In 1973, Hook recorded for 'The Standard School Broadcast', a weekly educational radio program. Founded in 1928, The Standard School Broadcast was a pioneering educational program sponsored by Standard Oil (hence its name) and later by the ExxonMobil Corporation. Dedicated to music appreciation and American history, the program was broadcast to schools across the Western USA through the NBC network.
On the session, Hook’s band featured his long-term rhythm section, bassist Gino Skaggs and drummer Ken Swank, along with his then-20-year-old son, Robert Hooker, on piano. Together, they recorded eight tracks, but only three were ever broadcast. This makes this release a must-listen for Blues fans.
Let's be honest, Hook had a reputation for varying performance quality over the years. Be that as it may, in this case, the production is sparkling and clear, with a gorgeous sound remastered By Philip Shaw Bova (think Muddy Waters’ 'Folk Singer album'), and the performances are simply stunning. The recording is live, without overdubs, edits, or any significant mixing.
There’s a rare sense of intimacy here, with Hook delivering his best vocals while playing some superb yet restrained guitar. Gino Skaggs and Ken Swank subtly but effectively follow their leader, while Robert Hooker’s Otis Spann influenced piano adds depth and color to his father’s songs. Robert never overplays or over-shadows his father, instead heightening his performance.
The album begins with the haunting one-chord drone of "Bad Boy", seamlessly transitioning into "Hard Times" a poignant reimagining of Hook's own "No Shoes". The classic Hooker boogie is evident in both "Rock With Me" and “Should Have Been Gone”(which to my ears sounds like a reworking of the classic "I’m Leaving"). Additionally, there’s a wonderful solo rendition of his 1948 classic "Sally Mae". However, it is in the slower, meditative, emotionally brutal, and blisteringly raw tracks such as "I Hate The Day I Was Born" and the medley of "When My First Wife Left Me" and "Hobo Blues" that Hooker’s true genius shines through.
'The Standard School Broadcast Recordings' is a master class in how the blues should be played.
The freeload is a 24bit/96kHz vinyl rip that sounds sublime.
For the freeload, what was your favorite subject in school?
Also, if any of you out there on the World Wide Web Of Wonder, grew up in the western states, and heard The Standard School Broadcast Recordings in school, I'd love to hear about it.
The freeload is a 24bit/96kHz vinyl rip that sounds sublime.
For the freeload, what was your favorite subject in school?
Also, if any of you out there on the World Wide Web Of Wonder, grew up in the western states, and heard The Standard School Broadcast Recordings in school, I'd love to hear about it.
Religion and Worldview. Often, as soon as the teacher saw me, I was expelled before the lesson started. "No, today I do not want you here" And that was mainly because my opinion about religion and such was then and still is: something to joke about. There is no god/allah so you are damning no one when you say goddamnit
ReplyDeleteGood afternoon, everyone, I didn't like school and in my time, in the 70s, we were also physically punished. If there was anything at all that I thought was good, it was sport. I wish everyone a nice day, best regards, Mike
ReplyDeleteIn high school, journalism. The supervisor was Ed Cushing who'd worked as a beat reporter for the Boston Globe and had covered the tragic Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire that killed hundreds. Ed reeked of the Pall Malls he consumed prodigiously , often stepping out of class for a few surreptitious hits. In retrospect, he was something of a film noir character, living out his career in suburban California. My own career on the school newspaper was undistinguished, diluted as it was by hormones and the Southern California obsession with car culture, and approaching graduation, weed. Still, imperceptibly, Ed Cushing managed to instill in me some small measure of the writerly art, and along with the essential guide, Elements of Style , they've served me well for a lifetime.
ReplyDeleteI'd not heard about these broadcasts until this morning and I'm eager to give it this unearthed Hooker a listen. It was also good to know Standard Oil actually did something beneficial once. Thanks, Babs!
Reading. Sometimes called 'literature', or, 'lit class'. Steinbeck, etc.
ReplyDeleteThis morning, I was listening to a recording of George Burns and Gracie Allen's radio show from the 1940s. At one point, Gracie was asked if she liked literature. Her response was, "Oh yes, dear, I wouldn't read anything else."
DeleteTime-travel radio?
DeleteYep, my traveling companion was good ol' H.G.
DeleteArt and ancient & modern history
ReplyDeleteHa. English.
ReplyDeleteAmerican History, Civics (How government is supposed to work. Not taught anymore, unfortunately.), and Mixed Chorus.
ReplyDeleteStandard Oil of California was a big supporter of educational and cultural radio broadcasting, starting in San Francisco (their corporate HQ) going back to the dawn of radio in the 1928. They had a long-term classical music radio show in the 1940's and 50's featuring the great conductor Pierre Monteux, entitled "Sunday Evenings with Pierre Monteux" when he was leading the San Francisco Symphony.
ReplyDeleteI recall listening to their mid-week educational shows in middle school, which was an opportunity for our teacher to sit down and kick back while we passed notes.
They also began issuing shows on vinyl for distribution to schools. I have a copy of one that covers U.S. history in the 1920's and 30's and the performers included Maryanne Price and Naomi Ruth Eisenberg, who were apparently moonlighting from their regular gig as Dan Hicks' Lickettes.
Gotta love Dan Hicks & the Lickettes!!
DeleteThanks for the info, Neal!
DeleteI really should do a Dan Hicks post…
Dan Hicks was and is a thing and should be...
DeleteYes, Babs, please! I need to update my Dan Hicks collection with better audio! Thanx.
DeleteI scare myself.....
DeleteMy favourite subjects in school had more to do with the teacher rather than the subject, thus: biology and history. On the subject of Hooker, only saw him once in the early 70s, a fairly boring "revue" type show featuring a couple (I think) of his progeny, taking place in a boomy hockey rink sans ice. Victoria BC if you had to ask. And on the Dan Hicks subject (he was one of my heroes from about 1969 on) finally got to catch him live a couple of years before he passed, surely one of the top 5 or 10 shows I have ever seen.
ReplyDeleteMy first favorite subject was History, though my parents quickly disabused me of the bullshit I was being taught, as a proud product of the 1960s Louisiana public education system. I was fond of "English"--which was reading. But shout out to Mrs. Guerin, a fifty-something Cajun woman who in 1969 in Louisiana encouraged a fifth-grader’s interest in the Cuban Revolution. By 13 my favorite subjects were basketball, girls, and Che Guevara, more or less in that order; only the first of these was (more or less) taught in school and saved my ass almost everywhichway. I spent much of highschool hanging out at the LSU Student Union playing Bourré and Spades with the radical kids who sorta hung around my parents and the sprinkling of other radical faculty. My highschool teachers were delighted. If I did show up, they sent me to the gym to shoot baskets. How I graduated & got into college (with a scholarship!) eludes me to this day.
ReplyDeleteAt primary school my favorite subject was geography because I was (still am!) fascinated by maps. High School however was a different story, nothing interested me much and the teachers weren't particularly inspirational either... How I passed the final exams is still a mystery to me.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the Hooker, I never knew about his son playing keyboards!
I liked just about everything, until I didn't. I wasn't good at studenting all that much. Thanks Babs & Yes please on DH&HHL's
ReplyDeleteDuring the mid-1970s, an ad used to appear in the Marin County Yellow Pages for Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks under the party supplies heading.
ReplyDeleteWeird! Hicks supplants The Hook !
ReplyDeleteMy favourite school subject? It was probably a five way photo finish between English, History, Chemistry, Maths and French with all of them being the 'favourite' at one point or another. Not that it meant much as by my early teens I'd lost interest for numerous reasons ending up with very mediocre exams result and zero intention of attending University. 1970's Britain was not somewhere that inspired hope even for those of us lucky enough to attend one of the best state schools in the country (mine was ranked in the top 10 by the Times when I started their).
ReplyDeleteStill it didn't do me much harm as I've always had more than enough to make ends meet.
Favorite subject was always English/lit because the tests were always writing assignments which came naturally to me. Hated classes where it was nothing more than memorization.
ReplyDeleteGeography... But I'm sort of polymath...
ReplyDeleteLink
ReplyDeletehttps://workupload.com/file/RU3bRRvs28s
Time and space
ReplyDeleteThe four-dimensional continuum called spacetime?
DeleteHistory & art!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the good blues (as ever).
ReplyDeleteI think my favorite subject in elementary school was class participation (meaning, any opportunity I had to talk). I was kind of like a clear-channel AM radio station, broadcasting my thoughts on everything, when there was a hint that "dead air" might occur. I also liked anything with reading, looking at maps and diagrams, and many of the writing assignments.
Once we had classes on different subjects, in junior high and high school, I loved history, liked English, and - when it was that year in math class - Geometry. I enjoyed the reasoning and proofs that Geometry required, and when I had the opportunity in Senior year to take college classes, I signed up for Symbolic Logic -- again, I loved it!
When I started college for real, I had credits for that class, History of Church Music, and Introduction to Journalism. I thought that I wanted to become a journalist; it turned out that I did want to write stuff, but not always about the school board. And I did use that logic and reasoning stuff, because I always had jobs that involved computers, quite often with a little bit of programming or query-writing.
D in California