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John Lee Hooker: c. 1917 - 2001
John Lee Hooker’s music is kin to that long revered lineage of Delta blues artists Charley Patton , Son House, Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters. Marked by crude, over-amplified guitar riffs, rhythmic foot stomps, and a deep, penetrating-to-the-marrow voice, Hooker’s primitive sound was immediately identifiable and compelling. It became known as the “Hooker boogie” and it literally got the house jumpin. This laid back, bare bones style would influence the next wave of blues guitarists and a generation of 60s blues rockers like the Rolling Stones, The Animals, and Canned Heat.
John Lee Hooker was one of ten children, born on a farm outside of Clarksdale, Mississippi. In an age of mid-wives and birth records jotted down in family bibles accurate records don’t seem to exist for his exact date of birth. Hooker himself changed his birth date from time to time. As a young boy he sang in his father’s church and developed a fondness for gospel. His introduction to blues was through a boyfriend of his sister’s who visited regularly. Hooker was smitten by the sound and was delighted one day when the boyfriend gave him an old, worn Silvertone as a gift. Typically, his parents objected to his playing the guitar and the blues.
After his parents separated Hooker’s mother remarried. Will Moore became John Lee’s stepfather. More importantly, Moore was a bluesman who played guitar and would influence Hooker immeasurably with encouragement and techniques. Moore’s affiliations with other musicians like Charley Patton and Blind Lemon Jefferson also left an impression. Hooker claimed the first song he learned was Patton’s “The Peavine Special.”
At about age fifteen, Hooker realized opportunity lay elsewhere so he moved to the nearest big city, Memphis, Tennessee. There he ushered in a Beale Street theatre and tried his hand at playing music on street corners. His parents soon brought him back to Mississippi when they learned of his circumstances, but John was not to be held down. Several weeks later he’d hightailed it to Cincinnati. It didn’t provide much musical exposure, but became a stepping stone to his next move to an even bigger city.
In 1943 Hooker migrated northward to Detroit, feeling Chicago was already saturated with heavy blues names the likes of Tampa Red, Big Bill Broonzy, Memphis Slim, and Big Joe Williams. In Detroit the car industry ruled and Hooker quickly landed work at an auto plant as a janitor. On weekends he played his brand of transplanted Delta blues in the bars and clubs. As lean as those years were, Hooker became more intent on turning professional. His down home style of blues wasn’t widely popular in those days, except for the blue collar sector. The infamous Hastings Street was a regular habitat for gigs.
One musician who helped Hooker get up to speed was the great T-Bone Walker. They met in a Hastings Street bar that Walker was booked into and became instant friends. One day the already proven blues star presented Hooker with his first electric guitar, a gift that would change his life and fortunes. By 1948 his name was making waves around Detroit. More upscale bookings were coming his way. When a small-time record dealer with ample connections named Elmer Barbee walked into a bar where John Lee was performing, wheels were set in motion. Barbee invited him to record demos in a makeshift record store studio and introduced him to an independent record label owner named Bernie Besman. So began a momentous four year recording partnership and some of Hooker’s loosest and meatiest rural blues.
The kind of solo sides Besman and Hooker laid down were represented by the historic cut “Boogie Chillen,” a song that would be emblematic of Hooker’s sound. There was no denying its appeal, with his steady foot stomp keeping the beat and the guitar spewing a hypnotic primal riff, the groove was infectious. On top of it, he sang like an outlaw, a sly moaning vocal dishing out a defiant narrative of his parents’ deliberation to “Let that boy boogie woogie, cause it‘s in him and it‘s got to come out!”. Those thick as mud guitar lines were liberating in their simplicity, but there was a subtle complexity underneath. Enough to influence an entire wave of young blues guitarists including the likes of Bo Diddley and Buddy Guy.
Even though Hooker was making records, the returns were miniscule. He was actually earning more for live performances. In an effort to circumvent the often crooked ways of record companies Hooker recorded generously for a wide variety of labels, under an array of pseudonyms like Delta John, Texas Slim, John Lee Booker, Birmingham Sam, and Boogie Man. Yet, it was always the same trademark sound. “Boogie Chillin” was a huge hit across the country. The can’t-fail recipe was recalibrated for other hits like “Sally Mae,” “Crawlin’ King Snake,” “I’m in the Mood,” and “Hobo Blues.”
Until now Hooker had played mostly unaccompanied. By the mid-50s he was touring and recording with a rotating roster of sidemen like guitarists Eddie Kirkland and Eddie Taylor, pianist Bob Thurman, drummer Tom Whitehead, and Jimmy Reed on harp. With the momentum of R&B/soul acts like Ray Charles and James Brown charging onto the scene Hooker moved to Chicago and signed with an ambitious new label, Vee Jay Records. A full band now in tow he recorded sides with a more robust framework, yet a cleaner, more blistering sound. Backed by Vee Jay and a band, Hooker racked up more hits like “Dimples,” “Baby Lee,” and “I Love You Honey,”
By the end of the decade Hooker was slowly revolving back to his roots with a long-playing collection of acoustic country blues reaching back to his Delta youth. The result would launch Hooker’s blues on album and introduce him to a whole new audience at the 1960 Newport Folk Festival. John Lee Hooker had arrived, though he was hardly at the apogee of his fame. That would be reiterated and magnified several more times in successive decades. By Tim Kirker.
Copyright Tuneresource Music Inc 2005
Rating:  [5 of 5 Stars!] |
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