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 Can't Quit You Baby
John Lee Hooker Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
So I'm gonna put you down for awhile
I said I can't quit you, baby
I guess I gotta put you down for awhile
Said you messed up my happy home
Made me mistreat my only child
Yessir, you did
My love for you I could never hide
Oh, you know I love you, baby
My love for you I could never hide
Oh, when I feel you near me, little girl
I know you are my one desire
When you hear me moaning and groaning, baby
You know it hurts me deep down inside
When you hear me moaning and groaning, baby
You know it hurts me deep down inside
Oh, when you hear me, honey, baby
You know you're my one desire
Yes, you are
The lyrics to "I Can't Quit You" by John Lee Hooker are a depiction of the struggles and turmoil that the singer faces as he tries to break away from a toxic love affair. Despite knowing that he needs to let go of his lover, he admits that he is unable to resist the temptation and will have to put her down for a while to gain some perspective. He blames her for destroying his happy home and causing him to mistreat his only child.
However, he also acknowledges the power of his love for her and cannot deny his feelings. Despite the pain and suffering that he experiences due to their relationship, he knows that he cannot resist her charms and is willing to endure the hurt in order to keep her close. The moaning and groaning that he refers to is the suffering that he experiences as a result of the relationship, but it is clear that he cannot stay away from her for long.
In essence, the song is a lament about the struggles that come with letting go of a love that is not good for you. It portrays the conflicted emotions of the singer as he grapples with his desire and his need to break free.
Line by Line Meaning
I can't quit you, baby
I am unable to end our relationship, my dear.
So I'm gonna put you down for awhile
I am going to take a break from our relationship for a period of time.
Said you messed up my happy home
You negatively impacted my peaceful and content living conditions.
Made me mistreat my only child
You caused me to behave in a way that was harmful to my own child.
Yessir, you did
Without a doubt, you are responsible for my distress and pain.
Said you know I love you, baby
I have expressed to you my deep affection for you, my dear.
My love for you I could never hide
It is impossible for me to conceal the strong feelings I have for you.
Oh, you know I love you, baby
I am confident that you are aware of how much I care for you.
When I feel you near me, little girl
Being close to you, my darling, fills me with joy.
I know you are my one desire
It is clear to me that you are the one I long for above all else.
When you hear me moaning and groaning, baby
When I express my pain audibly, my love.
You know it hurts me deep down inside
You understand that my agony is profound and internal.
Oh, when you hear me, honey, baby
My love, when you listen to me suffering.
You know you're my one desire
You recognize that you are the only thing I truly hunger for.
Yes, you are
Indeed, my love, you are my sole focus.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: Willie Dixon
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Bill Keaveney
Best version. John Lee sang with such honesty
charles gilbert
Only John Lee can do it like this!!! Mr. Hooker.... GOAT!!!
grational
OMG this man is unreal. This is pure America.
Anthony Haskins
It's called the Blues and I Love it!
Aishiya1
Everyone's covered this song and everyone sings it well because everyone can totally relate, and that's why the blues is sheer guilty pleasure. I love this song. I'm just buried alive in the blues and I love it!
feah Benediktl
sends me somewhere.......
Blues Rain
wooww!
Tom29
Ok Zeppelin is dead to me now.
Mee Chee
Mmm!
Srdjan Popadic
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