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 Want To Hug You
John Lee Hooker Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And kiss you
And squeeze you
Till my arms fall
And, baby, by that
You know
I love you so
Just come walk a little closer, baby
Let me show you what I mean
I want to hug you
And kiss you
And squeeze you
Till my arms fall off
You give so much trouble, baby
You drive me out of my mind
I want to hug you
And kiss you
And squeeze you
Till my arms fall off
And, baby, by that
You know
I love you so
In John Lee Hooker's bluesy song, "I Want To Hug You," the singer professes his love for his significant other through physical touch. The lyrics consist of the repetition of the lines "I want to hug you and kiss you and squeeze you till my arms fall off" along with the indication that this physical affection is a representation of love. The singer adds, "And, baby, by that you know I love you so." By emphasizing his desire for physical contact the singer indicates the depth and intensity of his love.
The chorus of "I Want To Hug You" establishes the theme of the song quickly and with memorable repetition. The verses expand on this theme with additional lyrics. For example, one verse reads "You give so much trouble, baby, you drive me out of my mind," which indicates that the singer's love is not absent of frustration or challenge. However, he is willing to tolerate inconvenience because of how deeply he feels towards his romantic partner.
One can interpret the song to be a celebration of the intimacy that comes with a romantic connection. Rather than proclaiming love through grand gestures, Hooker's narrator demonstrates love through physical touch. Moreover, he is willing to do so excessively as he notes he wants to do so much it would lead to his arms falling off.
Line by Line Meaning
I want to hug you
I desire to express my affection for you through a loving embrace
And kiss you
I yearn to express my love for you through a tender kiss
And squeeze you
I am filled with an overwhelming desire to hold you tight
Till my arms fall
I want to keep you in my embrace until I am physically unable to continue holding you
And, baby, by that
I hope that my boundless affection for you is made clear through these actions
You know
I am hopeful that you understand and feel the intensity of my love for you
I love you so
My feelings for you are immeasurable and all-consuming
Just come walk a little closer, baby
I am eager for your physical proximity and wish for you to move a bit nearer to me
Let me show you what I mean
I would like to demonstrate the depth and sincerity of my emotions for you
You give so much trouble, baby
Although you often challenge me, I still fiercely adore you
You drive me out of my mind
Your captivating presence overwhelms my thoughts and emotions
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: JOHN LEE HOOKER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@kenfranks1714
1
I Want to Hug You
John Lee Hooker
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Mr. Lucky
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Backstabbers
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This Is Hip
John Lee Hooker
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I Cover the Waterfront
John Lee Hooker
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Highway 13
John Lee Hooker
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Stripped Me Naked
John Lee Hooker
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Susie
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Crawlin' King Snake
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Father Was a Jockey
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@davewallace8219
Great boogie piano!
@davewallace8219
Greeeeat album!
@ElephantEarsPress
I see now - Johnnie Johnson - brilliant.
@hgtref1
First Class Blues!!
Legend John Lee Hooker!!
@keesvanbaaren1048
Boogie Ritme
The Boogie Man👍
@j.dburgeson1632
Stevie Ray Vaughan played this a lot in 83'... Live at the El Mocambo version is tops!
@u.p.woodtick3296
My favorite blues song, thank you John Lee.
@Mortthemoose
This is one of my all time favourites!!
@riniishin
Yeah! Absolutely down town!
@GregoryAlanBaileygamereviews
The King Of Rock And Roll and AC/DC's biggest influence Chuck Berry's piano player the great Johnnie Johnson on piano.