John Lee Hooker, "Tupelo"

KOSMO's VINYL of the Week:
This week we are being taken back to the Tupelo, Mississippi of 1936 by John Lee Hooker's "Tupelo" (AKA "Tupelo Blues"), released on his 1998 compilation "Best of Friends"...

"John Lee Hooker first recorded "Tupelo Blues" in Detroit in 1959 and again on his live "Concert At Newport" LP in 1963, but it is this much later version that edges out the other two for me. Recorded in Sausalito, CA. sometime between the late 80s and late 90s, Mississippi-born (1912 or 1917) John Lee would have been at least 75 years old and probably well into his 80s when he recorded this, and it's the years in his voice that makes it so special. 

Bob Dylan once said "one man could blow an entire army off a stage", and here is the proof." - KV