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.
Cuttin' Out
John Lee Hooker Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Hey, hey, hey!
I'm leavin', leavin', leavin',
Won't be back no more
Lord, Lord
Lord, Lord
Cuttin' out this morning,
Hey!
Hey!
Won't be back no more
My woman told me, "Hit the road Johnny,
Don't come back no more"
Packed my suitcase,
Went on down the line
I got down, to the station
With suitcase in my hand
The train was leaving
Oh, the train would leave, the train was leaving
I said, "Hold the train conductor, I ain't got the time,
Get a ticket, I got money in my hand"
Paid my fare, the train started movin'
Paid my fare, when the train got movin'
Oh, don't stop rollin' 'til the whole state's outta sight
Whole state!
Outta sight
Lord, Lord, Lord
I feel so bad
Hey!
I was sittin' way down inside
I was sittin' there cryin', cryin'
The train was movin', the train was movin'
Conductor told me, said, "Johnny stop cryin', stop cryin'"
Gon' take you 'way from here
Down the line,
Down the line,
Down the line,
Down the line
Woo!
Stop crying, stop crying, stop cryin', stop crying
Takin' you away from here, down the line
Ooh
This song by John Lee Hooker feat. Canned Heat seems to be about a man who is leaving his home and his woman, possibly because of issues in their relationship. The lyrics "Hey, hey, hey! I'm leaving, leaving, leaving, won't be back no more, Cuttin' out this morning, won't be back no more" indicate that the man is leaving and not planning to return to his present situation. It seems that his woman has told him to hit the road and not come back, which he obliges by packing his suitcase and making his way to the train station. The train is his mode of transportation to get away from his problems and possibly start a new life or take some time to reflect on his situation. He is sad and crying on the train, but the conductor tells him to stop crying and that he will be taken away from his troubles and moved down the line to possibly start anew.
The song seems to be about the human desire to run away from problems and start fresh. It reveals a departure from a past issue with the hope of finding something better down the line. The use of the train in this song reflects the idea of the forward movement, of looking for something new and leaving something old behind. The repeated phrase "Won’t be back no more" emphasizes that the man is not planning to return to the situation he is leaving behind.
Line by Line Meaning
Hey, hey, hey!
Starting the song with a shout to grab attention
I'm leavin', leavin', leavin',
Won't be back no more
Lord, Lord
Lord, Lord
Expressing the decision to leave and never come back
Cuttin' out this morning,
Won't be back no more
Hey!
Hey!
Won't be back no more
Reiterating the intention to leave and not return
My woman told me, "Hit the road Johnny,
Don't come back no more"
Explaining the reason for leaving following the woman's request
Packed my suitcase,
Went on down the line
Preparing to leave by packing belongings and traveling
I got down, to the station
With suitcase in my hand
Arriving at the train station with luggage
The train was leaving
Oh, the train would leave, the train was leaving
Describing the imminent departure of the train
I said, "Hold the train conductor, I ain't got the time,
Get a ticket, I got money in my hand"
Trying to catch the train by asking the conductor to wait and offering to purchase a ticket quickly
Paid my fare, the train started movin'
Paid my fare, when the train got movin'
Oh, don't stop rollin' 'til the whole state's outta sight
Boarding the train, paying the fare, and requesting to keep moving until the destination is far away
I feel so bad
Hey!
Expressing the sadness of leaving and calling attention to it
I was sittin' way down inside
I was sittin' there cryin', cryin'
The train was movin', the train was movin'
Conductor told me, said, "Johnny stop cryin', stop cryin'"
Feeling sad while on the train and being advised by the conductor to stop crying
Gon' take you 'way from here
Down the line,
Down the line,
Down the line,
Down the line
Woo!
Promising to take the person away from the source of sadness and excitement for the travel ahead
Stop crying, stop crying, stop cryin', stop crying
Takin' you away from here, down the line
Ooh
Repeating the advice to stop crying and emphasizing the journey down the line to a new destination
Contributed by Jordyn B. Suggest a correction in the comments below.