John Lee Hooker - Free Beer And Chicken (1974)

1 Make It Funky /Hooker 3:23
2 Five Long Years /Boyd 6:02
3 713 Blues /Hooker 5:57
4 714 Blues /Hooker 1:39
5 One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer /Hooker 3:33	play
6 Homework /Hooker 4:27
7 Bluebird /Hooker 5:25			play
8 Sitting on Top of the World /Chatmon, Vinson 3:24
9 (You Never Amount to Anything If You Don't Go To) Collage /Cocker, Hooker 5:56
 a) I Know How to Rock
 b) Nothin' But the Best
 c) The Scratch
 d) Sally Mae 

John Lee Hooker - vocals; guitar; synthesizer
Don "Sugarcane" Harris - violin; piano; electric piano
Robert Hooker - organ; guitar; bass; drums
Joe Cocker - vocals on 02, 09c; ; percussion on 08
Sam Rivers - flute on 02
Wa Wa Watsou - guitar
Michael White - violin
Mel Brown - guitar
Unknown brass on 01, 07, 09

This album is one of the most excellent oddities in the Boogie King's catalogue. This is best described as John Lee Hooker does a funk album. Definitely not for blues purists. There are a few straight up and down blues numbers like 'Settin' on top of the world', and 'Five Long Years', but other numbers find John dropped straight into a well-oiled, psychedlic funk machine (replete with violin solos!). I'd recommend this album to open minded John Lee Hooker fans, and also those who are into Funkadelic. 5 star weirdness. ---al. (Australia), amazon.com

I've owned this album since the original vinyl version. This is not the typical Delta Blues one expects from JLH but perhaps IMO a sample of perhaps his most unique work. Blues purists may hate it but lovers of musical genius will love it. When artists radically depart from their known styles they usually fall flat on their face but not in this case. Just shows how much of an amazing talent he was. The songs are a mixture of blues and funk with a heavy whiff of psychedelic, weird instrumentation and has not aged over the years. Has even a flavour that hip hop lovers would appreciate and one does not need drugs to get spaced out on this music. The structure of the album is like a loose dope hazed ad-lib filled jam session with several notable guest musicians and artists who really shine also. None of them seems to take this recording session seriously, its all great fun and I like all the spontaneous one liners. Hard to decide which are best tunes, Bluebird and Setting on top of the World stand out for me. But the other tracks are so groovy. This is one great party album or to play at a cool bar late at night. ---Paul Seno (Australia), amazon.com

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