He couldn’t boast the easy authority of Muddy Waters. He wasn’t an outlandish marketable character like Bo Diddley. He couldn’t terrify you from throughout the corridor like Howlin’ Wolf. However John Lee Hooker was a blues survivor who’d rock you to the socks that have been poking out of the outlet in your soles; he was street-smart, adaptable, even artful. And armed with nothing however a guitar and his darkish, moody, mumblin’, barking voice, he’d make you dance: “Boogie Chillen,” as he as soon as known as it. And that’s the place we’ll begin our rundown of one of the best John Lee Hooker songs, as a result of this was his debut single. This 1948 anthem is a name to get ya dance freak on. Oh, however isn’t the blues a noble cry of the poor African-American who’s struggling? Hell sure, however Hooker’s telling us for those who received ft, you should utilize them to beat the blues.
Hooker, born on August 22, 1917, the youngest of 11 youngsters to a sharecropping (a smallholding farmer) Baptist preacher in Mississippi, didn’t want classes in being poor. He was raised to be God-fearing, however this modified when his dad and mom break up up in 1921, when he was 9 (although accounts of Hooker’s delivery date differ). His mom married once more, to William Moore, a blues guitarist who dealt with his instrument in a droning, insistent type, which his stepson would adapt into a technique he later half-parodied in his 1971 tune “Endless Boogie, Parts 27 & 28” – although Hooker was something however a musical stereotype, as we will see. Whereas John Lee was a juvenile, his sister took up with one other bluesman, Tony Hollins, who gave him a guitar and taught him songs that will serve the child all his days. Amongst them was a vital monitor for each John Lee Hooker playlist, ”Crawlin’ King Snake,” which Hooker first recorded in 1949 – and copyrighted. Therefore when rock got here alongside and the likes of The Doorways coated it on LA Lady in 1971, John Lee Hooker achieved received paid. The identical goes for the occasions he recorded it himself, of which there have been many.
Hooker left dwelling when he was 14, and by no means appeared again. In reality he by no means got here again, and by no means noticed his ma and stepdad once more. He turned up in Memphis, the place he scuffled for a dwelling and performed at home events by night time. He joined the exodus of southern folks transferring north searching for work, discovering it at Ford in Detroit throughout the Second World Struggle, his manufacturing facility job bringing in sufficient bread to switch his acoustic guitar with an electrical one. He was now loud sufficient to compete with metropolis life, and have become an everyday performer in golf equipment on Detroit’s East Aspect. A demo made its strategy to Fashionable Data in LA, which launched “Boogie Chillen.” It was an R&B chart No.1 and Hooker’s profession was underway.
“Hobo Blues” adopted, one other R&B chart hit, and Hooker appeared decided to comply with a nomadic path himself, drifting from document label to document label, relying on the place the subsequent cheque was probably to return from. He labored for King out of Cincinnati as Texas Slim, Regent/Savoy as Delta John, and for smaller labels as Birmingham Sam and The Boogie Man; however you’d need to be deaf to not acknowledge him on these sides. The label-hopping went on: looks like everybody with a greenback to spare landed a Hooker document to launch. Fashionable loved one other R&B chart-topper in 1951 with “I’m In The Mood” (a lewd ditty Hooker recorded eight occasions over time and which tempted Bonnie Raitt right into a duet with him a long time later), after which he was off once more, working with the Chicago label Chess, which received sued by Fashionable in 1952 over the only “Ground Hog Blues.” The factor is, John Lee was a star: his hard-rocking boogie type was exhausting to copy, and that made him price combating over. Fashionable lastly bowed out of his more and more tangled profession in 1955 with the only “I’m Ready.” If it had recognized what was across the nook, it may not have stop.
Signing to Vee-Jay, Hooker issued “Dimples” in 1956. By now he was recording with a full band and this easy-rolling hit about a pretty lady loved an prolonged afterlife. In 1959, Vee-Jay realized the burgeoning folks increase within the US would possibly present Hooker with a chance, and in addition realized that it was not the label to facilitate it, so it licensed Hooker out to the New York firm Riverside, which prolonged Hooker’s attain right into a white viewers by means of two albums, the primary of which, The Nation Blues Of, included one other John Lee Hooker playlist staple, “Tupelo Blues”: a much-revisited tune a few flood within the Mississippi city Elvis Presley had been born in. The tune possessed a way of historical past similar to “Natchez Burning” had for Howlin’ Wolf, establishing Hooker as a person with roots.
One other notable Riverside session delivered “I’m Gonna Use My Rod,” later retitled “I’m Bad Like Jesse James” and “I’m Mad Again.” Hooker appeared positive with being portrayed as a folks singer, regardless of his gun-totin’ lyric, which was hardly peace and love. Was he gettin’ paid? Then name him what you want – he’d already modified his identify quite a few occasions on document. Must you be in any doubt as to his credibility with the folks crowd, Hooker performed in New York in 1961 – and the assist act was Bob Dylan, making his debut within the huge metropolis.
People was not the one new market opening up for Hooker. In London, rhythm’n’blues was quickly changing into the sound of clubland, and his tunes soundtracked the trendy dances carried out by the unique mods. The modern “Boom Boom” was definitely no folks ballad: this robust dancefloor-aimed I-fancy-you ditty made the decrease reaches of the US pop chart in addition to becoming a member of a revival of “Dimples” within the mod nightspots within the UK throughout ’64. The latter was a UK Prime 30 hit, and he carried out it on Prepared Regular Go! on TV. Hooker was transferring in soon-to-be-famous circles as he labored with varied Supremes, Vandellas and different Motown musicians throughout ’63-64. Taking this John Lee Hooker playlist in a barely totally different route, ”Frisco Blues,” from an album that tried to put him in one more style, The Large Soul Of John Lee Hooker, might have been a Detroit sound on a Chicago label (Vee-Jay), however the tune was impressed by Tony Bennett’s “I Left My Heart In San Francisco.” It was an unlikely supply for the blues, however Hooker was all the time unpredictable and was equally at dwelling on his regretful traditional “It Serves Me Right,” aka “It Serves You Right To Suffer,” from 1964.
In 1966, Chess once more branded him a standard artist on The Actual People Blues, although Hooker was working with a bruising band. The album’s most well-known tune, “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer,” has a historical past relationship again to Amos Milburn’s early 50s model, although Hooker imbibed it as he noticed match. Some 18 months on, nevertheless, folks was erased from the drinks checklist and Hooker issued City Blues, which included “The Motor City Is Burning,” his touch upon the Detroit riots of 1967. Delivering a lyric reflecting the confusion within the metropolis, Hooker conjured up sirens, troops on the streets, snipers, and smoke. This was the blues in an totally fashionable context.
By the late 60s, the hippie era was returning to the roots of rock’n’roll, and Canned Warmth, maybe the band most steeped in Hooker’s boogie type, reduce a double-LP with the singer, Hooker’n’Warmth, the primary of a number of they’d make collectively – and the primary of his high-profile collaborations to function on this John Lee Hooker playlist. It featured a positive model of “Whiskey And Wimmen.” To Hooker, it was Groundhog Day: he’d already recorded with white bands he’d impressed, having reduce an album in London with The Groundhogs in ’64. They’d named themselves after his “Ground Hog Blues.”
A collection of studio albums for ABC ended with Free Beer And Rooster in 1974, which positioned Hooker in a cool context with self-explanatory songs equivalent to “Make It Funky,” and the singer issued a slew of stay data by means of to the 80s. His profession narrowly missed a serious shot within the arm when he appeared in The Blues Brothers (1980), however this model of “Boom Boom” in some way didn’t make the soundtrack album – maybe there have been fears its authenticity would possibly make a few of the different tracks look weak. Hooker must wait till 1988, when he was apparently 76, for a giant revival because of The Healer, an album which featured rock stars queuing as much as pay homage to their hero on vinyl. Its title monitor, that includes guitar star Carlos Santana, attracted consideration and the document made the US album chart, setting Hooker up for a rewarding outdated age in each monetary and creative senses
Mr Fortunate (1991), produced by Ry Cooder, repeated the trick, with Hooker joined by Keith Richards, Johnny Winter and long-term devotee and collaborator Van Morrison. Upright in go well with, tie and hat as ever, the wrinkled Hooker was each bit as convincing as elder statesman as he was in his prime. The awards-laden Chill Out (1995) adopted the identical components, with comparable visitors, however was extra reflective, and is represented on this John Lee Hooker playlist with ”We’ll Meet Once more” and a mournful model of his 60s tune “Deep Blue Sea.”
Hooker’s closing album earlier than he handed away, in 2001, was Don’t Look Again, a transferring affair that nonetheless nonetheless bore his boogie-and-coulda-bin emblems. The title monitor may need been ironic, as Hooker was likely conscious of his impending demise. And he was wanting again: he’d recorded the tune earlier than, however it had by no means appeared like this. Now it was a religious affair and an apt finale to a singular profession – and brings any John Lee Hooker playlist to a becoming shut.
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