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.
Let’s Make It
John Lee Hooker Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Let's make it, oh, right now, oh, yeah
Let's make it, oh, baby, me and you
I don't care what the world may say
Let's make it, let's make it
Let's make it, oh, babe, oh
Oh, yeah, not your mother or you
Not your sister or me and you
Let's get it while gettin' it, it's good, oh
Let's make it, let's make it, baby
We ain't sayin' nothin'; we ain't sayin' a thing
Let's make it, me and you
Let's make it, let's make it, let's make it
The lyrics to John Lee Hooker & Canned Heat's song Let's Make It are a straightforward call to action. The chorus repeats over and over again, urging the listener to engage in a physical relationship with the singer. Despite any potential societal or familial objections, the singer only wants to focus on themselves and the person they are addressing. They don't address anyone else, stating, "Not your mother, or your sister, or me and you." The chorus is filled with energy and passion, urging the listener to take immediate action, "Let's get it while gettin' it, it's good."
Overall, the song is a classic example of a blues love song. The lyrics, although somewhat blunt, are delivered with soulful conviction. The repetition of the chorus, backed by a driving beat and some impressive guitar solos, help to create a sense of urgency and excitement, inviting the listener to join in the fun. It's not the most profound or poetic song, but it's certainly a great example of the classic blues tradition.
Line by Line Meaning
Let's make it, let's make it, baby
Let's consummate our relationship right now, my dear
Let's make it, oh, right now, oh, yeah
Let's not waste any more time, we should do it now without delay
Let's make it, oh, baby, me and you
You and I should engage in sexual intercourse to express our love
I don't care what the world may say
I am not concerned about what others may think or say about us making love
Let's make it, let's make it
We should have sex immediately
Let's make it, oh, babe, oh
We should engage in physical intimacy passionately
Oh, yeah, not your mother or you
I am not interested in having sex with anyone else, not even your relatives
Not your sister or me and you
I do not wish to engage in sexual activity with your sister or anyone other than you and me
Let's make it, right now
We should have sex immediately
Let's get it while gettin' it, it's good, oh
We should take advantage of the opportunity to have sex while we still have the chance
Let's make it, let's make it, baby
We should have sex immediately
We ain't sayin' nothin'; we ain't sayin' a thing
We do not need to speak, our actions will speak for themselves
Let's make it, me and you
You and I should engage in a sexual act right now
Let's make it, let's make it, let's make it
We should have sex repeatedly and passionately
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., BMG Rights Management
Written by: JOHN LEE HOOKER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Jansen Art
Criminally underrated channel. John Lee Hooker needs a biopic; who'd play him though?
sun tzu
Minimalistic raw blues from the greatest bluesman that set a foot on this planet!
John Lee Hooker!
José Freitas Oliveira
Espetáculo
Anita Mrohs
So AMAZING. 🎼👍🇺🇸
Batman
Excellent!!!!...👍
Faïçal Berrim
c'est nôtre génération musical magnifique de la l'époque magnifique aussi .....
T James Glore
John Lee Hooker and VeeJay Records founded in Gary, Indiana, in 1953 made some sweet music
Jose Ramon Requena
Oh, yeaaahhh! Let's make it...