1967-1976: The Boogie House Tapes

Anyone who experienced either Woodstock or the blues revival of the '60s must know Canned Heat. Whether it was the mountainous stage presence of voca ...

1967-1976: The Boogie House Tapes
1967-1976: The Boogie House Tapes
Canned Heat
Ruf Records, 2000
REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 01/04/2001
Anyone who experienced either Woodstock or the blues revival ofthe '60s must know Canned Heat. Whether it was the mountainousstage presence of vocalist Bob "Bear" Hite, their collaborationwith John Lee Hooker ( Hooker 'N Heat), their unique spin on 12-bar blues or theirtwo hits "Going Up The Country" and "On The Road Again," CannedHeat has sadly been overlooked by today's music scene. (Never mindthe fact that the band is still slugging it out, despite losingseveral members, including Hite, to the Grim Reaper.)
The Boogie House Tapes, a collection of studio and livematerial from Canned Heat circa 1967 to 1976, is a nice selectionthat show the listener just how influential this group was at theirtime... but it also proves to be too much of a good thing.
In all honesty, this two-disc collection could have been pareddown to a single disc, and it would have been perfect. Admittedly,the live versions of "Going Up The Country" and "On The Road Again"pale in comparison to their studio brethren, but I'm willing togrant them some slack just because fans of the band have reached acomfort level with these two songs. The rest of the first disc,however, just smokes.
What might sound like tossed-off numbers such as "Reefer Blues,""Harley Davidson Blues" and "Chicago Bound" (which features MagicDick from J. Geils Band on harmonica) actually seem to capture thespirit of this band the best - namely, a group who took their bluesseriously but also knew how to have fun. This is also reflected in"These boots are made for..." (a studio outtake which almostbecomes a running gag in just over a minute) and "CaterpillarCrawl".

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