Essay On John Lee Hooker

John Lee Hooker born on August 22, 1917, in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He was the fourth out of eleven children in his family of William and Minnie Hooker. His father was a sharecropper and Baptist minister who was not fond of the blues because his father refers blues music as the “devil’s music”. When he was five years old, his parents separated from each other and they divorced when he was eleven. In his younger years, Hooker received a limited amount of formal education. However, music was an important part of his life. The first time he was exposed to music was in his church and he constructed his first instrument with a piece of string and an inner tube. Consequently, after the divorce of her mother and father, his mom, Minnie remarried to William Moore, a
Then he turned into a legal adult, he was now able to perform blues clubs, located Detroit Hastings Street. While he was living in Detroit, his music style change from country/rural folks blues , and changed into a more urban style that is played with the electric guitar. Due to this change was his counter with Elmer Barber and created several recordings of Hooker in the makeshift studio in his store. Soon, Barbers recording was soon found their way to Bernie Besman, owner of small record label, Sensation Records. Besman actually suggests Hooker change to electric guitar, and playing fast-paced materials in local clubs. Heeding his advice, Hooker became one of the leading musician in Motor City. In 1948, he made his first single for Besman, “Boogie Chillen”. The single was released on Modern Records and quickly become the number one spot on 1949 R&B charts and sold a million copies. Hookers early music releases influenced one of the greatest blues musician Buddy Guy and are both one of the early precedents of rock and roll. Hooker’s blues songs incorporate the traditional blues sound with a jump and jazz