The Standard School Broadcast Recordings (Vinyl LP)

Once considered a long-lost (and in most cases, complete unknown) studio recording from John Lee Hooker, The Standard School Broadcast Recordings is the first commercial release of a rare 1973 fully electric blues band recording. Performed direct-to-tape at Coast Recorders in San Francisco, the session captures Hooker at a tumultuous and deeply transformative time of his career, accompanied by his reliable standby rhythm section of bassist Gino Skaggs and drummer Ken Swank, plus Hooker’s pianist son Robert.

Syphoned off to feature only a brief interview and snippets of songs in its initial scholastic run, this collection showcases the entire recording session, including expanded liner notes from the preeminent Hooker scholar Charles Shaar Murray. It’s a wildly intimate and scorchingly beautiful collection of Hooker at his most raw – the Blues as high art.

The Standard School Broadcast, initiated in 1928, was a multiple-award-winning educational radio series sponsored by Standard Oil (aka Esso, later Exxon). Based in San Francisco, the collections specialized in music appreciation and American history. Copies of some of its shows were also supplied to schools on vinyl LPs. One such ten-album set was devoted to musical instruments, including the guitar. While other legendary guitarists were included: classical virtuoso George Sakellariou, jazz giants Herb Ellis and Joe Pass, and session journeyman Chuck Day, their final selection was the pure embodiment of the heart and soul of Blues guitar: John Lee Hooker.

Tracklist:

1. Bad Boy
2. Hard Times
3. Rock With Me
4. Should Have Been Gone
5. I Hate The Day I Was Born
6. When My First Wife Left Me / Hobo Blues