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A warm Sunday morning kicking back on the front porch reading Boogie Man, The Adventures of John Lee Hooker in the American Twentieth Century by Charles Shaar Murray, provides a wonderful start to the week. Its not an easy read – I’m having to re-read several paragraphs to make sense of of it but as I read it I feel like I’m getting to know John Lee Hooker. I’m going to report more on this fine book later so check back but for now I must post the one quote that inspired me to write this now:

“The story of John Lee Hooker’s life is, essentially, the resistance to any and all attempts to change him, to dilute an intrinsic sense of self which has successfully withstood all pressures, including those of institutionalized racism, family, church and the music business.” Charles Shaar Murray

I think that sums up something significant I’ve got from this book so far. You see John Lee Hooker apparently knew who he was very early in life and never changed that view of himself even when his career was in a 15 year slump. When his career was revitalized one of the songs was “Crawlin’ King Snake” which was actually one of the first songs he performed, taught to him by his earliest blues mentor Tony Hollins. Here is an audio youtube of Crawling King Snake with the picture from the front of this book as the video:

Here is another tidbit from the book. For royalties from the Blues Brothers recordings John Lee Hooker got $13 in March 1991. John Lee Hookers songs were not on the CDs. I guess they really didn’t fit the stand up act that the Blues Brothers portrayed. Don’t get me wrong. I like the Blues Brothers, quite a bit actually. Anyway there is a great quote in the book.

Apparently as part of the cast research for the Blues Brothers Movie John Belushi asked to meet John Lee after one of his night club performances. John Lee did not know him and when introduced asked him if him “You one of those Muppets?”. Good one. Just goes to show you want a different world the two were in. John Lee playing blues in clubs and festivals at the time and John Belushi at the peak of his career doing Saturday Night Live.

John Lee’s comment was sincere I’m sure, not mean, not malicious. The light this book paints him in he was always considerate, sincere and rarely the one to be part of controversy. Even clear wrong doings like not getting early royalties were dismissed by John Lee with a comment “its settled and that’s that” .

Check back for more details later, I’m off to fix an old car right now. If you’re looking for more now then here is my previous post on John Lee Hooker and my post on John Lee Hooker Jr. Thanks for coming by.