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.
Boom Boom I'm Gonna Shoot You Right Down
John Lee Hooker Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I'm gonna shoot you right down
Knock you off of your feet
And take you home with me
Put you in my house
Boom, boom, boom, boom
Ow ow ow ow ow
Hmm hmm hmm hmm
I love to see you strut
Up and down the floor
When you're talking to me
That baby talk
I like it like that
Oh yeah
Talk that talk
Walk that walk
Won't you walk that walk?
And talk that talk
And whisper in my ear
Tell me that you love me
I love that talk
When you talk like that
You knock me out
Right off my feet
Ho ho ho ho
Well, talk that talk
And walk that walk
Oh yeah
Oh yeah
Talk that talk, babe
In John Lee Hooker's song Boom Boom, he talks about how he's going to "shoot you right down" and "knock you off of your feet" with his love. He's so enamored with this woman's walking and talking that he wants to take her home with him and keep her there. He enjoys her baby talk and likes it when she whispers in his ear that she loves him. He's so taken with her that he gets knocked out right off his feet. Hooker sings about how much he likes it when she struts up and down the floor, talking and walking that talk.
The song is all about the passion that Hooker feels for this woman and how much he wants to be with her. The repetition of the phrase "boom, boom, boom, boom" creates a sense of urgency and excitement, emphasizing the sexual energy of the song. The lyrics use simple language to convey powerful emotions, making the song accessible to a wide audience. Hooker's voice is raw and gritty, conveying the intensity of his desire.
Line by Line Meaning
Boom, boom, boom, boom
The singer is announcing his intentions with four strong notes.
I'm gonna shoot you right down
The singer is portraying himself as powerful and anticipates overwhelming his target.
Knock you off of your feet
The singer's actions will be so impressive that he will take his target by surprise and they will be overwhelmed by his presence.
And take you home with me
The singer wants more than a casual encounter and wants to take the target home with him.
Put you in my house
The singer wants the target to intimately share in his space and become part of his physical surroundings.
Ow ow ow ow ow
The singer is verbally indicating his strength and passion.
Hmm hmm hmm
The singer signifies a strong desire to explore physical attraction with the target.
Hmm hmm hmm hmm
The singer is further emphasizing his strong desire to explore physical attraction with the target.
I love to see you strut
The singer is admiring the target's walk and presence.
Up and down the floor
The singer is observing the target's movements from all angles.
When you're talking to me
The singer enjoys the target's communication and cherishes the target's attention.
That baby talk
The singer is enjoying the target's sweet, intimate tone.
I like it like that
The singer is pleased with the target's tone and wants more of it.
Talk that talk
The singer wants the target to share intimate communication.
Walk that walk
The singer wants the target to share a physical attraction as well.
Won't you walk that walk?
The singer is desperately yearning for the target to show physical affection.
And talk that talk
The singer wants the target to communicate passion with him.
And whisper in my ear
The singer wants the target to express their innermost desires.
Tell me that you love me
The singer craves the target's affirmation of love.
I love that talk
The singer is happy to hear the target communicate intimate and sweet desires.
When you talk like that
The singer wants the target to continue to share their intimate talk and desires.
You knock me out
The singer is overwhelmed with the target's charm.
Right off my feet
The target's charm is so overwhelming that the singer will figuratively fall over.
Ho ho ho ho
The singer is enjoying his physical attraction with the target.
Well, talk that talk
The singer is urging the target to communicate desires with him.
And walk that walk
The singer is urging the target to show physical affection.
Oh yeah
The singer is confident and satisfied with his physical attraction with the target.
Oh yeah
The singer is further emphasizing his confidence and satisfaction with his physical attraction with the target.
Talk that talk, babe
The singer is requesting intimate communication from the target, as he is happy and grateful for the target's attention.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: John Lee Hooker
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@ATAMAA
[Verse 1]
Boom, boom, boom, boom
I'm gonna shoot you right down
Right off your feet
Take you home with me
Put you in my house
Boom, boom, boom, boom
Mmmm hmmm
Mm hm hm hm
[Verse 2]
I love to see you walk
Up and down the floor
When you talking to me
That baby talk
I like it like that
You talk like that
You knock me dead
Right off my feet
A haw haw haw haw
Whoa!
[Guitar solo]
[Verse 3]
Once you walk that walk
And talk that talk
And whisper in my ear
Tell me that you love me
I love that talk
That baby talk
You knock me dead
Right off my feet
A haw haw haw haw
Yeah, yeah!
@wadesternator4787
Blues is an emotion. And everyone gets the blues
@andreasbaumler6120
Rock and Metal would have never appeared without the blues, the blues gave birth to Rock. And it's people like John Lee Hooker, B.B. King and Muddy Waters who made the electric guitar speak long before Rock'n'Roll became a mass phenomenon. And there's no better music than that real old blues to kick off the weekend. Honest music full of each kind of emotion. Who could ever be as cool as the great JLH and all the other blues heroes? Listening to this song I get lifted, and still I wonder what has become of music these days....?
@kakmaster6945
The blues were the roots, the rest were the fruits...
@FJFerra
I love all those guys, but for me is Buddy Guy the guy the perfect nexus
@Rockyourassed
Blues without Gospel would not exist, and Gospel gots its roots from Christians European choirs :).
@ememe1412
@@Rockyourassed Chanting, call and response and group singing go back all the way from before most of Europe was Christian and all the way to the Asian congregations in the Levant and across to Africa in the Coptic and Tewahedo Orthodox churches. Europe was just a step in the long journey, not the source.
@williamcarter3270
Absolutely man this kind of music is timeless
@lindaaune1075
In the early 80's my boyfriend and I went to many avenues where John was playing. We were always invited backstage to talk with him. Many hours of talking, laughing, cognac and cigars. Very good times. He was brilliant, fun and engaging. Miss those times.
@topenddean
Right on.
@nexusi6867
You're so lucky.