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.
Nobody Knows
John Lee Hooker Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Nobody know, know what I've been through
Sometime, sometime I didn't have food to go on my table
That's why I sang the blues
You got to feel it, you got to know it
You got to be and been through this thing to sing the blues
And that's why nobody know what I've been through
I was born on a little cotton farm
My mother and my father were very poor
I was unprivileged, I didn't have a chance
And that's why I just sang the blue
People, you don't know I've been through
I wonder why everything I do
I just can't get lucky, save my life
My mother and my father both are dead and gone
They loved me in the world alone
I ain't got nobody to tell my trouble to
Well, I'm drifting, I'm drifting
I'm drifting from town to town
But nobody know I've been through
The song "Nobody Knows" by John Lee Hooker is a deeply personal and emotional account of the hardships and struggles that the artist has faced in his life. The lyrics highlight the pain and suffering that Hooker has undergone, and the sense of isolation that he feels as a result of his experiences. The song speaks to the power of music as a means of expressing and coping with difficult emotions, and emphasizes the importance of empathy and understanding in coming to terms with the trials of life.
The opening lines of the song - "Nobody know, nobody know what I've been through / Nobody know, know what I've been through" - set the tone for its powerful themes of pain, loneliness, and isolation. Hooker sings of his struggles to put food on the table and of the challenges he has faced in his life due to his poverty and lack of privilege. He speaks to the profound sense of frustration and desperation that have accompanied his journey, and emphasizes the ways in which music has been a means of coping with his struggles.
Throughout the song, Hooker communicates a sense of deep sadness and isolation, poignantly conveying the sense that he is alone with his pain and that nobody truly understands what he has been through. The song thus serves as a powerful testament to the emotional depths that music can reach, and to the ways in which it can bring solace and connection even in the darkest of times.
Line by Line Meaning
Nobody know, nobody know what I've been through
No one understands my struggles and hardships
Nobody know, know what I've been through
I've faced many challenges in my life that others cannot comprehend
Sometime, sometime I didn't have food to go on my table
There were times when I couldn't even afford to eat
That's why I sang the blues
I turned to music and the blues genre to express my pain and struggles
You got to feel it, you got to know it
In order to truly understand the blues, you need to have experienced similar feelings and situations
You got to be and been through this thing to sing the blues
Only those who have experienced hardship can truly sing the blues
And that's why nobody knows what I've been through
Others cannot relate to my experiences and therefore cannot fully understand my struggles
I was born on a little cotton farm
I grew up in a poor family on a small farm
My mother and my father were very poor
My parents also struggled financially
I was unprivileged, I didn't have a chance
Due to my circumstances and lack of resources, I didn't have the same opportunities as others
And that's why I just sang the blues
Music was my only way of expressing my feelings and struggles
People, you don't know I've been through
Others don't realize the hardships I've faced
I wonder why everything I do
Despite my efforts, I still struggle to make ends meet
I just can't get lucky, save my life
I feel like I'm constantly unlucky and can't catch a break
My mother and my father both are dead and gone
Both of my parents have passed away
They loved me in the world alone
Despite their struggles, they loved me and did everything they could for me
I ain't got nobody to tell my trouble to
I have no one to confide in about my problems
Well, I'm drifting, I'm drifting
I feel lost and unsure about my future
I'm drifting from town to town
I have no stable home and move around frequently
But nobody know I've been through
No one truly understands the extent of my struggles
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: JOHN LEE HOOKER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
occupyyourmind2
Can't beat this blues. John Lee Hooker is the greatest. Many thanks for this.
MC
Well said 😎👍
Jose Garcia
Un genio del blues.
country music by dode
Oh mercy..what a talent... one of my top artists of all time
Sheila Barron
Yes John Lee Hooker you've had to live through some things Thank you John Lee Hooker🖤💙🎤🎸♥️
Antonis Lambidis
Brilliant sound !
Was Somebody
“Everything I do I can’t get a look at to save my Life...” Profound words and performance.
Faïçal Berrim
version Française : - personne ne sait , personne ne sait , ce que j'ai vécu , personne ne sait , personne ne sait , ce que j'ai vécu , parfois parfois , je n'avais pas à manger sur ma table , c'est pourquoi j'ai chantée le blues , vous devez le sentir , vous devez le savoir , tu dois être et été à travers cette chose à chanter le blues , et c'est pourquoi personne ne sait ce que vécu , je suis né dans petite ferme de coton , ma méré et mon père étaient très pauvres , je n'étais pas privilégié , je n'avais aucune chance , et c'est pourquoi je viens de chantier le blues , les gens vous savez pas ce que j'ai vécu , je me demande pourquoi tout ce que je fais , je ne peux pas avoir de la chance , sauver ma vie , ma mère et mon père sont morts et sont partis , ils m'ont aime dans le monde seul , je n'ai personne à que dire mes ennuis , oh bien , je dérivée , je dérivée , je dérivée de ville en ville , mais personne ne sait que j'ai vécu ....
clara Hernu
Comme c est beau je viens de découvrir les paroles.sans compter la musique...
Les larmes me montent aux yeux....
Antje Dirksen-Post
So strong, so compelling, the blues.