JOHN LEE HOOKER
SENSATION

John Lee Hooker is not an artist who plays by the rules that govern what we generally accept as “traditional” blues music—he very rarely plays in 12-bar format when he performs his songs. On his most popular tune, ‘Boogie Chillen’, his lyrical and musical phrases last anywhere as short as nine or ten, or maybe fifteen or even nineteen measures long, depending on how long he wants to “boogie” on his guitar riffs that roll and tumble between his patented vocal phrases.

Hooker’s lyrical approach is more akin to what one might expect of a jazz musician − he is literally improvising on the spot, taking any given subject matter and shape-shifting the words to paint a picture instantaneously. ‘I Got Eyes For You’ is a great example of extemporaneous vocal alchemy. On ‘Burnin’ Hell’, Hooker pounds out a rhythmic chord pattern while singing lyrics that reveal his mama and daddy telling him to go ask “Deacon Jones” to pray for him: “Ain’t no burnin’ hell…where I go, nobody [can] tell…” 

Like a jazz saxophonist, he’s improvising the lyric as he’s telling a story − repeating the phrases, describing his feelings, grunting, agreeing, cajoling, using words to create verbal tension before the rhythmic vocal thrust explodes into instrumental ecstasy that inevitably follows. Listen to how he weaves his way through the lyrics of ‘Tease Me Baby (aka Tease Me Over Baby)’.