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John Lee Hooker

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Template:Short description {{#invoke:Other people|otherPeople}} Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox musical artist

John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912Template:Sfn or 1917Template:Sfn<ref name=jlh>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues that he developed in Detroit. Hooker often incorporated other elements, including talking blues and early North Mississippi hill country blues. He developed his own driving-rhythm boogie style, distinct from the 1930s–1940s piano-derived boogie-woogie. Hooker was ranked 35 in Rolling StoneTemplate:'s 2015 list of 100 greatest guitarists, <ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> and has been cited as one of the greatest male blues vocalists of all time.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Some of his best known songs include "Boogie Chillen'" (1948), "Crawling King Snake" (1949), "Dimples" (1956), "Boom Boom" (1962), and "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer" (1966). Several of his later albums, including The Healer (1989), Mr. Lucky (1991), Chill Out (1995), and Don't Look Back (1997), were album chart successes in the U.S. and UK. The Healer (for the song "I'm in the Mood") and Chill Out (for the album) both earned him Grammy wins,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> as well as Don't Look Back, which went on to earn him a double-Grammy win for Best Traditional Blues Recording and Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals (with Van Morrison).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Early lifeEdit

Hooker's date of birth is a subject of debate; the years 1912, 1915, 1917, 1920, and 1923 have all been suggested. Most official sources list 1917, though at times Hooker stated he was born in 1920. Information found in the 1920 and 1930 censuses indicates that he was actually born in 1912.Template:Sfn In 2017, a series of events were held to celebrate the supposed centenary of his birth.<ref>Brian McCollum, "John Lee Hooker to get year-long 100th birthday tribute", Detroit Free Press, May 1, 2017.</ref> In the 1920 federal census, John Hooker is seven years old and one of nine children living with William and Minnie Hooker in Tutwiler, Mississippi.

It is believed that he was born in Tutwiler, in Tallahatchie County, although some sources say his birthplace was near Clarksdale, in Coahoma County.Template:Sfn He was the youngest of the 11 children of William Hooker (born 1871, died after 1923),Template:Sfn a sharecropper and Baptist preacher, and Minnie Ramsey (born c. 1880, date of death unknown). In the 1920 federal census,<ref>U.S. Census, Series T625, Roll 895, p. 235, in the city of Tutwiler, Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, Supervisor's District 2, Enumeration District 87, Sheet 29 A, Lines 18–19, enumerated February 3, 1920.</ref> William and Minnie were recorded as being 48 and 39 years old, respectively, which implies that Minnie was born about 1880, not 1875. She was said to have been a "decade or so younger" than her husband,Template:Sfn which gives additional credibility to this census record as evidence of Hooker's origins.

The Hooker children were homeschooled. They were permitted to listen only to religious songs; the spirituals sung in church were their earliest exposure to music. In 1921, their parents separated. The next year, their mother married William Moore, a blues singer, who provided John Lee with an introduction to the guitar (and whom he would later credit for his distinctive playing style).Template:Sfn

Moore was his first significant blues influence. He was a local blues guitarist who, in Shreveport, Louisiana, learned to play a droning, one-chord blues that was strikingly different from the Delta blues of the time.Template:Sfn

Another influence was Tony Hollins, who dated Hooker's sister Alice, helped teach Hooker to play, and gave him his first guitar. For the rest of his life, Hooker regarded Hollins as a formative influence on his style of playing and his career as a musician. Among the songs that Hollins reputedly taught Hooker were versions of "Crawlin' King Snake" and "Catfish Blues".Template:SfnTemplate:Page needed

At the age of 14, Hooker ran away from home, reportedly never seeing his mother or stepfather again.Template:Sfn In the mid-1930s, he lived in Memphis, Tennessee, where he performed on Beale Street, at the New Daisy Theatre and occasionally at house parties.Template:Sfn

He worked in factories in various cities during World War II, eventually getting a job with the Ford Motor Company in Detroit in 1943. He frequented the blues clubs and bars on Hastings Street, the heart of the black entertainment district, on Detroit's east side. In a city noted for its pianists, guitar players were scarce. Hooker's popularity grew quickly as he performed in Detroit clubs, and, seeking an instrument louder than his acoustic guitar, he bought his first electric guitar.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Earlier careerEdit

Hooker was working as a janitor in a Detroit steel mill when his recording career began in 1948,Template:Sfn when Modern Records, based in Los Angeles, released a demo he had recorded for Bernie Besman in Detroit.Template:Sfn The single, "Boogie Chillen'Template:-", became a hit and the best-selling race record of 1949.Template:Sfn Though illiterate,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Hooker was a prolific lyricist. In addition to adapting traditional blues lyrics, he composed original songs. In the 1950s, like many black musicians, Hooker earned little from record sales, and so he often recorded variations of his songs for different studios for an up-front fee. To evade his recording contract, he used various pseudonyms, including John Lee Booker (for Chess Records and Chance Records in 1951–1952), Johnny Lee (for De Luxe Records in 1953–1954), John Lee, John Lee Cooker,<ref>Liner notes. Alternative Boogie: Early Studio Recordings, 1948–1952.</ref> Texas Slim, Delta John, Birmingham Sam and his Magic Guitar, Johnny Williams, and the Boogie Man.Template:Sfn

His early solo songs were recorded by Bernie Besman.Template:Sfn Hooker rarely played with a standard beat, opting instead to adjust the tempo to fit the needs of the song. This often made it difficult to use backing musicians, who were not accustomed to Hooker's musical vagaries. As a result, Besman recorded Hooker playing guitar, singing, and stomping on a wooden pallet in time with the music.Template:Sfn

For much of this period, he recorded and toured with Eddie Kirkland. In Hooker's later sessions for Vee-Jay Records in Chicago, studio musicians accompanied him on most of his recordings, including Eddie Taylor, who could handle his musical idiosyncrasies. "Boom Boom" (1962)Template:Sfn and "Dimples," two popular songs by Hooker, were originally released by Vee-Jay.

Later careerEdit

File:JohnLeeHooker1997.jpg
Hooker performing at the Long Beach Blues Festival, Long Beach, California, August 31, 1997

Beginning in 1962, Hooker gained greater exposure when he toured Europe in the annual American Folk Blues Festival.Template:Sfn His "Dimples" became a successful single on the UK Singles Charts in 1964, eight years after its first US release.<ref name="OCC">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Hooker began to perform and record with rock musicians. One of his earliest collaborations was with British blues rock band the Groundhogs.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1970, he recorded the joint album Hooker 'n Heat, with the American blues and boogie rock group Canned Heat,<ref>Template:Cite AV media notes</ref> whose repertoire included adaptations of Hooker songs.Template:Sfn It became the first of Hooker's albums to reach the Billboard charts, peaking at number 78 on the Billboard 200. Other collaboration albums soon followed, including Endless Boogie (1971) and Never Get Out of These Blues Alive (1972), which included Steve Miller, Elvin Bishop, Van Morrison, and others.

Hooker appeared in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers as a street musician playing "Boom Boom." In 1989, he recorded the album The Healer with Carlos Santana, Bonnie Raitt, and others. The 1990s saw additional collaboration albums: Mr. Lucky (1991), Chill Out (1995), and Don't Look Back (1997) with Morrison, Santana, Los Lobos, and additional guest musicians. His re-recording of "Boom Boom" (the title track for his 1992 album) with guitarist Jimmie Vaughan became Hooker's highest charting single (number 16) in the UK.<ref name="OCC" /> Come See About Me, a 2004 DVD, includes performances filmed between 1960 and 1994 and interviews with several of the musicians.<ref name="Viglione">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Hooker owned five houses in his later life, including ones in the California cities of Los Altos, Redwood City, and Long Beach.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On June 21, 2001, Hooker died in his sleep at home in Los Altos.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Awards and recognitionEdit

Among his many awards, Hooker was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. He was a recipient of a 1983 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He is also inducted into the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Two of his songs, "Boogie Chillen" and "Boom Boom," are included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> "Boogie Chillen" is also included in the Recording Industry Association of America's list of the "Songs of the Century".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Grammy AwardsEdit

DiscographyEdit

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FilmEdit

ReferencesEdit

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SourcesEdit

External linksEdit

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