John Lee Hooker was born on August 22, 1917, in Mississippi, the youngest of eleven children. Hooker and his siblings were home-schooled. They were permitted to listen only to religious songs, with his earliest musical exposure being the spirituals sung in church. In 1921, his parents separated. The next year, his mother married William Moore, a blues singer who provided John’s first introduction to the guitar (and whom John would later credit for his distinctive playing style). The year after that (1923), John’s natural father died; and at age 15, John ran away from home, never to see his mother and stepfather again.
Throughout the 1930s, Hooker lived in Memphis where he worked on Beale Street and occasionally performed at house parties. He worked in factories in various cities during World War II, drifting until he found himself in Detroit in 1948 working at Ford Motor Company. He felt right at home near the blues venues and saloons on Hastings Street, the heart of black entertainment on Detroit’s east side. In a city noted for its piano players, guitar players were scarce. Performing in Detroit clubs, his popularity grew quickly, and seeking a louder instrument than his crude acoustic guitar, he bought his first electric guitar.
Hooker’s recording career began in 1948 when his agent placed a demo disc, made by Hooker, with the Bihari brothers, owners of the Modern Records label. The company initially released an up-tempo number, “Boogie Chillen”, which became Hooker’s first hit single. Though they were not songwriters, the Biharis often purchased or claimed co-authorship of songs that appeared on their labels, thus securing songwriting royalties for themselves, in addition to their streams of income.
Despite being illiterate, Hooker 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 1950s 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.”
John Lee Hooker rarely played on a standard beat, changing tempo to fit the needs of the song. This often made it difficult to use backing musicians who were not accustomed to Hooker’s musical vagaries: As a result Hooker was often recorded, in addition to playing guitar and singing, stomping along with the music on a wooden pallet.
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September 3rd, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Stevie’s back another great piece of work,didn’t really know anything John Lee Hooker very interesting.
September 3rd, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Nevermind JLL - JLH was the real killer! He always looked like he really had lived the blues and when he says ‘i’ll never get out these blues alive’ you can believe it - he makes the so called ‘gangster rappers’ sound like powder puffs!
John Lee Hooker was definitely a favourite with the Glasgow Mods - I think everyone i knew had at least one album in their collection.
September 3rd, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Great stuff about the legendary JLH Stevie. Spot on about his mentality as well. When he talks about shooting a guy that had slept with his wife in ‘I’m Mad Again’ you can actually believe that he would do it. As well as the classics such as ‘Dimples’ and ‘Boom Boom’ there are a whole host of fantastic JLH songs. One of my own favourites is definitely ‘Time is Marching.’ He is one of the few artists that has so many albums out and most come into the category where you can just let them play right through without having to reach for the skip button.
September 3rd, 2008 at 6:17 pm
Always had a soft spot for JLH,and Bo Diddley, classic Blues or R&B,
whatever people want to call the music, inpired thousands of bands
since 19 Canteen,till today and tomorrow. Long may it continue,your
right Stevie about pumped up steroid induced “Gangsta Rappers”
He wipes the floor musically with all of them, lets face it,
they all “big up” themselves at every opportunity, but have we
ever seen them play a guitar???? If they had to play their own music
say Snoop Dogg Unplugged, how weak would
the music be then? Thought so.
September 3rd, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Charlie - not only musically - guys like John Lee Hooker were totally for real - they lived the things they sung about and in many cases continued to live on the road, and on the edge, throughout their career.
Many bluesmen had to come over to the Europe and tour continuously just to make a decent living. Not for them the flashing of bling on MTV cribs while claiming to be in touch with the streets.
September 5th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
i have a large blues collection but never get bored listening to hooker he was a real blues man.
September 5th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
The MTV Cribs are in touch with the streets, Sesame Street that is. LI,LI!
Give me B.B King or John Lee Hooker any day to a thousand of these
Bling King bams any time, that includes Eminem,he is about as dangerous
as Frank Spencer waving a machete in Royston on a Saturday night!! Ho ho!!
September 5th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Whenever I listen to JLH the Janny Juniors ( who are now 4 years old - bless them) say I’m listening to “Lost my baby” music!
September 10th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
Great one Stevie, I really love the Blues, especially when I need to chill from a hard day at the workhouse LiLi, bring it on. I have a soft spot for Robert Johnson’s “Crossroads”. When I get more time, I will do a little write-up on Robert Johnson