democrat put us on our feet" but "these crazy women, they vote them out"; I presume he is talking about the significant preponderance of women’s votes for Eisenhower that was noted in the 1950s. "It won’t be long ’fore the Democrats be back in again", JLH goes on to promise, and his prediction would nicely come true by the end of the year (ironically, Kennedy would indeed be cumulatively voted in by more men than women, despite his dashing looks and all). But as nice as it is to learn about Hooker’s party preferences, ‘Democrat Man’ is basically just a bunch of kitchen table talk set to familiar acoustic patterns of the thunder-on-the-mountain variety. Not something your local barroom blues band is going to be featuring in its casual setlist anytime soon.
On the other hand, ‘Democrat Man’ is at least a curious and unpredictable diversion from Hooker’s usual stuff: most of the other songs on here either continue to detail his stalking efforts (‘I Want To Talk About You’), or to lament about his broken family life (‘You’re Leavin’ Me Baby’), or to even try and introduce that aspect of self-pitying which was so conspicuously missing from Travelin’: on ‘I’m Wanderin’, the longest track on the album, Hooker reinvents himself as a whiny dog, trudging after his former lady and yelping for one last chance. It doesn’t work out too good — John Lee Hooker ain’t a guy accustomed to saying "I’m sorry" — but it’s kinda fun to see him try for a couple of minutes, before the slow and static groove really begins to try my patience.
Overall, if you are looking for a cohesive and atmospheric acoustic John Lee Hooker experience, That’s My Story is hardly the perfect candidate; The Country Blues (as well as its later follow-up from the same sessions, Burning Hell) are a better way to get acquainted with the fire-and-brimstone side of the man. But as an approximation of a relatively sincere and truthful «musical diary», That’s My Story seems adequate enough — the only problem is that sincere and truthful diaries rarely have space for genuine thrill and excitement.
Only Solitaire reviews: John Lee Hooker