''Free Beer and Chicken'' is an album by blues musician John Lee Hooker 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 databa ...

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 twel ...

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 # "

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) – 5:59 # "713 Blues" – 4:39 # "714 Blues" – 2:59 # " One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer" – 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) *

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

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(tracks 1, 7 & 9),

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(tracks 1 & 7) – tenor saxophone *Stephen Kupka – baritone saxophone (tracks 1, 7 & 9) *Jim Caroompas (track 9), Charles Grimes (tracks 1 & 9),

Hollywood Fats Michael Leonard Mann (March 17, 1954 – December 8, 1986),Liner notes from Al Blake's album ''Dr. Blakes Magic Soul Elixir'' by Eric LeBlanc known as Hollywood Fats, was an American blues guitarist, active in Los Angeles, California. Biogr ...

(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 Luther Tucker (January 20, 1936 – June 18, 1993) was an American blues guitarist. While soft-spoken and shy, Tucker made his presence known through his unique and clearly recognizable guitar style. Tucker helped to define the music known as ...

(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 I ...

– 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 – 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