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.
I'm In The Mood Live
John Lee Hooker Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I'm in the mood, in the mood.
I'm in the mood for love.
I said, night time is the right time.
To be with the one you love.
You know when night come, baby God know.
You so far away.
I'm in the mood, I'm in the mood, I'm in the mood for love.
Baby, I'm in the mood for love.
(guitar solo & instrumental)
I said, yes my mother told me.
To leave that girl alone.
But my mother didn't know.
What that girl was puttin' down.
I'm in the mood, I'm in the mood, baby
I'm in the mood for love.
I'm in the mood, in the mood.
Baby, I'm in the mood for love.
The song "I'm In The Mood" by John Lee Hooker is a classic blues track that is centered on the theme of love and desire. The lyrics convey the sense of longing that the singer has for his love interest and the deep desire he feels to be with her. The use of repetition in the line "I'm in the mood" emphasizes the singer's intense emotional state and his unbridled passion. The reference to night time being the right time to be with the one you love reveals a sense of urgency and the need for physical intimacy.
The second verse of the song reflects the internal conflict that the singer faces as his mother warns him to leave the girl alone, but he is unable to resist her charms. This adds a layer of complexity to the song and reveals the singer's struggle with his own desires and sense of responsibility. The guitar solo and instrumental section add to the overall feeling of the song and help to create a sense of anticipation and excitement.
Line by Line Meaning
I'm in the mood, I'm in the mood for love.
I am feeling romantic and desire love and affection.
I'm in the mood, in the mood.
I am in a mindset of longing and desire.
I'm in the mood for love.
I am craving and seeking love.
I said, night time is the right time.
I believe that nighttime is the perfect time for romance and intimacy.
To be with the one you love.
Spending time with someone you love is ideal during the night.
You know when night come, baby God know.
As the night falls, it feels like you are so far away from me and it feels infinite.
I'm in the mood, I'm in the mood, I'm in the mood for love.
I am in a state of longing and desire for love and affection.
Baby, I'm in the mood for love.
I am yearning and desiring love and affection from my significant other.
(guitar solo & instrumental)
Musical interlude.
I said, yes my mother told me.
My mother warned me.
To leave that girl alone.
My mother advised me to stay away from a particular girl.
But my mother didn't know.
Despite my mother's advice, she did not know the true nature of what the girl had to offer.
What that girl was puttin' down.
The girl was offering me something special, and my mother did not recognize it.
I'm in the mood, I'm in the mood, baby
I am still feeling the longing and desire for love and affection.
I'm in the mood for love.
I yearn for love and affection from someone in my life.
Lyrics © BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Written by: JOHN LEE HOOKER JR
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
никонов артем
Blues lives in the hearts of millions! Huge greetings from RUSSIA !!!
Aleksander B Skarstein
If you ain't got the blues in your heart . Then i am sorry to say you ain't got no heart.
Salvador Trujillo González
Uno de los grandes bluesistas de la historia
Simon Folkard
The real raw blues from one of the best!
Humberto Córdova
El mejor guitarrista
Viktor Melnichenko
Bravissimo !!!
BLUES ///
🎸 🎶 🎸 🎵 🎸 EL MAS GRANDE !!! 🎸
Wilfried Sommer
I'm in the MOOD!!!👍👍👍
Николай Рыгулин
blues ❤️🔝
Julianas Batarginas
This goes tough very very tough , this guy went a long way