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.
Time Is Marchin'
John Lee Hooker Lyrics
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Well, time is watchin' over me
Oh, baby, honey child
Well, time is marching on
You tell me, babe
Well, what you is gonna do
Well, two more days, baby
Oh, few more days, pretty child
Child, I maybe gone
You tell me, babe
Well, what you is gonna do
Oh, lady
Oh, why should you stall me around, baby?
Well, tell me right today
Well, why should you stall me around, baby?
Well, tell me right today
You know, baby
Well, time is marching on
In John Lee Hooker's "Time Is Marchin'," the lyrics are straightforward and repetitive, which is characteristic of his style. The song opens with the line, "Oh babe, well, time is watching over me." The lyrics refer to time as a force or power that can watch over someone. As the song progresses, the phrase "time is marching on" is repeated several times. This phrase could be interpreted as a warning that time is running out, or that life is passing by quickly, and that we should not waste any opportunity.
The song's lyrical content suggests a sense of urgency, perhaps the urgency of making a decision. The line, "You tell me, babe, well, what you gonna do?" is repeated several times. This could be interpreted as pushing someone to make a decision, or it could be the singer himself trying to decide what to do. The second verse features the line, "Well, two more days, baby, well, you know how maybe go home." The phrase "maybe go home" suggests uncertainty, and the sense of urgency is heightened by the repetition of "few more days, pretty child, child, I maybe gone."
One interpretation of the song's lyrics is that they are about life passing by and the need to take action before it's too late. This interpretation is supported by the repetition of the phrase "time is marching on." The song's urgency suggests that time is not on our side, and that we need to seize the opportunities that come our way.
Line by Line Meaning
Oh, babe
The singer greets someone affectionately
Well, time is watchin' over me
The passage of time is constantly present and unstoppable
Oh, baby, honey child
The singer continues to use affectionate terms for the person they are addressing
Well, time is marching on
The inevitable passage of time continues
You tell me, babe
The artist asks a question of the person they are addressing
Well, what you is gonna do
The singer is asking for a plan of action to be outlined
Well, two more days, baby
The time frame for some event is given
Well, you know how maybe go home
The artist suggest that the person addressed knows what will happen after the given time frame
Oh, few more days, pretty child
The artist continues the theme of the previous lines
Child, I maybe gone
The artist suggests that they might not be present after the given time frame
Oh, lady
The singer changes the term of address to lady
Oh, why should you stall me around, baby?
The artist questions why the person is wasting their time
Well, tell me right today
The singer demands a direct answer
You know, baby
The singer points out that the person addressed is aware of the situation
Well, time is marching on
The inevitable passage of time is reiterated
Lyrics © BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Written by: JOHN LEE HOOKER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind