John Lee Hooker

Hooker與許多同時(shí)代的音樂家一樣，他對(duì)于音樂的興趣也是產(chǎn)生于在教堂做禮拜的時(shí)候，這種興趣很快變成了一種癡迷。Hooker在自家的谷倉完成了他的首場(chǎng)“演出”。對(duì)音樂有所涉獵的繼父看到了這一切，決定給Hooker一些吉他演奏方面的建議（我們有必要記住這個(gè)偉大的父親——William Moore），不久Hooker就可以跟著父親在鎮(zhèn)子上的舞會(huì)上表演了。
Hooker在14歲的時(shí)候覺得翅膀已經(jīng)長硬了，背著家人跑到了孟斐斯，在那里碰到了比他長兩歲的風(fēng)琴手Robert Lockwood（此人后改攻吉他技藝），并開始了短暫的合作。這兩個(gè)小伙子可能誰也沒有想到日后都會(huì)成為布魯斯音樂界的大師。 此后，Hooker還在辛辛那提與一個(gè)4人福音樂隊(duì)合作了10個(gè)年頭。
應(yīng)該說底特律才是讓Hooker真正開始展露頭腳的地方。Hastings大街是底特律黑人聚集最多的地方，這里有一些經(jīng)常演出布魯斯音樂的酒吧，Hooker經(jīng)常參與這種演出中，他鮮明的音樂特點(diǎn)越來越引人注目。1948年，他的第一張唱片出版，一把電吉他和他的踢踏舞鞋成了所有的伴奏樂器（從這個(gè)時(shí)候開始，他很長一段時(shí)間都拒絕讓其他的伴奏樂器加入到他的音樂里）?！禕oogie Chillen》取得了現(xiàn)代唱片業(yè)的令人驚奇的商業(yè)成功。Hooke韻味十足的旋律和具有催眠作用的演唱徹底征服了聽眾，他絕對(duì)正點(diǎn)的布魯斯男聲更是給其他演唱布魯斯的同行造成了很大的壓力。
He was beloved worldwide as the king of the endless boogie, a genuine blues superstar whose droning, hypnotic one-chord grooves were at once both ultra-primitive and timeless. But John Lee Hooker recorded in a great many more styles than that over a career that stretched across more than half a century.
The Hook was a Mississippi native who became the top gent on the Detroit blues circuit in the years following World War II. The seeds for his eerily mournful guitar sound were planted by his stepfather, Will Moore, while Hooker was in his teens. Hooker had been singing spirituals before that, but the blues took hold and simply wouldnt let go. Overnight visitors left their mark on the youth, too: legends like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charley Patton, and Blind Blake, who all knew Moore.
Hooker heard Memphis calling while he was still in his teens, but he couldnt gain much of a foothold there. So he relocated to Cincinnati for a seven-year stretch before making the big move to the Motor City in 1943. Jobs were plentiful, but Hooker drifted away from day gigs in favor of playing his unique free-form brand of blues. A burgeoning club scene along Hastings Street didnt hurt his chances any.
In 1948, the aspiring bluesman hooked up with entrepreneur Bernie Besman, who helped him hammer out his solo debut sides, Sally Mae and its seminal flip, Boogie Chillen. This was blues as primitive as anything then on the market; Hookers dark, ruminative vocals were backed only by his own ringing, heavily amplified guitar and insistently pounding foot. Their efforts were quickly rewarded. Los Angeles-based Modern Records issued the sides and Boogie Chillen — a colorful, unique travelogue of Detroits blues scene — made an improbable jaunt to the very peak of the R&B charts.
Modern released several more major hits by the Boogie Man after that: Hobo Blues and its raw-as-an-open wound flip, Hoogie Boogie; Crawling King Snake Blues (all three 1949 smashes); and the unusual 1951 chart-topper Im in the Mood, where Hooker overdubbed his voice three times in a crude early attempt at multi-tracking.
But Hooker never, ever let something as meaningless as a contract stop him for making recordings for other labels. His early catalog is stretched across a road map of diskeries so complex that its nearly impossible to fully comprehend (a vast array of recording aliases dont make things any easier).
Along with Modern, Hooker recorded for King (as the geographically challenged Texas Slim), Regent (as Delta John, a far more accurate handle), Savoy (as the wonderfully surreal Birmingham Sam & His Magic Guitar), Danceland (as the downright delicious Little Pork Chops), Staff (as Johnny Williams), Sensation (for whom he scored a national hit in 1950 with Huckle Up, Baby), Gotham, Regal, Swing Time, Federal, Gone (as John Lee Booker), Chess, Acorn (as the Boogie Man), Chance, DeLuxe (as Johnny Lee), JVB, Chart, and Specialty; before finally settling down at Vee-Jay in 1955 under his own name. Hooker became the point man for the growing Detroit blues scene during this incredibly prolific period, recruiting guitarist Eddie Kirkland as his frequent duet partner while still recording for Modern.
Once tied in with Vee-Jay, the rough-and-tumble sound of Hookers solo and duet waxings was adapted to a band format. Hooker had recorded with various combos along the way before, but never with sidemen as versatile and sympathetic as guitarist Eddie Taylor and harpist Jimmy Reed, who backed him at his initial Vee-Jay date that produced Time Is Marching and the superfluous sequel Mambo Chillun.
Taylor stuck around for a 1956 session that elicited two genuine Hooker classics, Baby Lee and Dimples, and he was still deftly anchoring the rhythm section (Hookers sense of timing was his and his alone, demanding big-eared sidemen) when the Boogie Man finally made it back to the R&B charts in 1958 with I Love You Honey.
Vee-Jay presented Hooker in quite an array of settings during the early 60s. His grinding, tough blues No Shoes proved a surprisingly sizable hit in 1960, while the storming Boom Boom, his top seller for the firm in 1962 (it even cracked the pop airwaves), was an infectious R&B dance number benefiting from the reported presence of some of Motowns house musicians. But there were also acoustic outings aimed squarely at the blossoming folk-blues crowd, as well as some attempts at up-to-date R&B that featured highly intrusive female background vocals (allegedly by the Vandellas) and utterly unyielding structures that hemmed Hooker in unmercifully.
British blues bands such as the Animals and Yardbirds idolized Hooker during the early 60s; Eric Burdons boys cut a credible 1964 cover of Boom Boom that outsold Hookers original on the American pop charts. Hooker visited Europe in 1962 under the auspices of the first American Folk Blues Festival, leaving behind the popular waxings Lets Make It and Shake It Baby for foreign consumption.
Back home, Hooker cranked out gems for Vee-Jay through 1964 (Big Legs, Tight Skirt, one of his last offerings on the logo, was also one of his best), before undergoing another extended round of label-hopping (except this time, he was waxing whole LPs instead of scattered 78s). Verve-Folkways, Impulse, Chess, and BluesWay all enticed him into recording for them in 1965-1966 alone! His reputation among hip rock cognoscenti in the States and abroad was growing exponentially, especially after he teamed up with blues-rockers Canned Heat for the massively selling album Hooker n Heat in 1970.
Eventually, though, the endless boogie formula grew incredibly stagnant. Much of Hookers 1970s output found him laying back while plodding rock-rooted rhythm sections assumed much of the work load. A cameo in the 1980 movie The Blues Brothers was welcome, if far too short.
But Hooker wasnt through; not by a long shot. With the expert help of slide guitarist extraordinaire/producer Roy Rogers, the Hook waxed The Healer, an album that marked the first of his guest star-loaded albums (Carlos Santana, Bonnie Raitt, and Robert Cray were among the luminaries to cameo on the disc, which picked up a Grammy).
Major labels were just beginning to take notice of the growing demand for blues records, and Pointblank snapped Hooker up, releasing Mr. Lucky (this time teaming Hooker with everyone from Albert Collins and John Hammond to Van Morrison and Keith Richards). Once again, Hooker was resting on his laurels by allowing his guests to wrest much of the spotlight away from him on his own album, but by then, hed earned it. Another Pointblank set, Boom Boom, soon followed.
Happily, Hooker enjoyed the good life throughout the 90s. He spent much of his time in semi-retirement, splitting his relaxation time between several houses acquired up and down the California coast. When the right offer came along, though, he took it, including an amusing TV commercial for Pepsi. He also kept recording, releasing such star-studded efforts as 1995s Chill Out and 1997s Dont Look Back. All this helped him retain his status as a living legend, and he remained an American musical icon; and his stature wasnt diminished upon his death from natural causes on June 21, 2001.