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.
Blue Monday
John Lee Hooker Lyrics
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Got me workin' like a dog all day
Here comes Tuesday, oh hard Tuesday
I'm so tired, I've got no time to play
Look out Wednesday I'm beat to my bone
My girl calls, I gotta tell her I'm not home
She knows Thursday is a hard workin day
Til Friday I get paid
All my tired has gone away
Got my money and my honey
And we're out on the town to play
Sunday morning my head is bad
But it's worth it, all the times I had
But I've still got to get my rest
For Monday is a mess Saturday morning,
Oh Satirday morning
All my tired has gone away
Me and my honey, we got some money
And were out on the town play
Sunday morning my head is bad
But it's worth all the times I had
But I've got to go and get some rest
For Monday is a mess!
John Lee Hooker's song "Blue Monday" captures the monotony and exhaustion of a working-class lifestyle. The lyrics convey the singer's disdain for Monday, the beginning of the workweek, which is the day he is subjected to hard labor all day similar to a dog. The singer expresses the sentiment that, by the end of Tuesday, he is so drained that he has no energy left to spare for himself or his partner. On Wednesday, he is utterly exhausted to the point where he can't even answer his phone. As the week progresses, Thursday is another day of grueling work, and he must wait until Friday for his paycheck. On Saturday, he feels revitalized and recharged, and it's time to enjoy his paycheck and his honey's company. Sunday is a time of hangover and regret, but he knows he must rest up for yet another "Blue Monday."
The song is an accurate and intimate portrayal of the challenges that people face as part of a working-class lifestyle, which can be tiresome and unrewarding. The singer's internal monologue represents the thoughts and emotions of many people who are trapped in this cycle of poverty and struggle. Blue Monday is a lamentation for the issues surrounding the working class, but it is also a testament to the power of the human spirit to persevere through these hardships to keep moving forward.
Line by Line Meaning
Blue Monday, how I hate blue Monday
John Lee Hooker expresses his dislike for Mondays; they make him feel blue.
Got me workin' like a dog all day
He has to work really hard, just like a dog.
Here comes Tuesday, oh hard Tuesday
Tuesday doesn't bring any relief, it's tough just like Monday.
I'm so tired, I've got no time to play
John is exhausted from working long hours and can't find any time to have fun.
Look out Wednesday I'm beat to my bone
By Wednesday, he is physically and mentally exhausted, to the point of being broken (beaten) down.
My girl calls, I gotta tell her I'm not home
He is too tired to talk to his girlfriend and has to lie to her that he's not home.
She knows Thursday is a hard workin day
His girlfriend understands that Thursday is also a difficult day for him at work.
Til Friday I get paid
Friday is payday, which is the only good thing John looks forward to during the week.
Oh Saturday morning, Saturday morning
Saturday brings relief from the difficult workweek as John wakes up without feeling tired.
All my tired has gone away
He no longer is feeling tired as he can enjoy the weekend with his girlfriend.
Got my money and my honey
He's been paid and is with his girlfriend, which makes him happy.
And we're out on the town to play
They're going out together to have fun and let loose for the weekend.
Sunday morning my head is bad
John has a headache from the previous night's partying, but it was worth it.
But it's worth it, all the times I had
Despite the headache, all the good times he had with his girlfriend were worth it.
But I've still got to get my rest
Although he had a great weekend, he still needs to rest before going back to work on Monday.
For Monday is a mess!
He dreads going back to work on Monday because it's always difficult and stressful.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Dave Bartholomew
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Diatton Blues
John Lee Hooker !!! One and only !!!
majamariechee
Love John Lee! Dylan too...Thankyou!