''Free Beer and Chicken'' is an album by blues musician

John Lee Hooker John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912 or 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues. Hooker often ...

recorded in California in 1974 and released by the ABC label the same year.

Reception

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

reviewer

Eugene Chadbourne Eugene Chadbourne (born January 4, 1954) is an American banjoist, guitarist and music critic. Life and career Chadbourne was born in Mount Vernon, New York, but grew up in Boulder, Colorado. He started playing guitar when he was eleven or twe ...

stated: "In some ways this is a typical John Lee Hooker album; in other ways it is totally unlike any other he did. Being interesting can be a curse, however, as the music itself just isn't that inspired. Of course... ''Free Beer and Chicken'' has the sound of a collection of tracks that were salvaged from some ambitious but never finished project involving dozens of guests. That's one thing that is typical, or at least would become typical in the last, most high-profile decade of Hooker's career... ''Free Beer and Chicken'' gets a low rating due to the presence of all the talent mentioned, as well as the genius of Hooker: With all that going for it, this should have been a much better album".

Track listing

All compositions credited to John Lee Hooker # "Make It Funky" – 3:27 # "

Five Long Years "Five Long Years" is a song written and recorded by blues vocalist and pianist Eddie Boyd in 1952. Called one of the "few postwar blues standards

hat has A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...

retained universal appeal", Boyd's "Five Long Years" reached number one on the ''Billbo ...

" (

Eddie Boyd Edward Riley Boyd (November 25, 1914 – July 13, 1994)Dahl, Bill. Eddie Boyd: Biography AllMusic. Retrieved October 13, 2016. was an American blues pianist, singer and songwriter, best known for his recordings in the early 1950s, including th ...

) – 5:59 # "713 Blues" – 4:39 # "714 Blues" – 2:59 # "

One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer" (originally "One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer") is a blues song written by Rudy Toombs and recorded by Amos Milburn in 1953. It is one of several drinking songs recorded by Milburn in the early 1950s that pla ...

" – 3:29 # "Homework" – 4:26 # "Bluebird" 4:52 # "Settin' on Top of the World" – 3:27 # "(You'll Never Amount to Anything If You Don't Go to) Collage (A Fortuitous Concatenation of Events)" – 5:52 ## "I Know How to Rock" ## "Nothin' But the Best" ## "The Scratch" (Joe Cocker) ## "Sally Mae"

Personnel

*John Lee Hooker – guitar, vocals * Greg Adams – trumpet (tracks 1, 7 & 9) *

Mic Gillette Mic Gillette (May 7, 1951 – January 17, 2016) was an American brass player, born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area's East Bay. He is best known for being a member of the bands; Tower of Power, Cold Blood, and The Sons of Champlin. He ...

– trumpet, trombone (tracks 1, 7 & 9) * Sam Rivers – flute (track 2) *

Emilio Castillo Emilio Castillo (born September 24, 1950) is an American saxophone player and composer, best known as the founder of the band Tower of Power. Background In 1965, Emilio Castillo took to music after he and his brother Jack were caught stealing by ...

(tracks 1, 7 & 9),

Lenny Pickett Lenny Pickett (born April 10, 1954) is an American saxophonist and musical director of the ''Saturday Night Live'' band. From 1973 to 1981 he was a member of Tower of Power. He is known for his skill in the altissimo register (executed by usin ...

(tracks 1 & 7) – tenor saxophone *Stephen Kupka – baritone saxophone (tracks 1, 7 & 9) *Jim Caroompas (track 9), Charles Grimes (tracks 1 & 9), Hollywood Fats (tracks 3-5, 7 & 8), Jim Kahr (tracks 2 & 7), Jim Thorsen (track 9),

Howard Roberts Howard Mancel Roberts (October 2, 1929 – June 28, 1992) was an American jazz guitarist, educator, and session musician. Early years Roberts was born in Phoenix, Arizona to Damon and Vesta Roberts, and began playing guitar at the age of 8 - a ...

(tracks 3, 4 & 6), Luther Tucker (track 9), Wa-Wa Watson (tracks 1, 2 & 9), – guitar *

Clifford Coulter Clifford Coulter was an American blues, R&B and jazz guitarist and keyboardist. allmusic Biography/ref> Career He released three albums, 1970's ''East Side San Jose'' with Billy Ingram and Joe Provost on drums. (Impulse! Records), 1971's ''Do ...

– piano, Fender Rhodes electric piano, Hohner clavinet, Fender bass, Moog bass, Moog synthesizer, ARP synthesizer *Robert Hooker – piano, Fender Rhodes electric piano, Hammond organ (tracks 1 & 9) *Skip Olsen – Fender bass, bass (tracks 3, 4 & 9) *Ron E. Beck (tracks 2-6), Ken Swank (tracks 1, 3, 4, 7 & 9) – drums *Kenneth Nash – balophon, congas, Griot bells, Chinese hand cymbals, Ganquok bell, shaker (tracks 1 & 8),

kalimba Mbira ( ) are a family of musical instruments, traditional to the Shona people of Zimbabwe. They consist of a wooden board (often fitted with a resonator) with attached staggered metal tines, played by holding the instrument in the hands and p ...

(track 8) *

Joe Cocker John Robert "Joe" Cocker (20 May 1944 – 22 December 2014) was an English singer known for his gritty, bluesy voice and dynamic stage performances that featured expressive body movements. Most of his best known singles were recordings of son ...

– vocals, tambourine (tracks 2, 5 & 9) * Sugarcane Harris (tracks 3 & 4), Michael White (tracks 8 & 9) – violin *Peter Berg – coconut banjo (track 8) *Fatz Wess – tom tom, Moog synthesizer (track 8) *Boyd Albritton – slide guitar (track 9)

References

{{John Lee Hooker John Lee Hooker albums 1974 live albums ABC Records albums