John Lee Hooker - 'Don't Turn Me From Your Door' and 'Bedroom Boogie'

'Don't Turn Me From Your Door' was the first John Lee Hooker LP I bought in, back in 1963.  A year earlier, I bought Hook's 45 of "Boom Boom", which along with its flip side "Drug Store Woman", I played to death.

As a teenager, I dealt with bouts of Insomnia, and many nights I listened to a transistor radio that I played under my pillow.  I usually listened to either WWRL “The Big RL” or WLIB, both stations' target audience was African Americans in New York City.  The DJs on both stations were super hip, and spoke in "Jive", which I became fluent in.

One night, a DJ played a John Lee song, and afterward said, "That was 'Talk About Your Baby' from Hook's new platter, 'Don't Turn Me from Your Door'"  For the next week, I saved my lunch money, so I could buy the album.

In 1963, the civil rights era was in full swing, but in my neck of the woods, many records I wanted were not sold in white owned "mom and pop" record stores.  For me, this meant taking a bus from Brooklyn Heights over to "the hood" of Bedford-Stuyvesant (a.k.a. "Bed-Sty") to Lloyd's Records.  

Lloyd called me "Little Miss Beatnik" as at the time I was in full teenage beatnik kitten mode, dressed in all black with a beret, and Ray-Ban Wayfarers knock-offs, I called him "Mister Lloyd".  Lloyd's Records was what used to be called "a spot", meaning he also sold loose joints ("Loosies"), and three dollar bags of weed ("Trey bags").  In 1963, I didn't smoke weed, which back then had a bad reputation (in my high school health class they told us it would drive you incurably insane), but I thought nothing of taking Dexamyl ("Greenies"), which was a mix of amphetamine and barbiturate.  I mean, after all Dexamyl was medicine, and therefore good for you, right?

The day I went to buy 'Don't Turn Me From Your Door', a few doors down from Lloyd's a guy tried to stop me and told me, "If you want to walk down this street, you need to pay a street tax, little girl".  There was another guy sitting on a milk crate who said to him, "You gonna fuck with Lloyd's customers? That shit just ain't healthy, man!"  I just kept walking.

Inside the store Lloyd was spinning Ray Charles, he looked at me smiled, and said "Little Miss Beatnik!… What it is, girl?" "You and those things you do, Mister Lloyd!" was my reply, we slapped each other five, and I told him, "I'm here for the new Hook platter".   Mister Lloyd, a man who knew of what he spoke, told me it wasn't strictly speaking a new album, only six songs were new, and the rest were recorded in 1953 for the De Luxe Records label.

When I got home, I played this record non-stop.  It remains a favorite to this day.

The freeload is a Japanese remastered, limited edition reissue from 2012.

Here's a very cool bootleg with excellent audio from Hook.

'Bedroom Boogie' was broadcast on WXRT, an FM radio station in Chicago.  The Boot also has, three bonus tracks recorded in Switzerland.

This show is outstanding, with a fired up and full of energy Hook, in front of an enthusiastic audience.  Hook and his band are clearly feeding off the energy in the room, and give a blazing performance in return.  It’s obvious from listening that the room is quite small, and it must have been exciting watching a blues legend work his art in such an intimate setting.  You'll wish you were there.

Tracklist:

1. Boom Boom

2. Serves Me Right To Suffer
3. You Know It Ain't Right
4. Hobo Blues
5. One Bourbon One Scotch One Beer
6. Whiskey And Women
7. Crawlin' King Snake
8. Boogie Chillen
9. You Know I Love You
10. Maudie
11. Crazy 'bout You Baby

Bonus Tracks:
12. Boogie Chillen
(Recorded on July 15, 1983, at the Montreux Jazz Festival)
13. I Need Some Money
14. Bundle Up And Go
(Recorded in 1962, in Basel Switzerland for a Swiss radio broadcast) 

For the freeload, what song was your introduction to John Lee Hooker?