Friday, January 19, 2007

Don't look back

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hmm. That's John Lee Hooker with Old Caledonian Combover there, isn't it?

It's a bit contrived, though, in a way: I haven't played an ES-335, but if it's anything like other semi-hollow body electrics that I have played, it's not very loud when it's not plugged in, and the sound there is very definitely that of a semi-hollow body electric that's just mic'd. There's no amplifier. A very nice sound, in fact, for what they're doing, and they're really not belting it out in a way that'd drown out the guitar. So I'm not suggesting it's faked or anything. But the equipment and expert staff required to get that on tape properly without the mics showing on camera (I mic my '69 Thinline reissue with an SM57 five or six inches from the f-hole, when I do that) is well out of proportion to the two-old-guys-just-sitting-by-the-bayou schtick they're trying to put over.

And I'd rather hear Hooker doing Hooker, than Hooker doing some hippie foolishness, given a choice (and better Joe Simon or the Staples's doing the stuff Morrison's best records imitated, than Morrison himself imitating them). But quite nice, and better Hooker doing anything than most people doing anything.