Hooker, John Lee

August 22, 1917
June 21, 2001

Blues singer and guitarist John Lee Hooker learned the guitar from his stepfather and began playing blues in Memphis nightclubs. He moved to Detroit in the 1940s; there he worked in a factory, continued playing in clubs, and began recording for Modern Records in 1948, achieving great success there with "Boogie Chillun." Hooker recorded for different companies under a variety of pseudonyms on some seventy recordings between 1949 and 1953. He began to temper his sound in the 1950s by using a full band to back up his rhythmically driving guitar and deep voice, which yielded the commercially successful "Boom Boom" in 1961. A remake of the song by the Animals in 1964 introduced Hooker to a much broader audience. An active performer through the 1970s and 1980s, he recorded for several labels, and his music was featured in the 1985 film The Color Purple. In 1991 Hooker was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In 1995 Hooker retired from performing on a regular basis. His last release was Don't Look Back in 1997, the

same year he opened John Lee Hooker's Boom Boom Room, a blues club in San Francisco. In 2000 he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He died just five days after his last performance.

See also Blues, The

Bibliography

Hochman, Steve, ed. Popular Musicians. Pasadena, Calif.: Salem Press, 1999.

Neely, Kim. "Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Tapped." Rolling Stone (November 29, 1990): 36.

Obrecht, Jas. "John Lee Hooker." Guitar Player (November 1989): 50ff.

daniel thom (1996)
Updated by publisher 2005