Essay On John Lee Hooker

John Lee Hooker born on August 22, 1917, in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He was the fourth out of eleven children in his family of William and Minnie Hooker. His father was a sharecropper and Baptist minister who was not fond of the blues because his father refers blues music as the “devil’s music”. When he was five years old, his parents separated from each other and they divorced when he was eleven. In his younger years, Hooker received a limited amount of formal education. However, music was an important part of his life. The first time he was exposed to music was in his church and he constructed his first instrument with a piece of string and an inner tube. Consequently, after the divorce of her mother and father, his mom, Minnie remarried to William Moore, a
blues musician. Moore mentored and taught Hooker as a musician. He taught Hooker how to play the guitar, demonstrating him a minimalist but very rhythmic style of playing. Soon both Moore and Hooker were playing together at house parties and dances near their hometown. Even though Hooker enjoyed playing with his stepfather, he was unhappy of their current situation that they were still living in Mississippi. Consequently, when he was fourteen years old, he ran away. He travelled to Tennessee and Midwest. He first tried to join the U.S. army, in part because, during World War II, a young man in uniform would attract attention from women. Coincidently, he made the basic training and after three months he was stationed in Detroit. However, he was found that he was underage and was kicked out. He then moved to Memphis, and supporting himself working as an usher for movie theatres, and played as a musician at house parties, and since he was underage, he couldn’t play in clubs. In his late teens, he moved to Cincinnati, he continued to work day jobs as dish washer and steel mill worker, while playing music at night. In 1943, he moved to Detroit, he became a janitor in the Chrysler automobile plant until 1951.
Then he turned into a legal adult, he was now able to perform blues clubs, located Detroit Hastings Street. While he was living in Detroit, his music style change from country/rural folks blues , and changed into a more urban style that is played with the electric guitar. Due to this change was his counter with Elmer Barber and created several recordings of Hooker in the makeshift studio in his store. Soon, Barbers recording was soon found their way to Bernie Besman, owner of small record label, Sensation Records. Besman actually suggests Hooker change to electric guitar, and playing fast-paced materials in local clubs. Heeding his advice, Hooker became one of the leading musician in Motor City. In 1948, he made his first single for Besman, “Boogie Chillen”. The single was released on Modern Records and quickly become the number one spot on 1949 R&B charts and sold a million copies. Hookers early music releases influenced one of the greatest blues musician Buddy Guy and are both one of the early precedents of rock and roll. Hooker’s blues songs incorporate the traditional blues sound with a jump and jazz
rhythms. One of the song that I really liked was the song, “The Healer”, because of the jazz rhythm. I like how consonant the melody, and how I like how the harmony leaps. Secondly, I also like how the pace, again it is not too fast or too slow, and it fits the standard 4/4 even though it is a blues song, and I like how every note is connected together and very tranquil. In the song, there is a flute, a drum kit, a synth piano, and an electric guitar. I like how warm, bright, relaxed, and ethereal it sound, and it has a hint of metallic feeling because of the electric guitar. Lastly, I like it how the song’s dynamics is very consistent, and it never goes to loud or goes to soft.