Hooker, Heat, & St. Germaine

When I first heard the song “Sure Thing”, I thought it was by John Lee Hooker, the old delta-blues man. I was wrong because the guitar and the throaty, raw vocals sound so much like Hooker. St Germain does “Sure Thing”, and I was correct about the John Lee Hooker vibe. I quote from Rolling Stone:

When the French musician Ludovic Navarre, who works under the name St Germain, originally released the Tourist album in 2000, “Sure Thing” was immediately a favorite. It wove together samples - including shivers of guitar [and vocals] from John Lee Hooker’s “Harry’s Philosophy” . . . to create a dapper, strutting spin on the blues

Listen to and compare the opening few measures of “Sure Thing” and “Harry’s Philosophy”. The official Youtube video of “Sure Thing” begins with a young man browsing in an old-style record shop. He buys a John Lee Hooker album, John Lee Hooker Live At the Kabuki Theater from 1971. He walks home through mean city streets, arrives home, goes to his room, puts the LP on a turntable, and luxuriates in the music. I did the same thing in 1971 during my misspent youth; purchasing Hooker & Heat and immediately heading home to put it on my turntable and listen. The “Heat” in the album’s title and that of this post refers to the blues-rock group Canned Heat that recorded the album with John Lee Hooker.

quote from: Leight, Elias, “Osunlade Reinvents St Germain With Blissful ‘Sure Thing’ Remix”, Rolling Stone, June 22, 2021