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.
You Know
John Lee Hooker Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
We're gonna get together one day
Yeah, yeah
I know and you know
Gonna get together one day
Well, I don't know but to say
We're gonna get together one day
I don't care what your father said
I don't care what your friends said
You know I know
We're gonna get together one day
Yeah
Keep it together, babe
Wow, well, babe, babe
Gonna get together, babe, one day, babe
Now, babe
Everybody is talking, babe
We don't care what they say
As long as you know and I know
We're gonna get together one day, babe
Yeah
Let them talk, babe, all they want
As long as you know I know
We're gonna get together one day
Babe, babe
We're gonna get together, babe
Get together, babe
No matter how long it takes
'Cause you know I know
I don't care what they say
As long as you know I know
We're gonna get together
Hmm, hoho, hoho, hoho
I know and you know
We're gonna get together
Somehow and someway
Wah
We're gonna get together, babe
Somehow and someway, babe, someway
Nobody, no one can stop us, babe
No one can stop us now
No one can stop me
No one can stop us
The song "You Know" by John Lee Hooker is a love song about the determination of two people to be together, despite any obstacle that may arise. The singer expresses his confidence in their love and in their future together, even in the face of disapproval from family or friends. He believes that their love will persist and grow, leading them to eventually be together. In the chorus, he repeats the lines "You know I know / We're gonna get together one day", affirming his conviction in their love for each other.
The verses emphasize the singer's disregard for what others may think or say about their love. He states that he does not care what her mother, father or friends have said about their relationship because he knows that they will eventually be together. He urges his partner to "keep it together" in the face of outside opinions and to trust in their love for each other.
Overall, the song is a message of hope and determination in the face of obstacles. The singer's conviction in their relationship and his unwavering belief in their future together is a testament to the strength of their love.
Line by Line Meaning
You know I know
I am aware that we will be together someday, and I know that you are also aware of it.
We're gonna get together one day
In the future, we will be in a romantic relationship.
Yeah, yeah
This relationship is inevitable, and there is an agreement between us.
I know and you know
Both of us know that someday we will be together.
Well, I don't know but to say
I have no words to describe our relationship, but I am confident that we will be together.
I don't care what your mother said
I am not affected by the opinion of your mother regarding our relationship.
I don't care what your father said
I am not affected by your father's opinion regarding our relationship.
I don't care what your friends said
I am not affected by your friends' opinions regarding our relationship.
Keep it together, babe
Hold on and stay positive, dear.
Wow, well, babe, babe
You are amazing, dear.
Now, babe
At this moment, dear.
Everybody is talking, babe
Everyone has their opinion, dear.
We don't care what they say
What others say does not bother or concern us.
Let them talk, babe, all they want
Let others talk, as it does not matter to us.
We're gonna get together, babe
We will eventually be together, dear.
No matter how long it takes
Even if it takes a long time, we will still be together.
Hmm, hoho, hoho, hoho
Humming sound indicating affirmation and anticipation.
Somehow and someway
Through any means possible, we will be together.
Wah
An interjection indicating excitement.
Nobody, no one can stop us, babe
No one can prevent us from being together, dear.
No one can stop us now
We are determined to be together, and no one can prevent that from happening.
No one can stop me
I am confident that nothing can stop me from being with you.
Lyrics © WORDS & MUSIC A DIV OF BIG DEAL MUSIC LLC
Written by: CHRIS J. BAILEY
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind