JOHN LEE HOOKER

Born: August 22, 1917
Died: June 21, 2001

Born near Clarksdale, Mississippi John always credited his step father, Will Moore, for his love of Delta music. Will was a blues singer and introduced the young man to the guitar. Hooker ran away from home at 15 and never saw his parents again. He moved to Memphis and took his music to Beale Street where he worked in a local theater and played his tunes where ever he could. The gypsy in him brought him to Detroit, Michigan in 1943. He got a job in an auto plant and replaced his homemade guitar with an electric guitar. While the new axe gave him volume on stage, it also gave his music a new energy that left audiences in awe. 

John Lee’s talent was brought to the attention of Modern Records.  Boogie Chillin was his first release and it rose to the top of the R & B charts to Number One in 1949. However, black musicians were not paid at scale, so he went from studio to studio with his bag of musical tricks and recorded under pseudonyms like “John Lee Booker” and “John Cooker”.

Finally, he quit his day time job to play his one chord country blues with the growling vocals. John recorded over a 100 discs, for at least a dozen labels after that. John Lee’s guitar work is rather reminiscent of the old style boogie woogie piano. He had a gift for lyrics despite the fact he could not read or write. His vocal work was specific to the timing of his tunes.

In 1980 he sang and appeared in The Blues Brothers movie. In 1989, he recorded with Keith Richards of the Rolling stones and Carlos Santana to create the great Grammy Award winning The Healer disc. His work with Van Morrison is highly praised. Hooker was never aligned with the Chicago blues scene, but he was loved by rockers because he infused in them a passion for the foot stompin’ hard driving music of the land. His songs have been recorded by The Doors, Led Zeppelin, The Yardbirds, and The Animals to name a few.

John Lee Hooker became ill in 2001 before he was to leave on a European tour. He never recovered from it and passed away at 83 in San Francisco.

 John has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1991, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 1980 he was inducted in the Blues Hall of Fame. In 1999 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation, and in 2000 he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

This legendary man will forever remain an original blues man and the King of boogie woogie blues.

Biographical sketch by Suzi Pangborn

Visit the John Lee Hooker Website
http://johnleehooker.com

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All of the prints are printed on archival paper with archival, pigmented inks.

As I continue to work on the salvaging of my old negatives, and convert them into digital files, I will add them to this site.

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