John Lee Hooker

John Lee Hooker.

John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1917 - June 21, 2001) was an influential American post-war blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter born in Clarksdale, Mississippi. From a musical family, he is a cousin of Earl Hooker. He performed in a half-spoken style that became his trademark. Rhythmically, his music was free, a property common with early acoustic Delta blues musicians. His best known songs include Boogie Chillen and Boom Boom.

Biography

Attracted by factory work, Hooker moved from Mississippi to Detroit in 1943, where he would reside until 1969. He felt right at home near the blues venues and saloons on Hastings Street, the heart of black entertainment on Detroit's east side. Hooker's recording career began in 1948 with the hit single, "Boogie Chillen" cut in a studio near Wayne State University.

Despite being illiterate, he was a prolific lyricist. In addition to adapting the occasionally traditional blues lyric (such as "if I was chief of police, I would run her right out of town"), he freely invented many of his songs from scratch. Recording studios in the 50s rarely paid black musicians more than a pittance, so Hooker would spend the night wandering from studio to studio, coming up with new songs or variations on his songs for each studio. Due to his recording contract, he would record these songs under obvious pseudonyms such as "John Lee Booker," "Johnny Hooker," or "John Cooker."

His early solo songs were recorded under Bernie Besman. John Lee Hooker rarely played on a standard beat, changing tempo to fit the needs of the song. This made it nearly impossible to add backing tracks. As a result, Besman would record Hooker, in addition to playing guitar and singing, stomping along with the music on a wooden palette.

He appeared and sang in the 1980 movie The Blues Brothers. Due to Hooker's improvisatory style, his performance was filmed and sound- recorded live, in contrast to the usual "playback" technique used in most film musicals.

In 1989 he joined with a number of musicians, including Keith Richards and Carlos Santana to record The Healer, which won a Grammy award - one of many awards. Hooker recorded several songs with Van Morrison, including "Never Get Out of These Blues Alive", "The Healing Game" and "I Cover the Waterfront". He also appeared on stage with Van Morrison several times, some of which was released on the live album "A Night in San Francisco".

He fell ill just before a tour of Europe in 2001 and died soon afterwards at the age of 83.

Hooker recorded over 100 albums and lived the last years of his life in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he licensed a nightclub to use the name Boom Boom Room, after one of his hits.

Among his many awards, John Lee Hooker has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and in 1991 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Two of his songs, "Boogie Chillen" and "Boom Boom" were named to the list of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. "Boogie Chillen" was included as one of the Songs of the Century.

Music

John Lee Hooker's guitar playing is closely alligned with piano Boogie Woogie. He would play the walking bass pattern with his thumb, stopping to emphasize the end of a line with a series of trills, done by rapid hammer-ons and pull-offs. The songs that most epitomize his early sound are "Boogie Chillen," about being 17 and wanting to go out to dance at the Boogie clubs, "Baby Please Don't Go," a more typical blues song, summed up by its title, and "Tupelo," a stunningly sad song about the flooding of Tupelo, Mississippi.

He maintained a solo career, popular with blues and folk music fans of the early 1960s and crossed over to white audiences, giving an early opportunity to the young Bob Dylan. As he got older, he added more and more people to his band, changing his live show from simply Hooker with his guitar to a large band, with Hooker singing.

His vocal phrasing was less closely tied to specific bars than most blues singers'. This casual, rambling style had been gradually diminishing with the onset of electric blues bands from Chicago but, even when not playing solo, Hooker retained it in his sound.

Quotes

"It don't take me no three days to record no album." (during the recording of the double album Hooker 'N Heat with Canned Heat.)

"I don't play a lot of fancy guitar. I don't want to play it. The kind of guitar I want to play is mean, mean licks." (when describing his own music in an article from The Daily News, Atlanta, Ga. 1992)

Discography

Albums

1959 - Folk Blues
1959 - House Of The Blues
1959 - The Country Blues of John Lee Hooker
1960 - Blues Man
1960 - I'm John Lee Hooker
1960 - That's My Story
1960 - Travelin'
1961 - John Lee Hooker Sing The Blues
1961 - Plays And Sings The Blues
1961 - The Folk Lore of John Lee Hooker
1962 - Burnin'
1962 - Drifting the Blues
1962 - The Blues
1962 - Tupelo Blues
1963 - Don't Turn Me from Your Door: John Lee Hooker Sings His Blues
1964 - Great Blues Sounds
1964 - I Want to Shout the Blues
1964 - The Big Soul of John Lee Hooker
1964 - The Great John Lee Hooker (Japan only)
1965 - Hooker & The Hogs
1966 - It Serves You Right to Suffer
1966 - The Real Folk Blues
1967 - Live at Cafe Au Go-Go
1968 - Hooked on Blues
1969 - Get Back Home
1969 - If You Miss'Im I Got'Im
1969 - Simply The Truth
1969 - That's Where It's At!
1969 - Get Back Home (First Issue)
1970 - If You Miss 'Im...I Got 'Im
1970 - John Lee Hooker on the Waterfront
1970 - Moanin' and Stompin' Blues
1971 - Endless Boogie
1971 - Goin' Down Highway 51
1971 - Half A Stranger
1971 - Hooker'n'Heat/Infinite boogie
1971 - I Feel Good
1971 - Never Get Out Of These Blues Alive
1972 - Detroit Special
1972 - Live At Soledad Prison
1973 - Born In Mississippi, Raised Up In Tennessee
1974 - Free Beer And Chicken
1974 - Mad Man Blues
1976 - Alone
1976 - In Person
1977 - Black Snake
1977 - Dusty Road
1978 - The Cream
1979 - Sad And Lonesome
1980 - Everybody Rockin'
1980 - Sittin' Here Thinkin'
1981 - Hooker 'n' Heat (Recorded Live at the Fox Venice Theatre)
1987 - Jealous
1988 - Trouble Blues
1989 - Highway Of Blues
1989 - John Lee Hooker's 40th Anniversary Album
1989 - The Detroit Lion
1989 - The Healer
1990 - Don't You Remember Me
1991 - More Real Folk Blues: The Missing Album
1991 - Mr. Lucky
1992 - Boom Boom
1992 - This Is Hip
1992 - Urban Blues
1993 - Nothing But The Blues
1994 - King of the Boogie
1994 - Original Folk Blues...Plus
1994 - Dimples (Classic Blues)
1995 - Alternative Boogie: Early Studio Recordings, 1948-1952
1995 - Chill Out
1995 - Whiskey & Wimmen
1995 - Blues for Big Town
1996 - Moanin' the Blues (Eclipse)
1996 - Alone: The First Concert
1997 - Don't Look Back
1997 - Alone: The Second Concert
1998 - Black Man Blues
2000 - On Campus
2001 - Concert at Newport
2001 - The Cream (Re-issue)
2001 - The Real Blues: Live in Houston 1979
2002 - Live At Newport
2003 - Face to Face
2003 - Burning Hell (Our World)
2003 - Rock With Me
2004 - Jack O' Diamonds: The 1949 Recordings

Compilations

1974 - Mad Man Blues (Chess 1951-1966)
1987 - Don't Look Back
1989 - The Hook: 20 Years of Hits
1991 - Hobo Blues
1991 - The Chess Masters
1991 - The Complete Chess Folk Blues Sessions (The Real Folk Blues/More Real Folk Blues)
1991 - The Ultimate Collection 1948-1990
1992 - Best Of: 1965-1974
1992 - The Ultimate Collection (Universal)
1992 - The Vee-Jay Years, 1955 - 1964
1993 - Boom Boom (UK only)
1993 - Boogie Man
1993 - The Legendary Modern Recordings 1948-1954
1994 - Blues Collection (Boogie Man)
1994 - John Lee Hooker (LaserLight)
1994 - The Early Years
1994 - Wandering Blues
1995 - Red Blooded Blues
1995 - The Very Best Of
1996 - Blues Legend
1996 - Live at Cafe au Go-Go (and Soledad Prison)
1997 - His Best Chess Sides
1997 - Live In Concert
1997 - The Essential Collection
1998 - The Best of Friends
1998 - The Complete 50's Chess Recordings
1999 - Best of John Lee Hooker: 20th Century Masters
1999 - This Is Hip [The Best Of]
2000 - The Definitive Collection
2001 - Born With The Blues
2001 - Gold Collection
2001 - Legendary Blues Recordings: John Lee Hooker
2002 - Blues Before Sunrise
2002 - The Complete - Vol. 1 [Body & Soul]
2002 - The Complete - Vol. 2 [Body & Soul]
2002 - The Complete - Vol. 3 [Body & Soul]
2002 - The Complete - Vol. 4 [Body & Soul]
2002 - The Real Folk Blues/More Real Folk Blues
2002 - Timeless Collection
2003 - Blues Kingpins
2003 - Final Recordings, Vol. 1: Face to Face
2003 - The Collection 1948-52
2004 - Don't Look Back: Complete Blues
2004 - The Complete - Vol. 5 [Body & Soul]
2005 - The Complete - Vol. 6 [Body & Soul]

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