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 Like To See You Walk
John Lee Hooker Lyrics
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I'm crazy 'bout your walk
I love to see you walk
You my babe, I got my eyes on you
You got dimples in your jaw
You got dimples in your jaw
You got dimples in your jaw
I love to see you strut
I'm crazy about you switch
I love to see you strut
You my babe, I got my eyes on you
Well, I see you every day in your neighborhood
Well, I see you every day
Well, I see you every day
You my babe, I got my eyes on you
You my babe, I got my eyes on you
You my babe, I got my eyes on you
Yeah
At first glance, John Lee Hooker's "I Like To See You Walk" might seem to be a simple ode to a woman's physical attributes. However, upon closer examination, it reveals a deeper appreciation for a woman's overall presence and confidence. The repeated refrain of "I love to see you walk" suggests that the woman's stride holds a certain power and attraction for Hooker. He's "crazy" about her "walk" and "strut," indicating that her movement and posture are key elements of what draws him to her.
Furthermore, the mention of "dimples in your jaw" adds a unique and specific detail to the description of the woman. This detail, along with the repeated declaration that "you my babe, I got my eyes on you," suggests a level of intimacy and familiarity between Hooker and the woman in question. It's not just a passing infatuation or casual admiration, but a deep-seated appreciation for the entire package of a particular woman.
The final verse, which states "Well, I see you every day in your neighborhood," suggests that Hooker has a real-life obsession with this woman. Perhaps she actually does live in his neighborhood and he sees her regularly, or perhaps it's a metaphor for his constant thoughts of her. Either way, the repetition of "you my babe, I got my eyes on you" reinforces the idea that he's fixated on this woman, both physically and emotionally.
Line by Line Meaning
I love to see you walk
I enjoy observing your gait
I'm crazy 'bout your walk
I am infatuated with the way you walk
You my babe, I got my eyes on you
You are my significant other and I am constantly watching you
You got dimples in your jaw
Your smile is adorned with small dents in your jawbone
I love to see you strut
I love to see you walk with a confident and proud demeanor
I'm crazy about you switch
I am crazy about the way you move and sway your hips
Well, I see you every day in your neighborhood
I see you every day in the area where you live
You my babe, I got my eyes on you
You are still my significant other and I am still constantly watching you
Yeah
An exclamation of affirmation or agreement
Lyrics © BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Written by: JAMES BRACKEN, JOHN LEE HOOKER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Laura Milagros
10 28 19 Midsommer Murders Season 10 epi 4 (2006!) brought me here ..."ah how how how" .... Been a fan of JLH since ... 1967!
Julius Kupfer
Me too😂