John Lee Hooker

- John Lee Hooker, Boogie Chillen (1948)

He's beloved worldwide as the king of the endless boogie, a genuine blues superstar whose droning, hypnotic one-chord grooves are at once both ultra-primitive and timeless. But John Lee Hooker has recorded in a great many more styles than that over a career that stretches back more than half a century.

The Hook was a Mississippi native who became the top gent on the Detroit blues circuit in the years following World War II. The seeds for his eerily mournful guitar sound were planted by his stepfather, Will Moore, while Hooker was still in his teens. Hooker had been singing spirituals before that, but the blues took hold and simply wouldn't let go.

Till mid '50s he recorded hundreds of records, most of them just using his electrical guitar and his foot, which were of great influence to bands such as the Animals and Yardbirds.

After his semi-retirement he still performed in several joints down the California coast. Baseball also took up much of his interest during the summer months; he was an inveterate Dodger fan.

June 21, 2001, John Lee Hooker died in his sleep in San Francisco. He was 83 years old.

Hooker impressed other bluesmen with unique guitar playing style. Unlike most other Delta blues guitarists, Hooker played in a style he called "percussive." His guitar sang in droning, one-chord melodies that he would accompany with foot stomping. His first single, "Boogie Chillen," for Modern Records in 1948, it became a huge hit. Of course, his record company tried to rip him off, so Hooker recorded with other labels under assumed names for the next seven years.

In the 1950s, Hooker would start his own lable and continued to record up until the 1980s. He was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991.

"People say I'm a genius but I don't know about that." John Lee Hooker

Passed away today at the age of 83..June 21, 2001

Born in 1917, in Clarksdale, Mississippi, he was the son of a sharecropper and Baptist minister. He learned to play the guitar from his stepfather and by the age of 13, he was pickin' at local fish fries and dances. At 14, he hit the road playing in small bars in Memphis, and Cincinnati and by 1943 was playing in Detroit. Here, Hooker was discovered and recorded his first hit, "Boogie Chillen."

He recorded more than 100 albums in his seven decades in the business, while winning a Grammy for a version of "I'm In The Mood". In 1961, the young and unknown Rolling Stones opened for him in Europe, and in New York that same year , he played a club with Bob Dylan. In 1980, Hooker played a street musician in the film, "The Blues Brothers," and in 1985 his songs were used for the sound track in "The Color Purple." In 1991, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and received a Lifetime Achievement Award at last year's Grammys.