![]() This started in 1962.īelow is a photo of John Lee Hooker from 1997. John Lee Hooker’s real exposure began when he participated in annual tours of Europe by American artists, called The American Folk Blues Festival. So, 50s blues recordings by Johnnie Lee, John Lee, John Lee Cooker, Texas Slim, Delta John, Johnny Williams or the Boogie Man were quite likely to be John Lee Hooker songs. He was paid cash up front, and he used a number of aliases on his songs, to avoid being caught violating his record contract. So Hooker traveled around making recordings for several record labels. Hooker connected with blues and jazz musicians in Detroit, and got his first break when a demo of his song Boogie Chillen was released and became the best-selling ‘race record’ (the predecessor to the ‘rhythm & blues’ category) of 1949.Īt this time, African-American musicians typically received next to nothing in royalties for their records. He located first in Memphis, Tennessee, but then traveled to the North where he got a job in Detroit working for Ford Motor Company. Hooker credits Moore and his sister’s boyfriend Tony Hollins for teaching him how to play blues guitar.Īt the age of 14 John Lee ran away from home. However, John Lee Hooker’s parents divorced and his mother subsequently married blues singer William Moore. The Hooker children were not allowed to have access to any music except religious spirituals. It is believed that he was born in Tutwiler, Mississippi, the youngest of 11 children to his sharecropper and Baptist preacher father. ![]() You can find his birthdate listed as 1912, 1915, 1917, 19, with the most popular choice being 1917. We generally give the year of birth for our subjects, but in Hooker’s case this is the source of much conjecture. John Lee Hooker was an R&B singer-songwriter. Next, we will review a cover by The Animals, and finally a cover by Buddy Guy. We will first discuss the original version by John Lee Hooker. Hello there! This week our blog features an iconic R&B tune, Boom Boom.
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