John Lee Hooker Earlier career when did his career begin? Hooker's recording career began in 1948,
What was his first recording?
What was John Lee Hooker's first recording?
Hooker's recording career began in 1948, when Modern Records, based in Los Angeles, released a demo he had recorded for Bernie Besman in Detroit. The single, "Boogie Chillen'", became a hit and the best-selling race record of 1949. Despite being illiterate, Hooker was a prolific lyricist. In addition to adapting traditional blues lyrics, he composed original songs. In the 1950s, like many black musicians, Hooker earned little from record sales, and so he often recorded variations of his songs for different studios for an up-front fee. To evade his recording contract, he used various pseudonyms, including John Lee Booker (for Chess Records and Chance Records in 1951-1952), Johnny Lee (for De Luxe Records in 1953-1954), John Lee, John Lee Cooker, Texas Slim, Delta John, Birmingham Sam and his Magic Guitar, Johnny Williams, and the Boogie Man.  His early solo songs were recorded by Bernie Besman. Hooker rarely played with a standard beat, but instead he changed tempo to fit the needs of the song. This often made it difficult to use backing musicians, who were not accustomed to Hooker's musical vagaries. As a result, Besman recorded Hooker playing guitar, singing and stomping on a wooden pallet in time with the music.  For much of this period he recorded and toured with Eddie Kirkland. In Hooker's later sessions for Vee-Jay Records in Chicago, studio musicians accompanied him on most of his recordings, including Eddie Taylor, who could handle his musical idiosyncrasies. "Boom Boom" and "Dimples", two popular songs by Hooker, were originally released by Vee-Jay. CANNOTANSWER
The single, "Boogie Chillen'",
John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912 or 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues. Hooker often incorporated other elements, including talking blues and early North Mississippi Hill country blues. He developed his own driving-rhythm boogie style, distinct from the 1930s–1940s piano-derived boogie-woogie. Hooker was ranked 35 in Rolling Stones 2015 list of 100 greatest guitarists.

Some of his best known songs include "Boogie Chillen'" (1948), "Crawling King Snake" (1949), "Dimples" (1956), "Boom Boom" (1962), and "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer" (1966). Several of his later albums, including The Healer (1989), Mr. Lucky (1991), Chill Out (1995), and Don't Look Back (1997), were album chart successes in the U.S. and UK. The Healer (for the song "I'm In The Mood") and Chill Out (for the album) both earned him Grammy wins as well as Don't Look Back, which went on to earn him a double-Grammy win for Best Traditional Blues Recording and Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals (with Van Morrison).

Early life
Hooker's date of birth is a subject of debate; the years 1912, 1915, 1917, 1920, and 1923 have all been suggested.  Most official sources list 1917, though at times Hooker stated he was born in 1920.  Information found in the 1920 and 1930 censuses indicates that he was actually born in 1912.  In 2017, a series of events took place to celebrate the purported centenary of his birth. In the 1920 federal census, John Hooker is seven years old and one of nine children living with William and Minnie Hooker in Tutwiler, Mississippi.

It is believed that he was born in Tutwiler, in Tallahatchie County, although some sources say his birthplace was near Clarksdale, in Coahoma County. He was the youngest of the 11 children of William Hooker (born 1871, died after 1923), a sharecropper and Baptist preacher, and Minnie Ramsey (born c. 1880, date of death unknown). In the 1920 federal census, William and Minnie were recorded as being 48 and 39 years old, respectively, which implies that Minnie was born about 1880, not 1875. She was said to have been a "decade or so younger" than her husband (Boogie Man, p. 23), which gives additional credibility to this census record as evidence of Hooker's origins.

The Hooker children were homeschooled. They were permitted to listen only to religious songs; the spirituals sung in church were their earliest exposure to music. In 1921, their parents separated. The next year, their mother married William Moore, a blues singer, who provided John Lee with an introduction to the guitar (and whom he would later credit for his distinctive playing style).

Moore was his first significant blues influence. He was a local blues guitarist who, in Shreveport, Louisiana, learned to play a droning, one-chord blues that was strikingly different from the Delta blues of the time.

Another influence was Tony Hollins, who dated Hooker's sister Alice, helped teach Hooker to play, and gave him his first guitar. For the rest of his life, Hooker regarded Hollins as a formative influence on his style of playing and his career as a musician. Among the songs that Hollins reputedly taught Hooker were versions of "Crawlin' King Snake" and "Catfish Blues".

At the age of 14, Hooker ran away from home, reportedly never seeing his mother or stepfather again. In the mid-1930s, he lived in Memphis, Tennessee, where he performed on Beale Street, at the New Daisy Theatre and occasionally at house parties.

He worked in factories in various cities during World War II, eventually getting a job with the Ford Motor Company in Detroit in 1943. He frequented the blues clubs and bars on Hastings Street, the heart of the black entertainment district, on Detroit's east side. In a city noted for its pianists, guitar players were scarce. Hooker's popularity grew quickly as he performed in Detroit clubs, and, seeking an instrument louder than his acoustic guitar, he bought his first electric guitar.

Earlier career
Hooker was working as janitor in a Detroit steel mill when his recording career began in 1948, when Modern Records, based in Los Angeles, released a demo he had recorded for Bernie Besman in Detroit. The single, "Boogie Chillen', became a hit and the best-selling race record of 1949. Though illiterate, Hooker was a prolific lyricist. In addition to adapting traditional blues lyrics, he composed original songs. In the 1950s, like many black musicians, Hooker earned little from record sales, and so he often recorded variations of his songs for different studios for an up-front fee. To evade his recording contract, he used various pseudonyms, including John Lee Booker (for Chess Records and Chance Records in 1951–1952), Johnny Lee (for De Luxe Records in 1953–1954), John Lee, John Lee Cooker, Texas Slim, Delta John, Birmingham Sam and his Magic Guitar, Johnny Williams, and the Boogie Man.

His early solo songs were recorded by Bernie Besman. Hooker rarely played with a standard beat, but instead he changed tempo to fit the needs of the song. This often made it difficult to use backing musicians, who were not accustomed to Hooker's musical vagaries. As a result, Besman recorded Hooker playing guitar, singing and stomping on a wooden pallet in time with the music.

For much of this period he recorded and toured with Eddie Kirkland. In Hooker's later sessions for Vee-Jay Records in Chicago, studio musicians accompanied him on most of his recordings, including Eddie Taylor, who could handle his musical idiosyncrasies. "Boom Boom" (1962) and "Dimples", two popular songs by Hooker, were originally released by Vee-Jay.

Later career

Beginning in 1962, Hooker gained greater exposure when he toured Europe in the annual American Folk Blues Festival.  His "Dimples" became a successful single on the UK Singles Charts in 1964, eight years after its first US release. Hooker began to perform and record with rock musicians.  One of his earliest collaborations was with British blues rock band the Groundhogs.  In 1970, he recorded the joint album Hooker 'n Heat, with the American blues and boogie rock group Canned Heat, whose repertoire included adaptations of Hooker songs. It became the first of Hooker's albums to reach the Billboard charts, peaking at number 78 on the Billboard 200.  Other collaboration albums soon followed, including Endless Boogie (1971) and Never Get Out of These Blues Alive (1972), which included Steve Miller, Elvin Bishop, Van Morrison, and others.

Hooker appeared in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers.  He performed "Boom Boom" in the role of a street musician.  In 1989, he recorded the album The Healer with Carlos Santana, Bonnie Raitt, and others.  The 1990s saw additional collaboration albums: Mr. Lucky (1991), Chill Out (1995), and Don't Look Back (1997) with Morrison, Santana, Los Lobos, and additional guest musicians.  His re-recording of "Boom Boom" (the title track for his 1992 album) with guitarist Jimmie Vaughan became Hooker's highest charting single (number 16) in the UK. Come See About Me, a 2004 DVD, includes performances filmed between 1960 and 1994 and interviews with several of the musicians.

Hooker owned five houses in his later life, including houses located in Los Altos, California; Redwood City, California, Long Beach, California, and Gilroy, California.

Hooker died in his sleep on June 21, 2001, in Los Altos, California in his home. He is interred at the Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland, California. He was survived by eight children, 19 grandchildren, and numerous great-grandchildren.

Collaborations 

 1968 with The Groundhogs: Hooker & the Hogs 
 1969 with The Doors: Hooker and Jim Morrison sing "Roadhouse Blues", published 2000 on the tribute album Stoned Immaculate: The Music of The Doors
 1971 with Canned Heat: Hooker 'n' Heat 
 1985 with Kingfish: "Put A Hand On Me" on the album Kingfish, featuring John Lee Hooker and Mike Bloomfield 
 1989 Hooker sang on the album The Iron Man by Pete Townshend, on the songs "Over the Top" and "I Eat Heavy Metal"
 1991 with Charlie Musselwhite: "Cheatin' On Me" on the album Signature
 1992 with Lightnin' Hopkins: "Katie Mae" and "Candy Kitchen" on the album It's A Sin To Be Rich
 1992 with Branford Marsalis: "Mabel" on I Heard You Twice the First Time
 1992 with John P. Hammond: "Driftin' Blues" on the album Got Love If You Want It
 1993 with Zakiya Hooker: "Loving People" and "Mean Mean World" on the album Another Generation Of The Blues
 1993 with B.B. King: "You Shook Me" on his album Blues Summit
 1993 with Van Morrison: "Gloria" on his album Too Long In Exile 
 1996 with Michael Osborn: "Shake It Down" on his album Background in the Blues
 1997 with Big Head Todd and the Monsters: "Boom Boom" on the album Beautiful World 
 2001 with Zucchero: "I Lay Down" on his album Shake

Several Hooker songs have resulted in remixes. The piece "Sure Thing" on the album Tourist (2000) by the French musician St Germain became well known. This remix is based on vocal and guitar passages from "Harry's Philosophy" from the album Hot Spot (1990). Hooker's adaptation "It Serves Me Right to Suffer" was remixed by French DJ and music producer The Avener (actually Tristan Casara) on his album "The Wanderings of the Avener" (2015).

Awards and recognition
Among his many awards, Hooker was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. He was a recipient of a 1983 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. He was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000 and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He is also inducted into the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame.

Two of his songs, "Boogie Chillen" and "Boom Boom", are included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. "Boogie Chillen" is also included in the Recording Industry Association of America's list of the "Songs of the Century".

In 2007, John Lee Hooker was voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame.

Grammy Awards
 Best Traditional Blues Recording, 1990, for I'm in the Mood, with Bonnie Raitt
 Best Traditional Blues Album, 1995, for Chill Out
 Best Traditional Blues Recording, 1998, for Don't Look Back
 Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals, 1998, "Don't Look Back", with Van Morrison
 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, 2000

Discography

Charting singles

Charting albums

Film
 The Blues Brothers on Maxwell Street (Chicago) outside Aretha Franklin's restaurant (1980)
 John Lee Hooker & Furry Lewis DVD (1995)
 John Lee Hooker - That's My Story DVD (2001)
 John Lee Hooker Rare Performances 1960–1984 DVD (2002)
 Come See About Me DVD (2004)
 John Lee Hooker: Bits and Pieces About … DVD and CD (2006)

Literature 
 Charles Shaar Murray: Boogie Man – The Adventures of John Lee Hooker in the American Twentieth Century. Penguin Books, England 1999
 Robert Palmer: Deep Blues – A Musical and Cultural History of the Mississippi Delta. Penguin Books, Toronto 1982. ISBN 978-0-14-006223-6

References

External links

 
 The Great R&B-files - The R&B Pioneers Series
 

1910s births
2001 deaths
20th-century American guitarists
Age controversies
African-American guitarists
African-American male singer-songwriters
American blues guitarists
American male guitarists
American blues singer-songwriters
Blues musicians from Mississippi
Blues musicians from Tennessee
Blues revival musicians
Charly Records artists
Chess Records artists
Country blues musicians
Detroit blues musicians
Electric blues musicians
Flair Records artists
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
Kent Records artists
Modern Records artists
National Heritage Fellowship winners
Specialty Records artists
Vee-Jay Records artists
Singer-songwriters from Tennessee
Singer-songwriters from Mississippi
Guitarists from Mississippi
Guitarists from Tennessee
People from Tutwiler, Mississippi
People from Los Altos, California
Black & Blue Records artists
20th-century African-American male singers
Singer-songwriters from California
TG Now is an album by English industrial band Throbbing Gristle. It was released in 2004 through the band's own record label Industrial Records and was their first album of original material since 1982's Journey Through a Body.

Release 

The album's 12" vinyl version was limited to 500 copies and the CD version was limited to 3,000 copies.

Critical reception
PopMatters called the album "an appetizing return from a band that had toyed significantly with the idea of what an artistically valid record release might be."

Track listing

Personnel 
 Throbbing Gristle

 Genesis P-Orridge – uncredited performance, recording
 Cosey Fanni Tutti – uncredited performance, recording
 Peter Christopherson – uncredited performance, recording
 Chris Carter – uncredited performance, recording

References

External links 

 

Throbbing Gristle albums
2004 albums William M. "Wild Bill" Moore (June 13, 1918 – August 1, 1983) was an American R&B and jazz tenor saxophone player. Moore earned a modest hit on the Hot R&B charts with "We're Gonna Rock, We're Gonna Roll", which also was one of the earliest rock and roll records.

Moore was born in Detroit Michigan and began playing the alto saxophone at an early age. However, prior to his musical career, he was an amateur boxer, winning Michigan's Golden Gloves light heavyweight championship in 1937, before briefly turning professional. By the early 1940s, Moore abandoned his boxing career in favor of music, and was inspired by musicians Chu Berry and Illinois Jacquet to switch to tenor saxophone. In 1944, he made his recording debut, accompanying Christine Chatman, the wife of Memphis Slim, for Decca Records. Between 1945 and 1947, Moore was performing and recording in Los Angeles with Slim Gaillard, Jack McVea, Big Joe Turner, Dexter Gordon, and played on Helen Humes’ hit recording, "Be-Baba-Leba".

In 1947 he moved back to Detroit and began recording with his own band, which included baritone player Paul Williams, later famous for "The Hucklebuck".  In December of that year, he recorded "We're Gonna Rock, We're Gonna Roll" for the Savoy label which was a modest hit and is remembered today as one of many candidates for the first rock and roll record.  It was one of the first records played by Alan Freed on his "Moondog" radio shows in 1951.   However, by the standards of its time it was quite a primitive recording, notable mainly for the juxtaposition of the words “rock” and “roll”, and the battling saxophones of Moore and Williams. In 1949, he cut "Rock And Roll", reportedly featuring Scatman Crothers on vocals.

Moore continued recording and playing in clubs in and around Detroit.  In this period he also recorded several jazz albums for the Jazzland label.  In 1971, he was sought out by Marvin Gaye to play saxophone on the album What's Going On, notably the track "Mercy Mercy Me".

Eventually he returned to Los Angeles, California and lived there until his death, aged 65.

In their 1992 book, What Was the First Rock 'n' Roll Record?, Jim Dawson and Steve Propes dedicated a chapter to Moore and his influential "We're Gonna Rock, We're Gonna Roll."

Discography
Wild Bill's Beat (Jazzland), 1961
Bottom Groove (Jazzland), 1961
Things That I Used To Do, (Big Joe Turner), (Pablo), 1977
With Houston Person
The Real Thing (Eastbound, 1973)

References

External links
Rockabilly.nl

Rhythm and blues saxophonists
1918 births
1983 deaths
20th-century American musicians
20th-century saxophonists
20th-century African-American musicians