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.
One More Time
John Lee Hooker Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Baby, please don't go.
Let's talk it over baby.
Before you go 'way.
Come back, baby.
Let's talk it over one more time.
My heart is full of sorry.
Been gone twenty-four hours, baby.
Seems like a thousand years.
Come back, baby.
Let's talk it over one more time
Lord, Lord.
My mama told me.
Papa told me, too.
Go ahead now, son.
An leave that woman.
No good woman 'lone.
Come back, baby.
Let's talk it over one more time.
Come back, baby.
Baby, please don't go.
Can't we talk it over, little girl.
Before you go way.
Come back, baby!
Come back, baby.
Let's talk it over one more time.
She left me.
Me, by myself.
How it hurt me, do I know.
She was just puttin' out.
I could not help myself.
I could not help myself.
Come back baby.
Let's talk it over one more time.
The lyrics of John Lee Hooker’s One More Time are a desperate plea for a loved one to return and talk things over before leaving for good. The chorus “Come back baby, Let’s talk it over one more time” is a repeated request to mend the relationship by discussing the issues they may be having. The blues song expresses the pain and sorrow of despair through the emotional lines “My heart is full of sorry, I only can tell. Been gone twenty-four hours, baby. Seems like a thousand years.” The singer is heartbroken and frustrated over the short time their lover has been gone and the agonizing wait they must endure.
The singer faces external pressures seemingly from their own family as the lyrics say “My mama told me. Papa told me too. Go ahead now, son. And leave that woman. No good woman 'lone.” This shows their family is anything but supportive of their relationship, adding to the singer's heartache. Despite the unfavorable situation, the singer refuses to accept the current state of things and pleads for their love to stay with them one more time.
Line by Line Meaning
Come back baby.
Asking the woman to come back so they can talk things through.
Baby, please don't go.
Pleading with the woman not to leave him and go away.
Let's talk it over baby.
Suggesting that they should have a conversation to settle the issue.
Before you go 'way.
Asking her to have a talk before she leaves him.
My heart is full of sorry.
Expressing that he regrets what led to the point of the separation.
I only can tell.
Admitting that he is solely responsible for the result.
Been gone twenty-four hours, baby.
Highlighting how short a time the woman has been away from him, but it feels like an extended period.
Seems like a thousand years.
Emphasizing that the time the woman has been gone feels like a lifetime.
Lord, Lord.
An exclamation of expression, as if to say 'oh dear.'
My mama told me.
Recalling the advice his mother gave him about dealing with women.
Papa told me, too.
Recalling the advice given to him by his father.
Go ahead now, son.
Encouragement from his parents to take action and leave the woman.
An leave that woman.
Instructions from his parents to leave his current partner.
No good woman 'lone.
The implication that he should not stay with a woman who is not good for him.
Can't we talk it over, little girl.
Suggesting to the woman that they find a way to talk things over.
Come back!
Insistence on the woman coming back to him and not leaving.
She left me.
Reflecting on the fact that his partner chose to walk away from their relationship.
Me, by myself.
Realizing that he is alone now without his partner.
How it hurt me, do I know.
Detailing how much it pains him to be separated from her.
She was just puttin' out.
Regretting that he only saw her as someone he could take advantage of and not as a valuable partner.
I could not help myself.
Admitting that he didn't have the willpower to resist his own shortcomings in their relationship.
Come back baby.
Urging the woman to come back to him before it's too late.
Let's talk it over one more time.
Reiterating the need for them to have a conversation and find a way to work things out.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: BERNARD BESMAN, JOHN LEE HOOKER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind