Frogtoon Music

Hooker (Album) by John Lee Hooker

Artist Biography For John Lee Hooker

John Lee Hooker Coahoma County Mississippi August 22 1917 – Los Altos California June 21 2001 Was A Highly Influential American Blues Singer Guitarist And Songwriter. John Lee Hooker Could Be Said To Embody His Own Unique Genre Of The Blues Often Incorporating The Boogie-Woogie Piano Style And A Driving Rhythm Into His Masterful And Idiosyncratic Blues Guitar And Singing. His Best Known Songs Include "Boogie Chillen" 1948 And "Boom Boom" 1962 . There Is Some Debate As To The Year Of John Lee Hooker's Birth 1915 1917 1920 And 1923 Have All Been Cited 1917 The Date On His Grave Marker In Oakland California Is The One Most Commonly Cited Although Hooker Himself Claimed At Times 1920. Hooker Was The Youngest Of The Eleven Children Of William Hooker 1871–1923 A Sharecropper And A Baptist Preacher And Minnie Ramsey 1875–? . 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. He Was A Cousin Of Earl Hooker 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. Though He Stuttered Slightly In His Normal Speech 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 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. 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. John Lee Hooker's Guitar Playing Is Closely Aligned 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. 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. 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 San Francisco California 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. 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. John Lee 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". John Lee Also Recorded In The Sixties With British Blues Band The Groundhogs. These Recordings Are Still Available As A CD "John Lee Hooker With The Groundhogs". More Importantly Hooker Recorded With The Blues-Rock Outfit Canned Heat Delivering The Album 'Hooker N' Heat' In 1971. Hooker Was Influential And Topical Even In His Lifetime As Evidenced In The MC5 Cover Of "Motor City's Burning" On Their First Album Recorded Almost Immediately After The Riots Which Are The Song's Topic.

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Frogtoon Music Album Info: Hooker

John Lee Hooker Was An Active Recording Artist For Roughly 50 Years -- Active In That Not Only Did He Record Steadily But He Actively Jumped From Label To Label Recording For Seemingly Every Label Big Or Small From Such Legendary Imprints As Modern Savoy Chess Vee-Jay Impulse And Riverside To Such Smaller Outfits As Eagle Sensation Staff Guest Star And Pausa. He Started His Career Cutting Sides For Singles Later Recording Proper Albums And All These Recordings Have Been Repackaged And Reissued In A Seemingly Endless Series Of Compilations Ranging From Budget-Line Bottom Of The Barrel Discs To First-Rate Retrospectives Like Rhino's 1991 The Ultimate Collection But One Thing His Discography Has Always Lacked Was A Comprehensive Career-Spanning Box Set Which Shout! Factory's Finally Provides With Their 2006 Four-Disc Set Hooker. Encompassing 84 Songs Recorded For 27 Labels Over The Course Of Half A Century Hooker Manages To Sort Through His Unwieldy Discography With Grace And Precision Offering All His Standards -- Beginning With "Boogie Chillen" And "Sally Mae " Then Running Through "Crawlin' King Snake " "I'm In The Mood " "Dimples " "Boom Boom " "It Serves Me Right To Suffer " "One Bourbon One Scotch One Beer" -- But Adding The Depth And Detail By Lingering At Relatively Lesser-Known Sides And Singles Including Songs Released Under Pseudonyms Like "Texas Slim" And "John Lee Booker" From Every Era Of His Career. And Even Though Hooker Never Quite Deviated From His Signature Boogie -- He Always Bent Backing Bands To Follow His Rhythm As Much Of The Music On This Set Proves -- He Did Have Different Eras In His Career Starting With The Spooky Solo Sides In The Late '40s And Early '50s Which Gave Way To His Early Experiments With Backing Bands Which Lead To His Dynamic Electric Work Of The '60s Which In Turn Set The Precedent For His Collaborations With Canned Heat Which In Themselves Were The Foundation Of His Comeback Of The Late '80s And Early '90s Where He Returned To The Spotlight Via A Series Of Superstar-Studded Duets Albums. All These Phases Are Represented Well On Hooker -- Some Might Argue That The Latter Duet Phase Is Represented A Little Too Well Since The Entire Fourth Disc Is Devoted To It But That Did Span A Full Decade Of Recording For Hooker And It Did Bring Him His Highest Commercial Profile Ever -- Giving This Set A Welcome Narrative In Addition To Its Sheer Comprehensiveness. These Are The Two Most Attractive Elements Of Hooker It Makes Sense Of His Long Career And Hits Virtually All His Highlights. Hooker Certainly Has Many Excellent Individual Albums In His Catalog But Most Listeners Could Get This Set And Have All The John Lee Hooker They'll Ever Need. Which Isn't The Same Thing As Saying That Hooker Is For Everybody. Hooker's Boogie Is Intoxicating But Like Strong Liquor It May Either Be Addictive Or An Acquired Taste So It's Best For The Uninitiated To Sample Something Smaller Like Rhino's 1995 Set The Very Best Of John Lee Hooker Which Has All The Essentials In A Concentrated Dose. For Some That Single-Disc -- Or Something Similar -- Will Be All They Ever Need Since It Has The Best Of The Boogie. This Set Is For The Listener Who Already Knows They're A Fan And Wants To Dig In Deep -- And For Those Listeners This Hooker Will Certainly And Repeatedly Satisfy.