Canned Heat is a blues-rock/ boogie band that formed in Los Angeles in 1965. The importance of the group lies not only with their blues-based music, but with their efforts to reintroduce and revive the careers of some of the great old bluesmen, and their improvisational abilities.
The group was led by Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson (guitar, harmonica, vocals) and Bob "The Bear" Hite (vocals, harmonica). Henry "Sunflower" Vestine also played guitar and was an ex-member of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention. Larry "The Mole" Taylor,(best known up until then as the Monkees session bassist), was their studio bassist, (joining full time through 1970), along with drummer Frank Cook for their first album. Canned Heat took their name from Tommy Johnson's 1928 "Canned Heat Blues", a song about an alcoholic who has desperately turned to drinking Sterno, which is generically called canned heat.
Wilson helped rediscover Son House and accompanied him on his 1965 comeback album. The group also strong-armed their record company (Liberty Records) into getting a contract for overlooked Texas bluesman Albert Collins.
Their debut album Canned Heat was released not long after their appearance at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. Adolfo "Fito" De La Parra replaced Frank Cook as drummer for their second album, Boogie with Canned Heat (1968). It was more successful, spawning the hit single "On the Road Again". In 1969 they released the inconsistent double album, Livin' the Blues but it did bring them their biggest hit, "Goin' Up the Country". Guitarist Harvey Mandel replaced Vestine for part of 196970. The band appeared at the August 1969 Woodstock Music and Art Festival with their performance appearing in both the album and film release.
The next year was the musical high point for the original lineup. They brought in John Lee Hooker to record the double album Hooker 'N' Heat in May of 1970. This was to be the first album of Hooker's career to make the charts, topping out at number 73 in February of 1971. Unfortunately, Wilson died of a drug overdose in an apparent suicide, in September 1970 prior to the album's release. Autopsy results were inconclusive and as he left no suicide note, controversy remains over this matter.
The group had one additional hit with a cover of Wilbert Harrison's "Let's Work Together".
In the 1970s, the band would be joined by lead singer Bob Hite's younger brother Richard, who sang, played bass, and helped with arrangements. During this period, they recorded "One More River to Cross" on Atlantic Records, featuring the Memphis Horns.
The last studio recording with Bob Hite was 1978's Human Condition, with Hite singing the title track, an old Alan Wilson tune that had been recorded solo by Wilson but hadn't been released. A decade later came 1987's Hooker 'N Heat, (Live at the Fox Venice Theater) , (recorded and originally released in 1978, with Hite),with John Lee Hooker guesting again. Both recordings feature the guitar and vocals of Chicago's Mark Skyer, the live performance augmented by Larry Taylor on bass,(one of many short reunions), the late Ronnie Barron (October 9, 1943-March 20, 1997), on piano, and group vocals by the Chambers Brothers.
Bob Hite died in April, 1981 (as did Vestine in 1997 and Richard Hite in 2001), and by 1989 the trajectories of Hooker and Canned Heat crossed once again. This time they guested on his album, The Healer, which was a big hit. De La Parra leads the current band and Larry Taylor returned in 1994 after leaving in 1970. Taylor continues to be "first chair" bass with many top acts, including Kim Wilson and Tom Waits, "returning" numerous times to do special events and recordings with Canned Heat.
Ex-Heat guitarist Harvey Mandel was one of the guitarists considered to replace the departed Mick Taylor in the Rolling Stones, with his efforts appearing on the 1976 Stones album Black and Blue. His extensive soloing is featured on the most successful cut of the project:"Hot Stuff". Mandel continued to record, self releasing albums, and in 2004, oddly enough, recorded a song written by MP3.com cofounder Rod Underhill, a musician and lawyer who served as the founding music director for the original MP3.com. Mandel is currently recording and touring with the "Chicago Blues Reunion", along with Nick Gravenites, Barry Goldberg, Tracy Nelson, Sam Lay, and Corky Siegel.
The latest studio album offers 15 tracks in all and features the current Canned Heat line-up plus some very special guests: John Lee Hooker, Taj Mahal, Walter Trout, Corey Stevens, Robert Lucas, Larry Taylor, Henry Vestine, Harvey Mandel, Roy Rogers and Mike Finnegan.
Other members of the band over the years included Antonio Barrada, Richard Hite (Bear's younger brother), Stuart Brotman, Mark Andes, Daniel Mileaf, Walter Trout, James Thornbury, James Shane, Junior Watson, Joel Scott Hill, John Shumake, Greg Kage, Paul Bryant, Stanley Behrens, Dallas Hodge, John Paulus, Don Preston and Barry Levenson. Several others have at one time or another filled in with the group during the 70's and early 80's. The leadership of Fito de la Parra has managed to keep Canned Heat boogieing since the 1960s.
