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 Mad
John Lee Hooker Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
At least I thought I did
Taken that man in my house
Give him my food over my table
That I couldn't afford
He come to me, he said
"Johnny, ain't got no place to stay"
I get you a place to stay, and a bed to sleep in
That I couldn't afford
When I found out you with my wife
Now I'm mad, like Al Capone
Well, I warned you one time
Next time I warn you
I'm gonna use my gun on you
'Cause I'm mad with you
I'm mad with you, like Al Capone
Look, man, I told you one time before
But this time I'm gonna teach you
A little lesson you won't forget
Take this man right down by the riverside
I might drown you,
I might shoot you
I don't know
Gonna tie your hands, gonna tie your feet
Gag you so you can't talk to nobody
I'm mad, I'm mad with you
You're sinkin'; I'm mad
The song "I'm Mad" by John Lee Hooker tells a story of betrayal and vengeance. It describes the male protagonist's disappointment and anger after finding out that his friend has been intimate with his wife. The song's narrator claims that he had taken the man into his home despite being unable to afford to feed him, demonstrating an act of kindness and friendship. However, the man takes advantage of the singer's generosity and commitment to friendship, leading to a hurtful betrayal. This act has caused the singer to become incredibly angry, likening himself to Al Capone, a notorious gangster known for his ruthless and violent behavior.
Despite the hurt and anger, the singer gives his friend one last warning before threatening to use his gun on him. The singer then takes him to the riverside, where his final fate becomes unknown, leaving the listener's imagination to fill in the blanks of what comes next.
Overall, "I'm Mad" portrays themes of deception, betrayal, and revenge, demonstrating the complex and intense emotions that can arise from the breakdown of a close relationship.
Line by Line Meaning
I had a friend one time
I once had a friend before
At least I thought I did
Although I believed we were friends, I'm not so sure anymore
Taken that man in my house
I welcomed him into my home
Give him my food over my table
I offered him food from my own table
That I couldn't afford
Even though I couldn't really afford it
He come to me, he said
He approached me with a request
"Johnny, ain't got no place to stay"
"Johnny, I don't have a place to stay"
I said, "Yes, man, come to my house"
I told him that he could stay with me
I get you a place to stay, and a bed to sleep in
I promised to provide him with a place to sleep
That I couldn't afford
Even though it was difficult for me to do so
When I found out you with my wife
When I discovered that you were with my wife
Now I'm mad, like Al Capone
I'm furious and angry, like Al Capone
Well, I warned you one time
I already warned you once before
Next time I warn you
If there is a next time when I have to warn you again
I'm gonna use my gun on you
I'm prepared to use my gun against you
'Cause I'm mad with you
I'm very upset with you
I'm mad with you, like Al Capone
I'm as angry as Al Capone was known to be
Look, man, I told you one time before
Listen, I already warned you once
But this time I'm gonna teach you
This time, I intend to show you
A little lesson you won't forget
A lesson that you will remember
Take this man right down by the riverside
Take this man down to the river
I might drown you,
I may drown you
I might shoot you
Or I may shoot you
I don't know
I haven't decided yet
Gonna tie your hands, gonna tie your feet
I will restrain your hands and feet
Gag you so you can't talk to nobody
I will also silence you so that you cannot communicate with anyone
I'm mad, I'm mad with you
I'm extremely angry and upset with you
You're sinkin'; I'm mad
You're in trouble; I'm angry
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: JOHN LEE HOOKER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Albert Andrus
Mad like Sonny Liston, mad like Cassius Clay!
Roosevelt Davis
Or maybe mad like Bruce Lee and mad like Chuck Norris. Hahahaha, 😂