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.
Down Child
John Lee Hooker Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Listen down child, please take a fool's advice
Don't ever let no one woman, Man misuse you twice
Every time she smiles, says she don't love no one but you
Everytime she smiles, says she don't love no one but you
You better watch out buddy boy,
Little girl love to drop a chunk on you
I tried so hard to not even think about my past life
I tried so hard even think about my past life
Because I don't want to ever ever make a mistake in life
Baby, I and you could be so happy,
We can be so lovin' tonight
From now on darling, we can be so happy
Be so loving from now on
Because if I ever make a mistake in life,
I know I'd ruin my happy home
The song "Down Child" by John Lee Hooker is a cautionary tale about the dangers of falling in love with someone who will only hurt you in the end. The lyrics are directed towards a "child" who is warned not to let anyone misuse them twice. The singer urges the listener to be careful, as even when a woman says she loves you and smiles at you, she may still be trying to hurt you. The singer himself has made mistakes in love in the past and tries hard not to repeat them, for fear of losing his happy home.
The theme of the song is universal and timeless, as love and heartbreak are experiences that almost everyone goes through at some point in their lives. The tone of the song is a combination of warning and lament, as the singer both urges caution and shares his own regret for past mistakes. The lyrics are simple and direct, but also powerful in their emotional impact.
Line by Line Meaning
Listen down child, please take a fool's advice
I'm telling you, young person, to take heed of my foolish counsel
Don't ever let no one woman, Man misuse you twice
Never allow a man or a woman to take advantage of you a second time
Every time she smiles, says she don't love no one but you
Whenever she smiles and professes her love for only you
You better watch out buddy boy,
Little girl love to drop a chunk on you
Be careful, my friend, because women can deceive you
I tried so hard to not even think about my past life
I made an effort to forget about my previous life experiences
Because I don't want to ever ever make a mistake in life
I fear making any mistakes in my life
Baby, I and you could be so happy,
We can be so lovin' tonight
We could have a wonderful time together tonight
From now on darling, we can be so happy
Be so loving from now on
Starting now, we can have a happy and loving relationship
Because if I ever make a mistake in life,
I know I'd ruin my happy home
I realize that if I make a mistake, I will destroy my happiness at home
Contributed by Ava N. Suggest a correction in the comments below.