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.
John L’s House Rent Boogie
John Lee Hooker Lyrics
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It's the House Rent Boogie
I come home last Friday, talk to the woman that I lost my job
She says, don't confront me and so I have my rent next Friday
And next Friday come, I didn't have the rent and out the door I went
Yes, yes
Yes, yes
Come here now, y'all, right 'cross the street here
Help me get this rent together
Some give me a nickel and some give me a dime
I'm tired of keepin' this movin' every night
I can't hold out much longer
Now I got this rent, now let's get together, y'all
Let's have a ball
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey
The lyrics to John Lee Hooker's song John L's House Rent Boogie tells the tale of a man who has lost his job and is struggling to pay his rent. He confronts his partner about the situation, telling her that he has lost his job. She responds by asking him to wait till next Friday for the rent payment. However, when next Friday comes, he doesn't have the rent and hence is kicked out of his house. The song also tells about how the singer pleads for help from the people around him and asks them to contribute towards helping him gather the rent.
The song uses a catchy, upbeat tune to narrate the grim reality that the singer is facing. It highlights the universal struggle of people who are living paycheck to paycheck and how the loss of a job can have devastating consequences. The lyrics do not focus on pity or sadness but instead on the hope and community support that the singer receives from those around him.
The song reflects on the resilience of the human spirit and the importance of coming together as a community to support one another during tough times. It also captures the magic that music has in bringing people together and creating a sense of belonging among those who share a common struggle.
Overall, John L's House Rent Boogie is a powerful and insightful song that captures the human experience of struggle, hope and the joys of coming together as a community to overcome adversity.
Line by Line Meaning
Hey
Greetings, attention please
It's the House Rent Boogie
This is a song about my struggle to pay rent
I come home last Friday, talk to the woman that I lost my job
I went home last Friday and informed my significant other that I was let go from my job
She says, don't confront me and so I have my rent next Friday
She responded by telling me not to argue and that she needs the rent by next Friday
And next Friday come, I didn't have the rent and out the door I went
Next Friday arrived and I didn't have the rent, so I was forced to leave the premises
Come here now, y'all, right 'cross the street here
Come over here, all of you, across the street
Help me get this rent together
Assist me in gathering the funds for rent
Some give me a nickel and some give me a dime
Some contributed a small amount and others a slightly larger amount
I'm tired of keepin' this movin' every night
I'm exhausted from continually relocating every evening
I can't hold out much longer
I'm not sure how much longer I can endure this predicament
Now I got this rent, now let's get together, y'all
I have gathered the necessary funds, now let's celebrate
Let's have a ball
Let's enjoy ourselves and have a good time
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey
An exclamation of excitement and enthusiasm
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: BERNARD BESMAN, JOHN LEE HOOKER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind