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.
Taxi Driver
John Lee Hooker Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
She's nice, kind and every way.
(Do-doodle).
(Do-doodle-doodle-doodle-doodle).
(Doodle-doodle-doodle-doodle).
I loved that woman so hard.
I couldn't stand to see her go.
Yes, my baby-baby-baby.
Yes, my baby-baby-baby.
She did everything she said,
"Yes, I love you, love you, daddy"
I'll love ya till my dying day'.
(Do-doodle, do-doodle, doo)
Took my baby downtown now.
An bought her fine clothes.
Did everything in the world I could.
But my baby got something.
My baby got something.
My baby got something.
That I sure do love.
(Do-doodle, do-doodle).
She got me walking in my sleep.
An talking in my dream.
Doing things baby, that I sure don't like.
But my baby got something.
Yes-yes-yes-yes-yes.
My baby got something.
My baby got something.
Man, that I sure do love.
My baby got something.
My baby got something.
Man, that I sure do love.
(Do-doodle).
(Do, doodle, doodle, doodle, doodle, doodle).
(Doodle, doodle, doodle, doodle, doodle).
(Doodle, doodle, doodle, doodle).
Well, look-a-here people.
What she done, done.
Got my love, an got me on the burn.
My baby got something.
My baby got something.
My baby got something.
Man, that I sure do love.
Oh!
The opening lines of "Taxi Driver" by John Lee Hooker describe a woman that the singer has loved deeply, suggesting that he has lost her. He remembers her fondly as a "nice, kind" woman who did everything she said and promised to love him until the end of her days. In the second verse, the singer reveals that he has tried to win her back by buying her "fine clothes" and doing everything in his power to please her. Despite his efforts, he still feels like his lover has something that he "sure do love." The final verse reveals that his lover has left him for someone else, stating that she has "got [his] love" and has left him "on the burn," or emotionally burned out.
The lyrics of "Taxi Driver" suggest a sense of longing, regret, and heartache. The singer appears to be struggling to come to terms with the loss of his lover and her attraction to someone else. At the same time, there is a sense of admiration and respect for this woman who has left such an impact on his life. The repeating motif of the "do-doodle" and "doodle-doodle" sounds in the background add to the nostalgic, dreamy feeling of the song and emphasize the singer's sense of being lost in his own thoughts and emotions.
Line by Line Meaning
Yes, I had a woman, woman.
The artist is singing about a woman he used to be with.
She's nice, kind and every way.
The woman he was with was very nice and had a great personality.
(Do-doodle).
Instrumental portion of the song.
(Do-doodle-doodle-doodle-doodle).
Instrumental portion of the song.
(Doodle-doodle-doodle-doodle).
Instrumental portion of the song.
I loved that woman so hard.
The artist had a very intense love for the woman in question.
I couldn't stand to see her go.
The artist did not want the woman to leave him.
Yes, my baby-baby-baby.
The artist is still thinking about the woman he was with.
She did everything she said.
The woman kept her promises.
Yes, my baby-baby-baby.
The artist is still thinking about the woman he was with.
She did everything she said,
The woman kept her promises.
"Yes, I love you, love you, daddy"
The woman professed her love to the artist.
"I'll love ya till my dying day'."
The woman promised to love the artist forever.
(Do-doodle, do-doodle, doo)
Instrumental portion of the song.
Took my baby downtown now.
The artist took the woman out on the town.
An bought her fine clothes.
He bought her expensive clothing.
Did everything in the world I could.
The artist did everything he could to please the woman.
But my baby got something.
The woman had something special.
My baby got something.
The woman possessed something of great value.
My baby got something.
The woman had a quality that the artist desired.
That I sure do love.
The artist loved that quality.
(Do-doodle, do-doodle).
Instrumental portion of the song.
She got me walking in my sleep.
The artist can't stop thinking about the woman.
An talking in my dream.
The woman's presence is affecting his dreams.
Doing things baby, that I sure don't like.
The woman is making him act out of character.
But my baby got something.
The woman has something special.
Yes-yes-yes-yes-yes.
The artist continues to confirm the woman's positive qualities.
My baby got something.
The woman has something special.
My baby got something.
The woman has something valuable.
Man, that I sure do love.
The quality that the woman has is something he loves.
My baby got something.
The woman has something special.
My baby got something.
The woman possesses a desirable quality.
Man, that I sure do love.
The artist loves the quality she possesses.
(Do-doodle).
Instrumental portion of the song.
(Do, doodle, doodle, doodle, doodle, doodle).
Instrumental portion of the song.
(Doodle, doodle, doodle, doodle, doodle).
Instrumental portion of the song.
(Doodle, doodle, doodle, doodle).
Instrumental portion of the song.
Well, look-a-here people.
The artist is addressing the listeners.
What she done, done.
The woman did something significant.
Got my love, an got me on the burn.
She got his love and set him aflame with passion.
My baby got something.
The woman has something special.
My baby got something.
The woman has something valuable.
My baby got something.
The woman has something of great worth.
Man, that I sure do love.
The artist loves the valuable quality she possesses.
Oh!
End of the song.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Kara Pulliam
Lovin it
notvalidcharacters
Both sides of this 1955 single songwriting credits attributed to "Taub", a pseudonym for Jules Bihari of Modern Records ,who commonly took co-credits or even SOLE credits (as here) to rip off artists of their songwriting royalties, beginning around 1950. Most of John Lee Hooker's records were correctly attributed to him until the Biharis noticed the income potential of writing credits and decided "umma git me summa that". Ditto many other of their artists, using pseudonyms "Taub", "Josea" and "Ling". Ike Turner said he wrote dozens of hits that carried these credits.