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 Lee's House Rent Boogie
John Lee Hooker Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
[Spoken:]
Hey!
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 an' so I have my rent next Friday
Yes, yes!
Hmm, hmm
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 song John Lee's House Rent Boogie by John Lee Hooker is a slow-paced, blues style track that tells the story of the singer's struggles to pay his rent. The first verse starts with the singer coming home last Friday and telling his partner that he has lost his job. The partner responds by telling him not to confront her, and then asks him to have his rent ready by the next Friday. However, when next Friday comes, he doesn't have the rent and is forced to leave the house. The singer then calls out to his neighbors, asking for their help in raising the money to pay his rent. He asks for nickels and dimes, and expresses his frustration at having to keep moving every night.
The song is a commentary on the difficulties faced by many African Americans in the mid-twentieth century, and the struggle to find stability and security in a society that favored white Americans. The lyrics are infused with a sense of frustration and desperation, as the singer realizes that he cannot keep up with the demands of his landlord and that he may not be able to keep a roof over his head. The song is also notable for its stripped-down instrumentation, with just a simple guitar riff and vocals backing up the singer's powerful voice.
Overall, the John Lee's House Rent Boogie is a reflection of the social and economic conditions faced by many African Americans in the mid-twentieth century, and a powerful statement about the struggle to find security and stability in a society that was often hostile to their interests.
Line by Line Meaning
Hey!
Attention! Something important is about to happen.
It's the house rent boogie
This is a song about my struggles to pay my rent.
I come home last Friday, talk to the woman that I lost my job
I returned home last Friday and told my partner that I had lost my job.
She says don't confront me an' so I have my rent next Friday
She told me not to argue and said I could pay the rent on the following Friday.
An' next Friday come, I didn't have the rent an' out the door I went
When the following Friday arrived, I still couldn't pay the rent and I was kicked out of my place.
Yes, yes!
This is a confirmation that the events really happened.
Hmm, hmm
This is a non-verbal sound expressing dissatisfaction or contemplation.
Come here now y'all, right 'cross the street here
I'm asking people nearby to come and help me out.
Help me get this rent together
I need everyone's help to gather the money to pay my rent.
Some give me a nickel and some give me a dime
I'm accepting any amount of money people can offer me.
I'm tired of keepin' this movin' every night
I'm exhausted from worrying about my rent situation every night.
I can't hold out much longer
I don't think I can keep going like this for much longer.
Now I got this rent, now let's get together, y'all
Now that I have the money to pay my rent, let's all celebrate together.
Let's have a ball
Let's have a great time and forget about our worries for a while.
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!
This is a joyful shout of excitement and celebration.
Contributed by Samuel P. Suggest a correction in the comments below.