Re: John Lee Hooker RIP (fwd from O&S)

["Jeff House" <whocasa@hotmail.com>]

----Original Message Follows----
From: Evan <e-grafix@pacbell.net>
Reply-To: oddsandsods@thewho.net
To: Members of <oddsandsods@thewho.net>
Subject: John Lee Hooker (brief mention of Pete)
Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2001 15:14:02 -0700

I don't know the source of this article, but I thought some of you might be
interested...

 >John Lee Hooker passed away in his sleep last night / early this
 > morning.
 >
 > Another legend has left us.
 >
 > John Lee Hooker is a giant of the blues and the father of the boogie.
 > Beginning in 1948 with his first single, "Boogie Chillen," he introduced
 > the world to the persistent, chugging rhythm of boogie music, a form of
 > country blues Hooker learned back home in Mississippi. His foot-stomping
 > boogie was adapted and amplified in the Sixties and Seventies by a great
 > number of rock and roll artists, including the Rolling Stones, the
 > Yardbirds, Canned Heat, John Mayall, Ten Years After, Foghat, ZZ Top and
 > George Thorogood. Beyond his ability to lock into a hypnotic boogie
 > groove, Hooker is renowned for the gruff emotionality of his voice and 
the
 > stark intensity of his guitar playing. Over the decades, he has proven to
 > be a survivor. When interest in electric blues began cooling off, Hooker
 > found a niche for himself on the coffeehouse circuit during the acoustic
 > folk-music boom of the late Fifties and early Sixties. More recently, his
 > career has enjoyed a sustained resurgence that included a Grammy award 
for
 > his 1989 album The Healer.
 > Hooker was born on August 20, 1920, to a sharecropping family in
 > Clarksdale, Mississippi. His stepfather, Will Moore, taught him how to
 > play guitar, and as a young man Hooker encountered such blues legends as
 > Charley Patton, Blind Lemon Jefferson and Blind Blake along the way. In
 > his early teens, Hooker ran off to Memphis, where he worked as a theater
 > usher and played music on the side. He also lived in Cincinnati and
 > Knoxville before settling down in Detroit in 1943. He labored in an auto
 > factory by day and played blues at house parties and clubs along the
 > city's legendary Hastings Street. In 1948, he recorded "Boogie Chillen,"
 > an enormously influential single that was picked up for national
 > distribution by Modern Records and rose to Number One on the R&B chart in
 > 1949.
 > Hooker went on to record for more than two dozen labels, often resorting
 > to aliases such as John Lee Cooker, Delta John and the Boogie Man for
 > contractual reasons. Much of his most popular work, including the classic
 > versions of "Boom Boom" and "Crawling Kingsnake," appeared on the Vee-Jay
 > label. Beloved by rock and rollers, Hooker has never lacked for support
 > and collaborators. In 1970 Canned Heat collaborated with Hooker on a
 > landmark double album entitled Hooker 'n' Heat. Hooker appeared in The
 > Blues Brothers movie, sang the title role on Pete Townshend's concept
 > album The Iron Man, and has duetted with Van Morrison. His latter-day
 > projects have attracted such contributors as Carlos Santana, Keith
 > Richards, Robert Cray, Bonnie Raitt and Los Lobos. In October 1990, a 
host
 > of friends and admirers participated in an all-star concert celebration 
of
 > Hooker's music at Madison Square Garden.

================

I had to dig through the AP wires to find any mention of this.  A unique 
innovator who lived a very full life.

Jeff

_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com