John Lee Hooker(The Daily News, Atlanta, Ga. 1992)
by David S. Rotenstein (c) 1992 D.S. Rotenstein (..ja taas on oltu tekijänoikeuksia rikkomassa?)
What do you call a 71-year-old man who within a year's time wins a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Recording, is inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame, and is feted with a tribute at New York's Madison Square Gardens? You call him John Lee Hooker, or as the title of his new LP suggests, Mr. Lucky.
John Lee Hooker is the elder statesman of the blues whose Mississippi River mud-thick vocals and minimalist guitar style have influenced three generations of musicians, from the Rolling Stones to ZZ Top, Van Morrison, and George Thorogood. He's been dubbed the King of Boogie and is recognized as a major inspiration for the birth of rock 'n' roll.
Nearly 60 years ago, Hooker ran away from his Clarksdale, Miss. home to make something of himself. But as it turned out, he wasn't running away from something; he was following the blues.
"When I ran off from home, I was 14 and I didn't want to be no farmer or nothing. I figured I had something. I was young and had a lot of nerve," recalls Hooker. "I knew I would get nowhere down in Mississippi and I ran away by night. I thought for sure I was gonna make it. I just felt that way and I did."
Though Hooker's sharecropper father was a fire and brimstone preacher with a deep disdain for the blues, his stepfather, William Moore, encouraged him to play. "I met them [the blues] through my stepfather; I was 12 or 13. That was his style," says the guitarist.
While Hooker talks about his early years, a stutter emerges that's only faint at other times. It's the same stutter that nearly halted Hooker's career at the starting gate when he showed up at United Sound in Detroit to cut his first single, "Boogie Chillen."
Besides the stutter, other things from Hooker's past confront his present. Like his age. In his Blues Who's Who biography, and many others written about him, the year given for Hooker's birth is 1917. But other profiles show 1917 as the year he was born. He attributes the discrepancy to the time he lied about his age to get into the army.
"I'm branded with 1917, I can't go back on that 'cause all my ID for years and years been in that 'cause I was born in 1920. I did that to get into the army," he explains.
In Detroit Hooker perfected a brand of music that's uniquely his own. "I don't play a lot of fancy guitar. I don't want to play it. The kind of guitar I want to play is mean, mean licks."
His spare, poignant guitar style helped to spur the birth of rock 'n' roll. With little modesty, he recognizes his role in the development of rock, but feigns surprise at his impact on the world of music.
"You don't hear nobody else playing the licks that I'm playing. A lot of them try, you hear it in a lot of music," says Hooker. "I'm kind of surprised that every rock 'n' roll singer, you hear some of my licks in their music. They latch on to it."
He describes the boogie-style of blues that he's best known for in terms only a father could understand: "I'm the originator of the boogie. It's a driving thing when you hear it, you got to move."
But is the boogie a part of mainstream blues or is it something completely different? "It's something different, it's kind of part of it, but it's something different," he notes.
Despite the fact that Hooker sees his music as something only he can play definitively, he does, however, enjoy collaborating with other artists. On both his Grammy-winning The Healer and Mr. Lucky, Hooker invited an array of artists who have been influenced by his music to play with him.
Carlos Santana, Keith Richards, and Robert Cray joined Hooker on his latest effort. "We all friends," says Hooker of his guest artists. "They all wanted to do something. I never known what a legend is, they call me a legend. I feel I'm what a legend is."
Hooker notes that Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards really wanted to do the classic "Crawling Kingsnake" version that appears on Mr. Lucky. "Keith Richards loves that song. He really loves it. He's got a lot of love for the blues."
During his long career, Hooker has seen musical fads come and go as quickly as some bands can change drummers. One thing that's remained constant for Hooker has been his own music. "The music has turned completely around. It's so different, but mine ain't. Mine carries on through all of the changes the other music did.
"I just got more smarter and added on different things to mine, but I got the same bottom, the same beat that I've always had. I'd never change that, 'cause if I change that, I wouldn't be John Lee Hooker any more. I'd be something different."
And the blues, how does Hooker describe the music he's left an indelible thumbprint on? "The blues don't make you poor, the blues don't bring you down. [The] blues is a thing, you get sad, like when things ain't going right... the blues picks you up. Blues is a pick-up, it's not a let-down."
There's no doubt that John Lee Hooker, Dr. Boogie, has any illusions about the role of music in the world. "What do music do," he says. "It keeps the world turning. If there wasn't no music, this world would be a sad place to live."