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 Need Love So Bad
John Lee Hooker Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Oh baby, I need love so bad
Because I've been mistreated
Well, baby, all my day
The woman I was lovin'
Well, she didn't understand
Well, the woman I was lovin'
'Cause she didn't never had
Well, no man to be true to her
She say, well, you know better
I just don't understand, I said, baby
Well, I need love so bad
In "I Need Love So Bad," John Lee Hooker sings about his desperate need for love after experiencing mistreatment at the hands of a woman who didn't understand him. He describes his longing for companionship as a result of feeling lonely and unloved. By using the repetition of "Oh baby, I need love so bad," Hooker conveys a sense of urgency and emotional distress.
The songwriter delves into themes of love, betrayal, and heartbreak, which are universal experiences that many people can relate to. The lines "The woman I was lovin'/Well, she didn't understand" suggests that Hooker may have been in a tumultuous relationship with someone who did not reciprocate his feelings. This idea is further reinforced by the lines "She say, well, you know better/I just don't understand" in which the woman tries to rationalize her lack of affection towards Hooker.
Overall, "I Need Love So Bad" is a poignant blues song about the emotional turmoil of being unloved and mistreated, and the need for human connection and companionship.
Line by Line Meaning
Oh baby, I need love so bad
The singer is expressing a deep desire for love.
Because I've been mistreated
The singer has been treated poorly in the past, adding to their need for love.
Well, baby, all my day
The need for love is something the singer feels constantly throughout their daily life.
The woman I was lovin'
The artist had a specific woman in mind when singing this song.
Well, she didn't understand
The woman the artist loved did not understand their need for love.
She didn't never had
The woman the singer loved had never experienced a true and faithful love.
Well, no man to be true to her
The woman the singer loved had never had a man who was faithful to her.
She say, well, you know better
The woman the artist loved thought the artist should understand her lack of understanding.
I just don't understand, I said, baby
The artist is expressing their frustration with the woman's lack of understanding.
Well, I need love so bad
The repeated line emphasizes the intensity of the artist's need for love.
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Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
croodrer
I Need Love So Bad
John Lee Hooker
Oh baby, I need love so bad
Oh baby, I need love so bad
Because I've been mistreated
Well, baby, all my day
The woman I was lovin'
Well, she didn't understand
Well the woman I was lovin'
She didn't understand
'Cause she didn't never had
Well, no man to be true to her
She say, well you know better
I just don't understand, I said baby
Well, I need love so bad
mbogucki1
This is amazing. It has now, officially become my new favorite song.
Daniël Zikarno
He can be quite sensitive and yet at the same time so cool. John Lee Hooker is awesome!
Ian Brusso
Going through the darkest saga of my life so far... this music helps...
Steve G
Damn good !!! When music was music and really had feeling .... Gotta Love the Blues and The man John Lee Hooker !!!
Mark Collins
Thank you John Lee Hooker,for a master class on the Blues.
Sahas Rara
one man, one guitar, pure blues
clausssvr
Hang in there, man. Same thing here. We are bound to be put down on our knees, but not to be defeated. It's harsh, it's hard, it's painful. It's not fair. Luckily, wise words from master John Le Hooker help us somehow to get through this darkness...
claude gouriou
That's the blues. Great and talented artist was John Lee Hooker. A fan from France :-)
Hazel Allen
One of my favourites - by far. ♥
Joshua Powers Bunch
Thank you John, needed this one today.