Re: (Aussensaiter) John Lee Hooker gestorben

Beitrag von Dominik vom Juni 22. 2001 um 16:05:10:

Als Antwort zu: (Aussensaiter) John Lee Hooker gestorben geschrieben von Juergen am Juni 22. 2001 um 08:45:49:

Some more news...

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Bluesman John Lee Hooker, whose foot stompin' and
gravelly voice on songs like ``Boom Boom'' and ``Boogie Chillen''
electrified audiences and inspired generations of musicians, died Thursday.
He was 83.

Hooker died of natural causes as he slept at his home in Los Altos, south of
San Francisco, said agent Mike Kappus and manager Rick Bates.

The veteran blues singer from the Mississippi Delta estimated he recorded
more than 100 albums over nearly seven decades. He won a Grammy Award for a
version of ``I'm In The Mood,'' was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame in 1991 and received a Lifetime Achievement Award at last year's
Grammys.

Through it all, Hooker's music remained hypnotic and unchanged -- his rich
and sonorous voice, full of ancient hurt, coupled with a brooding, rhythmic
guitar. He sang of loneliness and confusion. Neither polished nor urbane,
his music was raw, primal emotion.

``He just kept going. .... He wanted to keep working,'' said John Wooler,
senior vice president at Virgin Records America and president of Point Blank
Records, Hooker's label. ``He was planning to do a new record, but he hadn't
started.''

His distinctive sound influenced rock 'n' rollers as well as rhythm and
blues musicians.

Among those whose music drew heavily on Hooker's style are Van Morrison, the
Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt and ZZ Top. In
1961, the then-unknown Rolling Stones opened for him on a European tour; he
also shared a bill that year with Bob Dylan at a club in New York.

Even in the '90s, when his fame was sealed and he was widely recognized as
one of the grandfathers of pop music, Hooker remained a little in awe of his
own success, telling The Times of London, ``People say I'm a genius but I
don't know about that.''

Like many postwar bluesmen, Hooker got cheated by one fly-by-night record
producer after another, who demanded exclusivity or didn't pay. Hooker
fought back by recording with rival producers under a slew of different
names: Texas Slim, John Lee Booker, John Lee Cocker, Delta John, Birmingham
Sam and the Boogie Man, among others.

Hooker's popularity grew steadily as he rode the wave of rock in the '50s
into the folk boom of the '60s. In 1980, he played a street musician in
``The Blues Brothers'' movie. In 1985, his songs were used in Steven
Spielberg's film, ``The Color Purple.''

Hooker hit it big again in 1990 with his album ``The Healer,'' featuring
duets with Carlos Santana, Raitt and Robert Cray. It sold 1.5 million copies
and won him his first Grammy Award, for a duet with Raitt on ``I'm in the
Mood.''

Several more albums followed, including one recorded to celebrate his 75th
birthday, titled ``Chill Out.''

Wooler got to know Hooker over the past decade through the album label and
said the blues master was a ``very humble, sweet man, always in good
spirits.''

Born in Clarksdale, Miss., in 1917, Hooker was one of 11 children born to a
Baptist minister and sharecropper who discouraged his son's musical bent.

His stepfather taught him to play guitar. By the time Hooker was a
teen-ager, he was performing at local fish fries, dances and other
occasions.

Hooker hit the road to perform by the age of 14. He worked odd jobs by day
and played small bars at night in Memphis, Tenn., then Cincinnati and
finally Detroit in 1943.

In Detroit, he was discovered and recorded his first hit, ``Boogie
Chillen,'' in 1948.

``I don't know what a genius is,'' he told the London newspaper. ``I know
there ain't no one ever sound like me, except maybe my stepfather. You hear
all the kids trying to play like B.B. (King), and they ain't going to
because, ooh, he's such a fine player and a very great man. But you never
hear them even try and sound like John Lee Hooker.''

``All these years, I ain't done nothin' different,'' he added. ``I been
doing the same things as in my younger days, when I was coming up, and now
here I am, an old man, up there in the charts. And I say, well, what
happened? Have they just thought up the real John Lee Hooker, is that it?
And I think, well, I won't tell nobody else! I
can't help but wonder what happened.''

In his later years, Hooker laid back and enjoyed his success. He recorded
only occasionally; he posed for blue jeans and hard liquor ads. He played
benefits from time to time, but mostly performed in small clubs, dropping in
unannounced.

Mostly, though, he hung out with friends and family at his homes in Los
Altos and Long Beach, watching baseball and enjoying a fleet of expensive
cars.

---SNAP---

-Dominik

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