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.
Decoration Day
John Lee Hooker Lyrics
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She was nice and kind to me in every way
Peoples, I had a woman
She was nice and kind to me in every way
Lord, she died; she left me
I sing the blues on every Decoration Day
Lord, I was standin' around my baby's bedside
Lord, I was standin' around my baby's beside
When my Lord taken my baby away
Well, well, when it hurt so doggone bad
Lord, I hung my head an cried
"Yes, so sorry"
She said, "Daddy, please, don't worry
'Cause everybody's got to go
Daddy, please, don't worry
'Cause everybody's got to go"
Well, well, well, well
Lord, the best woman
God knows I ever had
All this hurtin'
I just hung my head an cried
Yes, it was a sad day with me
So sad that day
So sad that day
When my Lord taken my baby away
Well, well, well, I'll meet my baby
On some old lonesome day
The lyrics to "Decoration Day" by John Lee Hooker express the pain and sorrow he feels about the loss of his beloved woman. He describes her as being kind and nice to him in every way. However, she has passed away, and now he sings the blues every Decoration Day to remember her. The first verse implies the depth of the bond he shared with her. The second verse describes how he stood by her bedside when she passed away and how it hurt him deeply.
In the third verse, Hooker recalls a conversation he had with his loved one before her passing. She tells him not to worry as everyone has to go, implying that she was at peace and ready for death. The last two verses emphasize the singer's loss, how he considers her the best woman he ever had, and how he meets her again someday.
The song carries a powerful message that losing someone you love is a painful experience, but their memories can be cherished forever. The lyrics are deep and meaningful, and Hooker's distinctive voice and bluesy guitar riffs provide an evocative backdrop to his mournful words.
Line by Line Meaning
Peoples, I had a woman
I had someone special in my life
She was nice and kind to me in every way
She treated me well and with kindness
Lord, she died; she left me
She passed away and I was left alone
I sing the blues on every Decoration Day
I remember her and grieve for her every year
Lord, I was standin' around my baby's bedside
I was with her when she passed away
When my Lord taken my baby away
When God took her from this world
Well, well, when it hurt so doggone bad
It was so painful for me
Lord, I hung my head an cried
I couldn't hold back my tears
She said, 'Daddy, please, don't worry
She tried to console me
'Cause everybody's got to go
Because everyone eventually passes on
Lord, the best woman
The most amazing person
God knows I ever had
I was lucky to have had in my life
All this hurtin'
The pain I feel
Yes, it was a sad day with me
The day I lost her was sad for me
So sad that day
It was an incredibly sad moment
Well, well, well, I'll meet my baby
One day I'll see her again
On some old lonesome day
When it's my time to go too
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Bernard Besman, John Lee Hooker
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind