The legacy of The Hite Bros. and CANNED HEAT

As a fan of Canned Heat I've always was amazed by the members muscianship and love of the blues. Bob Hite was to have had one of the largest collections of early blues platters. I've recently looked up other members of the band and discovered this his brother Richard, also a great musician was also quite a historian on the blues and other american music.

http://www.bluesworld.com/RICHARDHITE.HTML

In another thread Steve mentioned his freindship with Richard, would love to learn more about their relationship and more insight on the man.


* We lost Richard, Bob, Alan Wilson and Henry Vestine way to early in life.

 

Canned Heat is definitely one of the great bands of the rock era

 

Thanks Steve.

Very interisting (and tasty) info!

 

Ron Furmanek's remix of "Let's Work Together" sounds a lot clearer than the rechanneling that was done back in the day.

 

Hard one to answer Steve but here goes...
For compilations "The Best of" on EMI Manhattann duplicates the Old "Cookbook" LP adding Let's Work Together as a bonus track.
The songs from Cookbook sound very good but Let's Work Together sounds like it was copied from a worn out cassette.
"Uncanned" (2 CD set/EMI) also with good sound (could be NR'd as it's pretty clean) contains a nice sounding copy of Let's Work Together but doesn't include Fried Hockey Boogie.
I also have a UK/Phantom import of "Boogie with" that sounds a bit to crisp and and a Italian/Akarma import of "Living the Blues" that sounds pretty good but I heard it was a needle drop.
I'm interested in a good sounding copy of "Future Blues" if anyone can share info.
With that said, the 2 compilations can be found for a very good prices and should satisfy those who just want a representive set of the core band.

 

"Uncanned! - The Best of Canned Heat" (EMI Legends of Rock and Roll
Series) 2 CD set is very good. Don't know if it's still in print, but this is
a fine collection.
Also, on a Canned Heat related note, the book Blind Owl Blues (The Myterious
Life and Death of Blues Legend Alan Wilson) by Rebecca Winters, is a great
read for those interested in Canned Heats greatest music, which was mostly
written and performed by Wilson (On the Road Again, Goin' up the Country)
- Highly Recommended!

 

Uncanned is in print as an import.

 

I had the pleasure to record with Henry Vestine quite a bit later in his career before he passed away. He was one amazing Blues Guitar player, and just got better as he got older. At the end of a take we'd just be astounded at his solos...... "That was amazing Henry!" someone would say...... and he'd answer......"Yeah, let's get a drink!". And that's just what he'd do.

Henry was an original member of the "Mothers of Invention". Played "Monterey Pop" in '67, but was not with Canned Heat at "Woodstock".

God bless you Henry.

 

My best friend and I saw The Heat at the Hollywood Bowl when their label had a 99 cent day at the bowl. It was several bands (War was one of the other ones)....I got to meet Bob and he turned both of us on to Robert Johnson.......

I wore out 3 copies of Living The Blues and Live In Topanga Canyon. Their First Lp was always my favorite.

My life has never been the same since. This was 70 or 71 I think. I went from Surf City to Hellhound On My trail in one weekend. I was lucky enough to see CH 5 times with Bob.

 

I had tickets to that but couldn't make it.

 

We snuck in and hid out in the hills until someone with a flashlight walked thru the bushes and yelled at us. I slid down about 75 feet thru thorn bushes and then jumped down into the seats in the very back. We then ran all the way down to the stage. 99 cent for 5 bands (all on United Artist) was a great deal. War, CH, Sugerloaf are the only 3 I can remember. I do remember that between bands while the roadies set everything up, they play side one of the first CSN Lp over and over again.

 

Whatever happened to their records???

 

Thanks Steve for a great little story.
Canned Heat were responsible for my first real appreciation of blues-based music.
As a kid I just loved Hallelujah! and Future Blues (I wore out those Liberty LP's!)

 

Ah Yes, I can remember a time in the 70's when I was living in San Pedro.
My next store neighbor was a guy named Steve too. He said he was roadie
for Canned Heat, I said really, I love Canned Heat's music. He said we'll go
up to Topanga some time and I will let you meet the guy's. I said, I would like that!
Well, a month or so later, we drove up to Topanga Canyon in my newly acquired,
used 73' Triumph TR6. We drove up one Saturday night to Richard Hite's house
in Topanga. The thing that blew my mind was walking in the front door, the living
room was filled with floor to ceiling racks of records, I'm talking thousands of records
here. Needless to say, I was impressed. He had records in that house that were impossible
to find. We hung out there for a while, then went on over to the Corral for the remainder of the
night for some nice music and what not!!!!! I often wonder where Steve is now!

CANNED HEAT: One of the BEST BOOGIE Band's EVER !!

The Very Best of CANNED HEAT on Capitol 72435-60146-2-6 (good place to start)

JD

 

I finally added some Canned Heat to my CD collection last year and picked up the BGO twofer of their first two albums, Canned Heat and Boogie with Canned Heat, and the BGO Living the Blues. So basically, their first three albums. I'm also a fan of Hooker 'n Heat. Found their Live at Topanga Corral in a clearance bin and which I quite like, though the sound is uneven.

 

I am typing this directly from the booklet in the CD titled “Down In The Basement, Joe Bussard’s treasure trove of vintage 78’s”

This is Joe Bussard talking,

“ One time the guys from Canned Heat came up to the house. Oh god, it’s been at least thirty years ago. They’d just finished playing some gig at Meyersville. They come up in a Rolls Royce, with wads of money, boy! Wads of money, enough to choke an elephant! I think they had a hit record at the time.
And they went down in the basement and at that time I had thousands of duplicate records. You know, I used to have whole shelves full of ‘em, just dupes. And they started pulling out things they wanted to buy. The whole bunch, they all bought something, and it added up. And by the time they were done, they dropped $9,000. In cash! They had the money in their pockets!
So I took the money, and I went out to the local pool company and I said, “I want a pool.” And they come up and looked, you know, and said it would cost $9,000, right around that. So I have Canned Heat to thank for that swimming pool. They were the ones that paid for it! I couldn’t afford one!”

 

Is this a decent sounding sampler by Canned Heat?

The Very Best of Canned Heat
EMI 2002

By listening to online samples, that one sounds a lot less loud and smoother than the 2005 EMI compilation.

 

I have this compilation and like it very much. Gonna crank it up when I get home shortly. I'll even post some DR values, right here, for you tomorrow Rusty. I'll try to give a little opinion on the sound too...it's been awhile since I've listened to it.

Oh and by the way, I saw Canned Heat twice within a week in Hawaii, 1972. They played at the old Civic Auditorium and at Schofield Barracks, an army installation in the middle of the island for the soldiers and whoever else ! And also...Henry Vestine was with them at that point..but no Alan Wilson, he'd passed a couple years earlier. Still though..a 2 great shows !

 

The 2-cd collection "Uncanned" is really good.

 

In an era when most guitarists were trying to emulate Clapton or Hendrix, Vestine had a sound all his own.

 

If you love the Blues you HAVE TO LOVE CAnned Heat...amazing band.

 

The cd sounds good to me. I don't believe there is 'no noise' applied...even though a few tunes are a bit treble shy-ish. The dynamics are good. Mostly with a 11-12 DR value...and very crankable. Here's the values....

Canned Heat - The Very Best of Canned Heat EMI UK

-----------------------------
Analyzed folder: G:\MusicCollection\RegColl12Belew-CaptainB\CannedHeatVeryBestof\
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DR Peak RMS Filename
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DR12 -4.28 dB -20.30 dB Track01.wav
DR13 -4.42 dB -20.81 dB Track02.wav
DR14 -3.76 dB -20.70 dB Track03.wav
DR12 -4.34 dB -19.00 dB Track04.wav
DR10 -4.44 dB -16.45 dB Track05.wav
DR10 -4.77 dB -16.44 dB Track06.wav
DR14 -3.30 dB -19.96 dB Track07.wav
DR14 -5.19 dB -21.13 dB Track08.wav
DR7 -7.26 dB -15.75 dB Track09.wav
DR13 -3.41 dB -19.68 dB Track10.wav
DR14 -4.45 dB -20.95 dB Track11.wav
DR13 -5.85 dB -21.57 dB Track12.wav
DR13 -4.85 dB -19.91 dB Track13.wav
DR15 -3.93 dB -20.38 dB Track14.wav
DR9 -2.82 dB -16.85 dB Track15.wav
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of files: 15
Official DR value: DR12

The tune that is the most compressed here is "Let's Work Together". Not sure if it's inherent to the recording and I surely wouldn't understand that the mastering engineer would crunch that tune and leave the others relatively intact. It does have an 'out of place' sound on this compilation. Otherwise, a great full, single disc compilation in my book !