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.
Bottle Up and Go
John Lee Hooker Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Thought it was a duck
Put him on the table with his legs stickin' up
You gotta bundle up and go, yeah
You gotta bundle up and go
Well, ya high pile o' women
Sho' gotta bundle up and go
You ain't too old just to shift them gears
You gotta bundle up and go
You gotta bundle up and go
You gotta bundle up and go
Sho' gotta bundle up and go
Yeah
Well, a nickel is a nickel, dime is a dime
House full-a chillun and now one's mine
I gotta bundle up and go, I gotta bundle up and go
Well, you high pile o' women sho' gotta bundle up and go
The song "Bottle Up and Go" by legendary blues musician John Lee Hooker is a classic example of the traditional blues style. The lyrics of the song are simple, but the emotions and the raw energy with which they are delivered make them highly effective. The first few lines of the song tell a story of a mother who mistakenly kills a chicken that she had thought was a duck. She then serves the dead chicken at the dining table with its legs in the air. The song uses this absurd incident to make a point about the unpredictable nature of life and how one must be ready to face unexpected challenges at all times. The chorus repeatedly emphasizes the need to "bundle up and go" whenever faced with adversity.
The second half of the song talks about the struggle of life in general. It speaks about how one may become old and gray with age, but that does not mean that they are unable to adapt to changing circumstances. The verse "a nickel is a nickel, a dime is a dime, house full of children and now one's mine" is a common theme in blues music, symbolizing the reality of life and the struggle to survive. Hooker's vocal delivery and the driving rhythm of the song give it a sense of urgency and intensity, further emphasizing the theme of survival in the face of adversity.
Line by Line Meaning
Well, mama killed a chicken
The singer's mother mistakenly killed a chicken, thinking it was a duck
Thought it was a duck
Contradicting reality, the chicken had been thought of as a duck
Put him on the table with his legs stickin' up
The chicken's body was placed on the table in an unusual position
You gotta bundle up and go, yeah
Life is full of unexpected events, so you must be prepared to move on when necessary
You gotta bundle up and go
Reiterating the need for resilience and adaptability in life
Well, ya high pile o' women
Referring to a group of attractive women
Sho' gotta bundle up and go
Even beautiful women can't escape the need for change and moving on
May be old, may be gray
Age and appearance don't matter in the face of constant change
You ain't too old just to shift them gears
You're never too old to adapt to new circumstances and make necessary changes
You gotta bundle up and go
Emphasizing the importance of being prepared to adjust to life's challenges
You gotta bundle up and go
Reiterating the need for resilience and adaptability in life
You gotta bundle up and go
Emphasizing the importance of being prepared to adjust to life's challenges
Sho' gotta bundle up and go
Highlighting the inevitability of change and the need to accept it
Yeah
General expression of assent or affirmation
Well, a nickel is a nickel, dime is a dime
Money, regardless of amount, is still valuable and important
House full-a chillun and now one's mine
Having a lot of kids around, but none of them belong to the singer
I gotta bundle up and go, I gotta bundle up and go
The singer is ready and willing to adapt to changing circumstances
Well, you high pile o' women sho' gotta bundle up and go
Even the most attractive and desirable women can't avoid the need to move on and adapt to new situations
Lyrics © BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Written by: JOHN LEE HOOKER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@reggiebrousseau5283
I love metal but All rock comes from black culture. Robert Johnson. Howlin Wolf. Hooker. Albert King. Bb King. Buddy Guy. Willie Dixon. Thank you so much for building the foundation
@kenken467
What treasure he was
@sammymarshall2437
Jhon Lee Rooker :
Amazing , amazing .
@hernanrodriguezsilvera5645
Thank you, very much...!!!
Regards from Uruguay...
@DrBoneright
There's no substitute for THE HOOK!
@mattbluesmain1359
saw him at ann arbor blues/jazz festival then at the trobador slapped me 5 as he walked past my isle seat at break i said you're the king john lee he back slapped my outstretched
hand as he walked by
@presuntoequeijo
Classic!
@KartKing4ever
This guy was a pretty big inspiration for Led Zeppelin, specifically Robert Plant's lyrics.