John Lee Hooker was born on a sharecropper farm in Clarkesdale, Mississippi in 1917 and became – with his distinctive heavily-rhythmic boogie style – the most celebrated Chicago bluesman of the 1950s.
He recorded under a number of pseudonyms during the 50s, and made some memorable records including; Boom Boom, Boogie Chillen’, Dimples, Sugar Mamma, and I’m Mad Again.
Hooker’s hypnotic chug is one of music’s most recognisable sounds – a minimalist blues that left an imprint on imaginations as diverse as those of Keith Richards and Nick Cave.
Like the best ideas, it’s simple: often just a single chord accompanied by a husky purr. But it took Hooker a long time to devise.
He first picked up a guitar as a 13-year-old in rural Mississippi and made his recording debut in 1948, aged 31.
Once he started, however, he made up for lost time, recording for a dozen labels over the next decade, under his own name as well as several aliases, working consistently up until his death in June 2001.
Keith Richards said of Hooker, “Even Muddy Waters was sophisticated next to him.” That was a compliment.
