Hooker, John Lee (1917—)

The undisputed "King of the Boogie," John Lee Hooker has not only achieved commercial success—a rare feat among blues sing-ers—but he has maintained it for over five decades. His one-chord, droning grooves lend themselves, as Robert Palmer writes, to "building up a cumulative, trancelike effect." Although he has attempted to redefine himself in recent years, much to the detriment of the legendary style and talent that made him famous, Hooker is still an original whose contributions to music in the twentieth century remain in a category of their own.

Born near Clarksdale, Mississippi, on August 22, 1917, Hooker's primary influence was his stepfather, Will Moore, a Louisiana-born guitarist who played in a style very different from that of other Delta players. Occasional visits by legendary bluesmen like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charley Patton, and Blind Blake (who all knew Moore) certainly influenced young John Lee's style as well, especially his singing.

Leaving home at 14, Hooker settled in Memphis, where he worked as an usher in a Beale Street movie theater while moonlighting as an entertainer at neighborhood house parties. After a seven-year stint working for a cesspool draining company in Cincinnati, he relocated to Detroit in 1943. With the city's factories operating at peak wartime production, jobs were not hard to find and Hooker continued to limit his musical forays to occasional sit-ins and weekend gigs at various Hastings Street clubs.

One night, a black record-store owner heard Hooker playing in a friend's living room and took him to see Bernie Bessman, a local record distributor. Bessman helped to record Hooker's first single, the seminal "Boogie Chillen," a primitive effort featuring only guitar and vocals. Issued by Modern Records in 1948, "the thing caught afire," as Hooker later remembered. "When it come out, every jukebox you went to, every place you went to, every drugstore you went, everywhere you went, department stores, they were playin' it in there. And I was workin' in Detroit in a factory there for a while. Then I quit my job. I said, 'No, I ain't workin' no more!"' With the success of follow-up efforts like "Hobo Blues," "Hoogie Boogie," and "Crawling King Snake Blues" over the next year, Hooker never came to regret his decision.

Although contractually bound to Modern Records during this period, Hooker recorded for many other labels using a variety of pseudonyms including "Texas Slim," "Delta John," "Johnny Lee," "Johnny Williams," and even "Little Pork Chops." He finally reached an exclusive agreement with Vee-Jay Records in 1955, recording from then on under his own name. The format of his music, however, changed dramatically with the addition of a backing band, often including the superb duo of guitarist Eddie Taylor and harmonica player Jimmy Reed. While most of Hooker's Vee-Jay material lacked the spark of his initial recordings, he did re-enter the charts in 1958 with "I Love You Honey," in 1960 with "No Shoes," and finally in 1962 with "Boom Boom."

After cranking out "Big Legs, Tight Skirt," his last hit for Vee-Jay, in 1964, Hooker underwent another round of label-hopping, recording for Verve, Chess, and BluesWay, among others. His 1960s recordings presented him in a variety of contexts—folk bluesman, old-time boogie master, or quasi-rock-and-roll artist—always in an attempt to appeal to the changing blues-rock audience. Hooker became a major figure in both the British blues invasion (with two major groups, the Yardbirds and the Animals, both tackling "Boom Boom") and the American folk-blues revival, with acoustic recordings and frequent coffeehouse appearances. In 1970, he teamed up with rock artists Canned Heat for the hit album Hooker 'n' Heat; unfortunately, many of his subsequent recordings were blatant attempts to recapture the album's popularity and redefine Hooker as a rock-and-roller.

Bandmate and slide guitarist extraordinaire Roy Rogers organized a 1989 recording session which eventually became The Healer, a major comeback album for Hooker. Once again, he returned to the spotlight, though in this case more due to the superstar guests who appeared on the album, including Bonnie Raitt, Keith Richards, Carlos Santana, Robert Cray, and Los Lobos. The disc won a Grammy Award as best traditional blues recording, and set the stage for another all-star session, Mr. Lucky (1991), which featured guitar-ists Albert Collins and Johnny Winter, among others. Hooker went into semi-retirement after the album's release, enjoying his newfound wealth and fame. He continued, however, to record and tour when inspired, even appearing in television commercials for Pepsi-Cola. He now stands as one of the few remaining links to the Delta blues tradition; a living legend and a true original.

—Marc R. Sykes

Further Reading:

Oakley, Giles. The Devil's Music: A History of the Blues. London, Da Capo Press, 1983.

Palmer, Robert. Deep Blues. New York, Viking, 1981.