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.
Baby
John Lee Hooker Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Baby Lee, please, don't do me wrong
I love you, gal; always treat me wrong
Baby Lee, please, don't do me wrong
Baby Lee, please, don't do me wrong
I love you, baby; always treat me mean
Takin' me downtown, baby, you carried me through the mill
Get back home, and treat me like a child
Baby Lee, Baby Lee
Baby Lee, please, don't do me wrong
Baby Lee, please, don't do me wrong
I love you, gal; always treat me mean
Baby Lee, please, don't do me wrong
Baby Lee, please, don't do me wrong
I love you, gal
The lyrics to Baby Lee by John Lee Hooker featuring Robert Cray speaks about a tumultuous relationship between Baby Lee and the singer. The singer pleads with Baby Lee to not do him wrong and treat him better, despite his love for her. The song seems like an emotional plea to Baby Lee to treat him with the love and care that he deserves in the relationship.
The repetition of the phrase "Baby Lee, please don't do me wrong" emphasizes the singer's desperation for a change in how he's treated in the relationship. The lyrics "always treat me wrong" and "always treat me mean" give insight into the fact that this is not the first time that the singer has felt hurt in the relationship. Even though Baby Lee has "carried him through the mill", she still mistreats him when they get home.
Overall, the lyrics of Baby Lee are a reflection of a toxic relationship, where one partner is pleading for a change in behavior. It showcases how even though the singer deeply loves Baby Lee, he cannot tolerate the way he is treated any longer.
Line by Line Meaning
Baby, please, don't do me wrong
I am asking you, Baby Lee, to not mistreat me or hurt me in any way
Baby Lee, please, don't do me wrong
I am pleading with you, Baby Lee, to treat me kindly and with love
I love you, gal; always treat me wrong
Despite how you treat me, Baby Lee, I still love you and have strong feelings for you
Baby Lee, please, don't do me wrong
Once again, Baby Lee, I am urging you to treat me well and not cause me any pain
Baby Lee, please, don't do me wrong
It cannot be emphasized enough, Baby Lee, how much I need you to treat me with respect and love
I love you, baby; always treat me mean
Even though you constantly mistreat me, Baby Lee, I still love you and cannot shake my feelings for you
Takin' me downtown, baby, you carried me through the mill
You have taken me through many difficult times, Baby Lee, but I have always relied on you for support
Takin' me downtown, baby, you carried me through the mill
You have shown me both the good and bad sides of life, Baby Lee, and helped me through them all
Get back home, and treat me like a child
After you have taken me through tough times, Baby Lee, I need to feel comforted and cared for like a child
Baby Lee, Baby Lee
Just calling out your name, Baby Lee, to try and connect with you emotionally
Baby Lee, please, don't do me wrong
Again, I am begging you, Baby Lee, to treat me with love and respect above all else
Baby Lee, please, don't do me wrong
I cannot stress enough, Baby Lee, how important it is to me that you treat me well and not hurt me
I love you, gal; always treat me mean
Even though you mistreat me, Baby Lee, I cannot help but love you and want to be near you
Baby Lee, please, don't do me wrong
Once again, calling out to you, Baby Lee, and urging you to treat me kindly
Baby Lee, please, don't do me wrong
My plea to you, Baby Lee, to treat me with love and care
I love you, gal
Despite everything, Baby Lee, I still love you deeply
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: John Lee Hooker, James Bracken
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@suzannesellers7383
Love seeing this white dude from Northern Ireland and the great blues man John Hooker. Blues transcends race, geography, religion and allows so many interpretations.
@hermanbril2682
And yet, you call Van Morrison a white dude. As if white dudes can't play the Blues.... So black dudes can't play uhm.. classical? Or country? It ends if it is not important. Go and and watch the Blues Brothers again, for punishment🙂
@paulrummery6905
Amen from Australia.
@ragincajundub6122
Fo sho
@damienmcphillips3596
The "White Dude"is Van the Man Morrison and equally as Great .....Just felt I had to take note 😮Trandsend Like 😊😮❤ The Blues Men !!!!!
@abw48
Van grew up in dire poverty in Belfast so i dont know why you mention Race.
@gregdill4364
I remember my son came home from elementary school on day and asked me why he was the only kid in his class who knew who John Lee Hooker was and I simply responded Their parents must not love them as much as I love you!
@Warlanda
lol! brilliant!
@koko-pu5vn
John Lee's foot against wood is like a symphony to me. Thank you sir, RIP.
@jimwagner60
John Lee's foot sounds better than 90% of the garbage coming out now