When it comes to music compilations, phrases like “finest” and “the very best of” tend to leave a good deal of room for debate: no matter how great a collection may be, there are always going to be at least a few other songs some will argue should have been included, especially when you’re talking about a blues legend like John Lee Hooker. Sure enough, many of the songs you’ll hear on Whiskey & Wimmen: John Lee Hooker’s Finest (Vee-Jay Records) can be found on earlier compilations of the bluesman’s work, but we aren’t about to begin comparing its track listing with those already out there, choosing instead to appreciate this one — celebrating the 100-year anniversary of Hooker’s birth near Clarksdale, Mississippi — entirely on its own merits.
Truth be told, Whiskey & Wimmen is a damn fine collection, spanning a decade of the Rock and Blues Hall of Famer’s career across several labels and styles, from the machismo of tracks like the groove-laden, gruff-vocaled “Boom Boom” that opens the set with a boom, the chugging “Big Legs, Tight Skirt”, and the shuffling “Dimples”, to crawling numbers like “I’m in the Mood”, “Whiskey and Wimmen” (“almost wrecked my life”), and a short but “hard times”-filled “No Shoes” on which Hooker sings of “no food on my table, and no shoes to go on my feet”, to the soulful, swaying “Frisco Blues” with Motown’s Mary Wilson & the Andantes providing harmony vocals — many employing the driving boogie beat that helped make Hooker famous.
Although he could display a bravado unrivaled by any bluesman except perhaps Muddy Waters, Hooker also wasn’t afraid to show his softer side, as evidenced on such songs as “I’m in the Mood”, the breezy midtempo shuffle “I Love You Honey”, and his ode to San Francisco in “Frisco Blues”, while tracks like Rosco Gordon’s “No More Doggin'” and the storming “I’m Going Upstairs” find the four-time Grammy Award-winning son of a sharecropper stating his case for moving on when things aren’t going well. Most of the songs come from Hooker’s work on Vee-Jay Records, with the exception of his take on Barrett Strong’s Motown hit “Money (That’s What I Want)” (Berry Gordy & Janie Bradford), here titled “I Need Some Money”, released by Riverside Records; a creeping “Grinder Man” that finds Hooker joined only by second cousin Earl Hooker on bass, released on Stax Records; and the earliest of the tracks featured, “No More Doggin'”, from a 1954 session for Specialty Records.
While several of the tracks are accented by horns and/or full rhythm sections, including harmonica great Jimmy Reed on the closing “Time is Marching”, the 16-song set also offers a few stripped-down solo or duo numbers, including the aforementioned “Grinder Man” with cousin Earl, “I’m in the Mood” with guitarist Eddie Taylor (who also plays on several other of the songs, including “Time is Marching”, “Dimples”, and “I Love You Honey”), and a “Boogie Chillun'” and “Crawlin’ Kingsnake” that feature just Hooker on vocals and guitar. The brooding, penultimate “It Serves Me Right” is a nice example of how powerful Hooker could be even on more laidback numbers, while the early-career “Time is Marching” makes for an especially fitting close to the collection, as Hooker’s music itself continues to march on after all these decades.
Together, they amount to a terrific variety of songs, with Hooker also adding some great little vocal touches along the way — from that deep growl on “Boom Boom” to his falsetto coo on “I’m Going Upstairs” and near whisper on “Crawlin’ Kingsnake” — to accompany his delightful, frequently stinging, work on guitar. If you’re looking for a collection that nicely captures the essence of the late Hooker’s Delta-to-Detroit sound and rhythmic, almost Hill Country-ish grooves, there may be none finer than John Lee Hooker’s Finest.