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 Cover The Waterfront
John Lee Hooker Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I'm watching the sea,,
Will the one I love,
Be coming back to me?
I cover the waterfront,
In search of my love,
And I'm covered by,
Here am I,
Patiently waiting,
Hoping and longing,
Oh! How I yearn!
Where are you?
Are you forgetting?
Do you remember?
Will you return?
I cover the waterfront,
I'm watching the sea,
For the one I love,
Must come back to me.
The lyrics to John Lee Hooker and Van Morrison's "I Cover The Waterfront" are reflective of a person's longing and testifies the lengths to which they will go to be united with a lost love. The lyrics express the singer's feelings of emptiness and despair, as they wait as a lonely figure, watching over the tumultuous sea, hoping for the return of their love. The imagery created by the words is evocative of forlornness, loneliness, and disappointment.
The song's strongest points are the emotive lines that urge the return of a loved one by posing rhetorical questions: “Where are you? Are you forgetting? Do you remember? Will you return?” The message centers on the singer's unwavering desire to be united with his love, elucidating his persistence and dedication to winning back the significant other regardless of the odds.
In conclusion, "I Cover The Waterfront" explores the theme of lost love and the human struggle to regain it despite an overwhelming sea of uncertainty. The lyrics give voice to the pain, hope, and ultimately, hopelessness felt during a significant loss.
Line by Line Meaning
I cover the waterfront,
I search every nook and cranny of the waterfront
I'm watching the sea,,
I keep a close eye on the sea
Will the one I love,
I wonder if my beloved
Be coming back to me?
Will return to me?
I cover the waterfront,
I sweep through the waterfront
In search of my love,
Seeking my one true love
And I'm covered by,
I am surrounded by
A starless sky above.
A dark and gloomy sky above.
Here am I,
Here I am,
Patiently waiting,
Enduring a long wait
Hoping and longing,
Wishing and yearning
Oh! How I yearn!
Oh! How much I yearn!
Where are you?
Where are you, my love?
Are you forgetting?
Have you forgotten about me?
Do you remember?
Do you still remember me?
Will you return?
Will you come back to me?
I cover the waterfront,
I scour the waterfront
I'm watching the sea,
I'm keeping a lookout on the sea,
For the one I love,
In anticipation of my beloved
Must come back to me.
Returning back to me is a necessity for my happiness
Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing
Written by: John Lee Hooker
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@kats6875
I can see why they won a Grammy for this song. So much love between them, so much respect. This song touches you very soul with its beauty.
@grandparamone8624
One of the greatest performances of all time.
@GjaP_242
5:15!
@ellen823ful
Yes! It went straight to my heart ❤️ like an arrow! To my soul. The men sing this song the best.
@carlvetrano1825
This song has a very special place in my heart. On September 4th, 1996 driving home from the hospital where my father had just passed this song was playing and my tears were streaming. I think it was a gift from him so I would have another thing to remember him on. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of him and all that he taught me. He was a self educated man that only went to the eighth grade, but he was the smartest man I ever knew. Miss you Pop.
@naomitracy5684
Carl Vetrano this song was written for the ones of us...waiting out the in between hours...it played on a youtube auto play while i set at my borthers grave last winter...we loved the blues and Van Morrison played the music we danced to every sunday night when we closed the bar....my brother left us last summer...by mistake...so till he comes back i cover the waterfront....and all the empty times in between....
@macbattle7833
I love music so much because, somehow, it touches people in places that they sometimes reserve for themselves. Thank you for sharing this moment publicly and I hope the music plays on for you.
@robertbattle555
Just a wonderful song sung by two of the great ones. Sorry for your loss but a great way to remember your Dad
@chounig
Carl,
Reçois toute ma profonde compassion pour toi, pour ton papa.
Comment ne pas pleurer à l ecoute de ce duo extraordinaire,
meme sans ce malheur qui t est arrivé ce triste jour là ?!
@homer151
feel the same way both of mine have gone you never get over it just have gone on above all they would not want us to be sad it hard take care Geoff X