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.
Kick Hit 4 Hit Kix U
John Lee Hooker Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I'm gon' tell you a story
About two friends
Whom I known
And the whole world knowed 'em
The one and only
Jimi Hendrix
And Janis Joplin
From the needle
They O. D. 'd
Ah what a big loss
To this wonderful world
's Sad...
Dope addicts, dope addicts
You better watch yourself
Dope addicts, dope addicts
You got to watch yourself
You one of these days, one of these days
You might pass on
Stop shootin' no needle
And stop swallowin' that lsd
Stop shootin' no needles
And stop swallowin' in those pills
That needle's too heavy
Your heart can't take it none
Hey hey
I know, so many young folks
They're hooked, they're doomed to die
So many young folks
They're hooked, they're doomed to die
You better try and kick it
But you can't last long this way
Yeah...
Drug addict, drug addict
You better wake up and get wise
Drug addict, drug addict
You better wake up and get wise
Your days are numbered, your days are numbered
Your day you just don't know
You better try and kick it
You better try and kick it
That needle is too heavy for ya
It's too heavy
Hey, it's too heavy
It's too heavy for your heart, for your heart
Hey hey
It's too heavy
It's too heavy
You better kick it right now
I know you better kick it
I know it's hard
You better suffer and kick it
You better suffer and kick it
You got to suffer some
To kick
Hey it's too havy for you
(... Fades)
The lyrics to John Lee Hooker's song "Kick Hit 4 Hit Kix U" is a warning to drug addicts to kick their habits before it kills them. Hooker tells a story about his two famous friends, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, who passed away due to drug overdoses. He laments the loss that the world suffered as a result of their addiction. The song urges drug addicts to stop using needles and drugs and to try to kick the habit. Hooker empathizes with young people who are already addicted to drugs and warns them that they are doomed to die if they continue down this path.
The song is an emotional appeal to drug addicts to give up their addiction while they still can. The lyrics are a lamentation of the loss the world suffered as a result of addiction. Hooker's message is that drug addiction is a dead-end road that leads to destruction, and it is better to quit as early as possible before it's too late.
Line by Line Meaning
Looka here
Listen carefully
I'm gon' tell you a story
I'll narrate a real-life incident
About two friends
About two close associates
Whom I known
I personally knew them
And the whole world knowed 'em
They were popular globally
The one and only
The distinctive and exceptional
Jimi Hendrix
A renowned musician
And Janis Joplin
A celebrated singer
Who passed on
Who died
From the needle
Due to drug addiction
They O. D. 'd
They overdosed
Ah what a big loss
Such a significant tragedy
To this wonderful world
To the entire human race
's Sad...
It's disheartening
Dope addicts, dope addicts
Drug addicts
You better watch yourself
Be careful
You got to watch yourself
You need to be cautious
You one of these days, one of these days
Someday, you'll be in trouble
You might pass on
You could die
Stop shootin' no needle
Stop using syringes
And stop swallowin' that lsd
Stop taking LSD
And stop swallowin' in those pills
Stop ingesting medication
That needle's too heavy
Using needles is harmful
Your heart can't take it none
It's not good for your heart
Hey hey
Listen up
I know, so many young folks
A lot of young people
They're hooked, they're doomed to die
They are addicted and have a risky future
You better try and kick it
Make an effort to get rid of the addiction
But you can't last long this way
Being addicted is not sustainable
Yeah...
Indeed
Drug addict, drug addict
The addict
You better wake up and get wise
Realize the danger and get smart
Your days are numbered, your days are numbered
You have a limited time left
Your day you just don't know
You don't know when you'll die
It's too heavy for your heart, for your heart
It's causing heart problems
You better kick it right now
Quit now
I know you better kick it
It's important to quit
I know it's hard
It's not easy
You better suffer and kick it
You have to endure the pain to quit
You got to suffer some
Endure the pain
Hey it's too havy for you
Drugs are too harmful
...Fades
Song ends
Contributed by Nolan B. Suggest a correction in the comments below.