Hooker on Dylan (this is hip...)

Looking through some old copies of IT (International Times) from the 1960's, I came across the remaining half of an interview that someone called "M" once did with John Lee Hooker. I was surprised by some of the comments attributed to John Lee about Bob's music.

I was driving John Lee around London one day in the 60s (ca. 1965) when Bob's just-released recording of "Maggie's Farm" came on the radio. John Lee was tickled pink and obviously loved it, as he started singing along with it; but from this interview, it would seem that John Lee didn't appreciate the hip big band rock 'n' roll material that Bob had started performing. He wasn't the only one at the time. Mind you, a lot of purists preferred John Lee solo with his acoustic guitar- this one's about the great floods in Tupelo, but it's also for the folk suffering right now from the floods in Queensland, Australia.

 

PS I also had a couple of my own articles published in IT (International Times), London's hippest and most 'psychedelic'  underground newspaper, about 3 months before I left for Corfu, eg in the "14 Hour Technicolour Dream" issue (April 28-May 12, 1967). Corfu wasn't so hip back then. This is hip.