I want everyone to know what I can really do
~Elvis Presley (to producer Bob Finkel)Elvis delivered an incredible performance throughout the television special. His vocal performances were loose and gutsy…
~John Bush (allmusic.com)
Trouble/Guitar Man:
Continue reading November 22: Elvis Presley released “Elvis (NBC TV Special)” in 1968
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Continue reading Today: Elvis Presley released “Elvis (NBC TV Special)” in 1968, 45 years ago
I don’t think about time. You’re here when you’re here. I think about today, staying in tune.
~John Lee HookerI don’t play a lot of fancy guitar. I don’t want to play it. The kind of guitar I want to play is mean, mean licks.
~John Lee HookerWhen they say true blues, pure blues, John Lee Hooker is as close to it as anyone I’ve ever heard.
~B.B. KingOne bourbon, one scotch, and one beer
Hey mister bartender come here
I want another drink and I want it now
~John Lee Hooker (One bourbon, one scotch, and one beer)
JLH was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. Here from the ceremony he performs “In The Mood” together with Bonnie Raitt:
From Wikipedia:
| Born | August 22, 1917 Coahoma County, Mississippi, United States |
|---|---|
| Died | June 21, 2001 (aged 83) Los Altos, California, United States |
| Genres | Blues, talking blues, country blues |
| Occupations | Singer-songwriter, Musician, Songwriter |
| Instruments | Guitar, vocals |
| Years active | 1943–2001 |
| Labels | Vee-Jay, Chess, Bluesway, ++ |
| Associated acts | Carlos Santana, Bonnie Raitt, B.B. King,Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, Canned Heat |
John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1917 – June 21, 2001) was a highly influential American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist.
Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally a unique brand of country blues. He developed a ‘talking blues’ style that was his trademark. Though similar to the early Delta blues, his music was metrically free. John Lee Hooker could be said to embody his own unique genre of the blues, often incorporating the boogie-woogie piano style and a driving rhythm into his blues guitar playing and singing. His best known songs include “Boogie Chillen'” (1948), “I’m in the Mood” (1951) and “Boom Boom” (1962), the first two reaching R&B #1 in the Billboard charts.
| From Allmusic (Bill Dahl): He was beloved worldwide as the king of the endless boogie, a genuine blues superstar whose droning, hypnotic one-chord grooves were at once both ultra-primitive and timeless. But John Lee Hooker recorded in a great many more styles than that over a career that stretched across more than half a century. Read more -> allmusic.com |
Awards and recognition
| John Lee’s style has always been unique, even among other performers of the real deep blues, few of whom remain with us today. While retaining that foundation he has simultaneously broken new ground musically and commercially. At the age of 80, John Lee Hooker received his third and fourth Grammy Awards, for Best Traditional Blues Recording (Don’t Look Back) and for Best Pop Collaboration for the song “Don’t Look Back” which Hooker recorded with his long time friend Van Morrison. ~johnleehooker.com |
Grammy Awards:
Boom! Boom!:
One Bourbon, one Scotch, one Beer:
Album of the day – John Lee Hooker Plays & Sings The Blues (1961):
Other August-22:
Continue reading Today: The late John Lee Hooker was born in 1917 – 96 years ago
I missed the closeness of a live audience. So just as soon as I got out of the movie contracts I started to do live performances again.
~Elvis Presley (NYC press conference – june 9, 1972)
This is an absolutely stunning live album, the best official live album from Elvis (slightly better than “That’s the Way It Is”).
The album was recorded Feb 17-19 in 1970, Elvis was just starting his Las Vegas run (the “Vegas years” – 1969-76) & the Band & backing groups sounded great.
| Released | June 1970 |
|---|---|
| Recorded | February 17-19, 1970 International Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada |
| Genre | Rock |
| Length | 31:57 |
| Label | RCA |
Elvis’ idea of bringing in white gospel singers with black soul singers was really genius on his part because he covered the whole gamut of music
~Joe Moscheo (The Imperials)
I want everyone to know what I can really do
~Elvis Presley (to producer Bob Finkel)
Trouble/Guitar Man:
| Released | November 22, 1968 |
|---|---|
| Recorded | June 1968 |
| Genre | Rock and roll |
| Length | 44:27 |
| Label | RCA Records |
| Producer | Bones Howe |
Elvis (NBC TV Special) is the thirty-fourth album by Elvis Presley, released on RCA Victor Records in mono, LPM 4088, in November 1968. Recording sessions took place in Burbank, California at Western Recorders on June 20, 21, 22 and 23, 1968, and at NBC Studios on June 27 and 29, 1968. It peaked at #8 on the Billboard 200. It was certified Gold on July 22, 1969 and Platinum on July 15, 1999 by the RIAA.
Hound Dog/All Shook Up:
From allmusic.com – John Bush:
…………… Although he exhibited more nerves than he ever had in the past — a combination of the importance this chance obviously presented plus the large gap between the psychedelic music culture of 1968 and the rather quaint rock & roll of ten years earlier — Elvis delivered an incredible performance throughout the television special. His vocal performances were loose and gutsy, and his repartee was both self-deprecating and sarcastic about his early days as well as his moribund film career (“There’s something wrong with my lip!…I got news for you baby, I did 29 pictures like that”). He was uninhibited and utterly unsafe, showing the first inkling in ten years that there was life and spirit left in music’s biggest artistic property. The resulting LP, NBC-TV Special, combined sit-down and standup segments, but probably over-compensated on the standup segments. What impresses so much about NBC-TV Special is how much it prefigures the rest of Elvis’ career. Dramatic, intense, driven, and earthy, frequently moving, but not without the occasional cloying note, Elvis during the ’70s was the apotheosis of rock music, a righteous blend of rock and soul, gospel and pop, blues and country. …
~Read more over @ allmusic.com
This album also happens to contain one of Elvis Presley’s best songs…..
If I Can Dream:
Personnel:
Continue reading Today: Elvis Presley released “Elvis (NBC TV Special)” in 1968 – 44 years ago
