The Best of Friends

ブルースの巨人、ジョン・リー・フッカーと一流アーティストたちとの夢の共演の記録

1998年に最初にリリースされた『The Best Of Friends』は、ジョン・リー・フッカーの晩年のキャリアを称賛する作品で、エリック・クラプトン、ライ・クーダー、カルロス・サンタナ、ヴァン・モリソン、ボニー・レイットなどの一流のゲストアーティストとのコラボレーションを特集している。その25年後、本作はこの時期のフッカーのみなぎる活力と、彼が影響を与えたミュージシャンたちの途絶えることのないフッカーへの尊敬の証の記録として再発されることとなる。本作は1980年代と90年代のフッカーの作品を探求したいファンにとっては完璧な入門作品となるだろう。

John Lee Hooker's recordings for Virgin/Point Blank may have varied in quality, but never in formula. Once The Healer earned reams of praise and, more importantly, solid sales upon its 1989 release, it was pretty much set in stone that every future Hooker album would be painstakingly constructed and boast a plethora of superstar cameos. The guest stars were designed to bring in a larger audience, who would hopefully be impressed enough to stick around for Hooker's solid stuff, which was usually better than the attention-grabbing, star-studded tracks. Of course, the names are what sold, and Virgin did not overlook that fact, choosing to assemble a collection of highlights titled The Best of Friends in 1998. The title refers to the superstar duets, and while this very well may be the best of those cuts -- well, almost all of the duets are here, including both the sublime ("I Cover the Waterfront," with Van Morrison) and the mediocre -- this stuff still isn't as good as Hooker's solo recordings from this era. Which means this disc is primarily for listeners who like to think they like Hooker, but they really just want to hear Eric Clapton wail away. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine