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.
Feelin' Is Gone
John Lee Hooker Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I don't know what to do, baby
You got me so worried, baby
I just don't know what to do, baby
The most of my troubles and worrin', baby
Is all on account of you, baby
I should have been gone from you, baby
I should have been gone from you, baby
Gone, gone, gone from you, baby
Long time, baby, long time ago, baby
My love for you, baby, it just won't let me go
My love I had for you, baby, just wouldn't let me go
Look here, baby, I knowed, I knowed, baby
What was goin' on, baby
But my love for you, baby, just wouldn't let me go
I should have been gone from you, baby
I should have been gone from you long time ago, baby
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey
I should have been gone from you, baby
I should have been gone
A long, long time ago, baby
But my love, my love, baby
My love for you just wouldn't let me go from you, baby
But now, baby, I done got over, baby
I done got over from it, baby
The feelin' is gone from me, baby
The feelin' is gone from me, baby
The feelin' is gone from me, baby
That's why I should have been gone long time ago, baby
But my love I had for you, baby
It just, just wouldn't let me go, baby, yeah
But now, the feelin' is gone now, baby
I done got over, baby, I done got over, baby, hey, hey, hey
The Feelin' Is Gone is a track by blues legend John Lee Hooker, recorded with the American rock band Canned Heat in 1971. The lyrics revolve around a relationship gone bad, leaving the author feeling lost and worried. He's been sticking around, trying to make it work, but realizes he should have left a long time ago. He's been held back by his love for the girl, but now he's finally able to move past it and let the feeling go.
The lyrics seem to suggest a sense of regret for holding on for too long, and being blinded by love. The author is acknowledging his mistake in staying in a relationship that was causing him so much anxiety and hardship. He sees now how much it was affecting him, and how much pain he's been going through. He should have left a long time ago, but was unable to because of his love. He now recognizes that the feeling is gone and he's finally been able to move on.
Overall, the lyrics are a poignant representation of what it can feel like to hold onto a toxic relationship, and the relief that comes with being able to finally leave. The message is timeless and relatable, both for those who have gone through similar experiences and those who simply enjoy soulful, heartfelt blues music.
Line by Line Meaning
I'm so worried, baby
I am anxious and troubled, my dear
I don't know what to do, baby
I am unsure and confused, my dear
You got me so worried, baby
You have caused me much distress, my dear
I just don't know what to do, baby
I am unable to decide my course of action, my dear
The most of my troubles and worrin', baby
The majority of my problems and anxieties, my dear
Is all on account of you, baby
Are because of you, my dear
I should have been gone from you, baby
I should have left you, my dear
A long time, long time ago, baby
A significant time in the past, my dear
My love for you, baby, it just won't let me go
I am still attached to you by my affection, my dear
My love I had for you, baby, just wouldn't let me go
My feelings towards you kept me from leaving, my dear
Look here, baby, I knowed, I knowed, baby
Listen to me, my dear, I was aware, I knew
What was goin' on, baby
I understood what was happening, my dear
I should have been gone from you, baby
I should have departed from you, my dear
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey
An exclamation of emphasis or excitement
But now, baby, I done got over, baby
Now, my dear, I have overcome it, my dear
The feelin' is gone from me, baby
The emotion has departed from me, my dear
That's why I should have been gone long time ago, baby
This is why I should have left much earlier, my dear
I done got over, baby, I done got over, baby, hey, hey, hey
I have moved on from it, my dear, an exclamation of emphasis or excitement
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: JOHN LEE HOOKER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind