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.
Bang Bang
John Lee Hooker Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I likes the way you walk
When ya walk that walk
And talk that talk
You knocks me out
Right off-a my feet
Bang, bang, bang, bang
Bang, bang, bang, bang
Bang, bang, bang, bang
Ho, ho, ho, ho
Ho, ho, ho, ho
Ho, ho, ho
I like it like that
Bang, bang, bang, bang
Whoa, yeah
Bang, bang
Bang, bang, bang
Bang, bang, bang
Bang, bang
Hit the ground
I hit the ground
Bang, bang
I shook the ground
Hit the ground
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang
I love to see my baby walk
I love to see my baby walk
She walk that walk
Talk that talk
Tell me, do you love me?
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah
Walk that walk
Your walk
Talk your talk
Whoa, oh, oh, oh
I like to see my baby walk
I love to see my baby walk
Walk her walk
Talk her talk
She wiggle when she walk
You wiggle
She wiggle when she walk
Yeah
Look-a-here now
Boom, boom
I hit the ground
I hit the ground
Bang, bang, bang, bang
Bang, bang, bang, bang
Bang, bang, bang, bang
I hit the ground
I hit the ground
I shook, I shook the ground
I shook the ground
I hit the ground
I hit the ground
A bang, bang
The song "Bang Bang Bang Bang" by blues legend John Lee Hooker is filled with his typical gritty style and energy. The song is about his love for a woman who walks and talks a certain way that really turns him on. He loves the way she moves and the way she talks, and these things have clearly knocked him out, to the point where he says that he's been shot down by her. The repetition of the lyrics "Bang, bang, bang, bang" and "ho, ho, ho, ho" reinforces the idea that Hooker has been hit hard and is really feeling the impact of this woman's presence in his life.
The song is a classic example of Hooker's signature style. His raw, powerful voice conveys the emotion and passion of the lyrics, while his guitar playing provides a steady, driving rhythm that sets the tone for the entire song. The lyrics themselves are simple but effective, and Hooker's delivery gives them an added depth and complexity that makes the song unforgettable. Overall, "Bang Bang Bang Bang" is a powerful song about desire and the impact that one person can have on another's life.
Line by Line Meaning
Love the way you talk
I am fond of the way you talk
I likes the way you walk
I like the way you walk
When ya walk that walk
When you walk that way
And talk that talk
And speak in a confident manner
You knocks me out
You impress me
Right off-a my feet
Completely
Bang, bang, bang, bang
An expression of being smitten
Bang, bang, bang, bang
An expression of being smitten
You shot me right down
You have captivated my heart
Ho, ho, ho, ho
An expression of excitement
Ho, ho, ho, ho
An expression of excitement
Ho, ho, ho
An expression of excitement
I like it like that
I enjoy it like this
Bang, bang, bang, bang
An expression of being smitten
Whoa, yeah
An exclamation of enthusiasm
Bang, bang
An expression of being smitten
Bang, bang, bang
An expression of being smitten
Bang, bang, bang
An expression of being smitten
Bang, bang
An expression of being smitten
Hit the ground
Fall
I hit the ground
I fell
Bang, bang
An expression of being smitten
I shook the ground
I fell hard
Hit the ground
Fall
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang
An expression of being smitten
I love to see my baby walk
I enjoy watching my lover walk
She walk that walk
She has a confident gait
Tell me, do you love me?
Expressing his desire for affirmation from his lover
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Affirmative response
Walk that walk
Walk confidently
Your walk
Your gait
Talk your talk
Speak confidently
Whoa, oh, oh, oh
An exclamation of enthusiasm
I love to see my baby walk
I enjoy watching my lover walk
Walk her walk
Her unique walk
Talk her talk
Her unique speech pattern
She wiggle when she walk
Her body moves when she walks
You wiggle
A playful exchange between the singer and his lover
Yeah
An exclamation of enthusiasm
Look-a-here now
Listen to me now
Boom, boom
An onomatopoeia of a sudden action
I hit the ground
I fell
I hit the ground
I fell
Bang, bang, bang, bang
An expression of being smitten
Bang, bang, bang, bang
An expression of being smitten
Bang, bang, bang, bang
An expression of being smitten
I shook, I shook the ground
He fell hard
A bang, bang
An expression of being smitten
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: JOHN LEE HOOKER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind