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.
My Own Blues
John Lee Hooker Lyrics
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It's my own fault, darlin', caused you treat me the way you do
When you left me, darlin', I was callin' from town to town
Oh, won't you give me one more chance?
Oh, baby, won't you give me one more chance?
Baby, I'll prove that I'm in love with you, you know I'll be travelin' no more
It's my own fault, darlin', I made you treat me the way you do
Baby, I go alone, I just realized all I did
Oh, goodbye, baby, I know we may never meet again
Oh, goodbye, baby, I know we may never meet again
But it's my own fault, darlin'--I made you treat me the way you did
In John Lee Hooker's song "My Own Blues," the singer is reflecting on the aftermath of a failed relationship and takes responsibility for the way he has been treated by his former lover. Throughout the song, he acknowledges that his actions led to the disappointment and pain he is feeling. He realizes that he made mistakes and let his love slip away, but now he is pleading for a chance to make things right. Despite the regretful tone of the lyrics, there is a sense of acceptance and understanding that he must take ownership of his missteps.
The repetition of the phrase "It's my own fault" emphasizes the theme of taking responsibility, and the use of the word "darling" throughout the song creates a melancholic and nostalgic feel. In the end, the singer acknowledges that this may be the end of the road for him and his former lover, but he realizes that it's his own fault for the way things ended up, and he has learned from his mistakes.
Line by Line Meaning
It's my own fault, darlin', that you treat me the way you do
I am aware that I am responsible for the way you behave towards me, my love.
It's my own fault, darlin', caused you treat me the way you do
I know that the way you treat me is because of my own actions and choices, my dear.
When you left me, darlin', I was callin' from town to town
After you left me, my love, I was desperately searching for you in various towns.
Oh, won't you give me one more chance?
Please, my love, can I have another opportunity to prove myself to you?
Oh, baby, won't you give me one more chance?
My dear, can you please give me one more chance to show you my true feelings?
Baby, I'll prove that I'm in love with you, you know I'll be travelin' no more
My love, I promise to show you my love and commitment and won't leave you for any reason anymore.
It's my own fault, darlin', I made you treat me the way you do
I acknowledge that I am the one responsible for your behavior towards me, my dear.
It's my own fault, darlin', I made you treat me the way you do
I am aware that my own actions and choices have led to the way you treat me, my love.
Baby, I go alone, I just realized all I did
I understand that I must face the consequences of my actions and decisions alone, my dear.
Oh, goodbye, baby, I know we may never meet again
Farewell, my love, I accept that we may never cross paths again in the future.
Oh, goodbye, baby, I know we may never meet again
My dear, I bid you farewell, knowing that there may never be another chance for us to see each other again.
But it's my own fault, darlin'--I made you treat me the way you did
I know that it is entirely my fault that you behave towards me the way you do, my love.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: John Lee Hooker
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind