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.
Little Wheel
John Lee Hooker Lyrics
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Let me be your little wheel, babe, till your big wheel come
Lord, I'd do more rollin' than your big wheel ever done
I wanna roll you, baby, roll you all over town
Wanna roll with you, baby, roll you all over town
Well, I'll roll you so easy, baby, that you never know
Let me roll with you, baby, roll you all over town
Well, I'll roll you so easy that you never know
Let me be your little wheel, babe, till your big wheel come
Let me be your little wheel, babe, till your big wheel come
Well, I'd do more rollin' than your big wheel ever done
Let me roll with you, baby
Let me roll with you, baby
Let me roll with you, baby
The song "Little Wheel" by John Lee Hooker is an upbeat blues love song that uses the metaphor of a wheel to describe the singer's desire to be with his lover. The lyrics convey the message that the singer is willing to be a humble and reliable companion to his lover until she finds the "big wheel" she's searching for. He mentions that he will "roll" her all over town and do more "rollin'" than her big wheel ever did. The "big wheel" could mean a successful man or someone else who the singer's lover is attracted to. The song implies that the singer is confident in his abilities to satisfy his lover, and he hopes he will have the chance to prove it.
The use of the wheel metaphor is interesting as it refers to something that is essential in transportation, and the song implies that the singer is willing to be the reliable means of transport his lover needs until she finds the one she desires. The repetition of the phrase, "Let me be your little wheel, babe, till your big wheel comes" emphasizes the singer's plea to be with his lover, even when she is not fully committed. The use of the verb "roll" is also intriguing because it has sexual connotations that add to the sensuality of the song.
Line by Line Meaning
Let me be your little wheel, babe, till your big wheel come
Allow me to be there for you until someone more significant comes along
Lord, I'd do more rollin' than your big wheel ever done
I can offer you more than anyone else ever could
I wanna roll you, baby, roll you all over town
I want to be with you wherever you go
Well, I'll roll you so easy, baby, that you never know
I can provide you with the smoothest experience without you even realizing it
Let me roll with you, baby, roll you all over town
Allow me to take you places you've never been before
Let me be your little wheel, babe, till your big wheel come
I'll be your support until someone else comes along
Well, I'd do more rollin' than your big wheel ever done
I can provide you with more than anyone else
Let me roll with you, baby
Take me with you on your journey
Let me roll with you, baby
I want to be a part of your life adventures
Let me roll with you, baby
Just give me a chance to be a part of your life
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: JOHN LEE HOOKER, JAMES BRACKEN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Nunya Biznes
Never understood this song til I was someone's little wheel til their big wheel came. I know I did more rolling than the big wheel ever done! 🤣