John Lee Hooker
41 articles
Audio interviews
Interview by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages audio, 7 July 1988
An avuncular (if occasionally inaudible) John Lee talks about making The Healer, doing Iron Man with Pete Townshend, his roots, and the state of the world today
File format: mp3 File size: 24.9mb Interview length: 27 minutes 12 seconds Sound quality: ***
Interview by Andy Gill, Rock's Backpages audio, 1990
From the Groundhogs to the Stone Roses: the music-industry legend narrates his journey from '60s Denmark Street to '90s Madchester via United Artists Records; talks about Hawkwind and Dr. Feelgood, signing the Stranglers and Buzzcocks, Radar Records and F-Beat, Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello, Demon Records and the CD/catalogue revolution; Silvertone Records and the Stone Roses... and the many changes in the music business over the years.
File format: mp3; file size: 60.7mb, interview length: 1h 03' 12" sound quality: ***
Interview by Tony Scherman, Rock's Backpages audio, 1992
The blues veteran talks about his roots outside Clarksdale, Mississippi; the influence of his stepfather Will Moore; how his style evolved into the "boogie" rhythm; his memories of B.B. King, Howlin’ Wolf, and Sonny Boy Williamson; his first big hit 'Boogie Chillen’; hanging out with Bob Dylan in early ’60s New York; his latest album Mr. Lucky and his experiences in the studio; covering ‘I'm in the Mood’ with Bonnie Raitt; his friendship with Van Morrison... and what he's up to next.
File format: mp3; file size: 46.1mb, interview length: 47' 59" sound quality: ** (phoner)
List of articles in the library
John Lee Hooker: Several Styles of Blues Singing
Profile by Robert Shelton, The New York Times, 7 April 1961
Genre's Wide Range Seen in Delivery of John Lee Hooker ...
Long John meets John Lee Hooker
Interview by David Griffiths, Record Mirror, 27 June 1964
THEY COULD hardly have been a bigger contrast in background and appearance: the young, very tall, bright white Englishman Long John Baldry, and the mature, ...
John Lee Hooker: Your kids dig the blues...
Interview by Max Jones, Melody Maker, 10 October 1964
IT IS hardly three months since John Lee Hooker was last in Britain, but even in that short time he's noticed a change in the ...
John Lee Hooker: The Ricky Tik, Guildford
Live Review by John Broven, Blues Unlimited, June 1965
Witnessed by John J. Broven, May 14th '65 ...
Review by Max Jones, Melody Maker, 15 January 1966
HOOKER RECORDS abound, but the latest from Chess, John Lee Hooker Plays And Sings The Blues (CRL4500) is a more than usually satisfying set. ...
Blues Bargains from Hooker, Dr Ross, Big Joe
Review by Max Jones, Melody Maker, 29 October 1966
SOME good rocking samples of Hooker R&B are found on Driftin' Thru The Blues (Ember EMB3371) 17s 9d, from John Lee's early recording days. A few tracks ...
Tempo: R&B and Jazz Album Reviews
Review by Jim Delehant, Hit Parader, November 1966
FOR SOME reason, recordings of live rock and roll shows are selling very well. You can hardly hear the music above the enthusiastic audience response ...
Interview by Jim Delehant, Hit Parader, May 1967
THERE AREN'T many new blues albums around, much less a label devoted to blues product. Why, you might ask, when the demand for blues is ...
Marvin Gaye & Kim Weston, John Lee Hooker, Byrds, Prince Buster et al Album Reviews
Review by Peter Jones, Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 6 May 1967
Some sophisticated new Motown albums ...
John Lee Hooker: I'm John Lee Hooker (Joy 101)
Review by Max Jones, Melody Maker, 17 August 1968
JOHN LEE Hooker is a fairly basic artist, and a collection of his songs from the Vee Jay label titled I'm John Lee Hooker (Joy ...
Out of the Groundswell the New Groundhogs
Interview by Max Jones, Melody Maker, 14 December 1968
IF IT'S doing nothing else, the present blues boom is drawing attention to a number of singers and players who have been around the country's ...
John Lee Hooker, Earl Hooker: Mandrake's, Berkeley CA
Live Review by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 22 May 1969
Great Blues in the Night ...
John Lee Hooker, Canned Heat: Carnegie Hall, New York NY
Live Review by Mike Jahn, The New York Times, 17 April 1971
Hooker Performs With a Pop Group He Helped Inspire ...
Blues reissues: Muddy Waters/John Lee Hooker/Little Walter/Smokey Hogg/Frankie Lee Sims
Review by Tony Russell, Cream, March 1972
EACH OF THESE bluesmen began to make his name soon after World War II, most of them profiting from the new urban audiences of blacks ...
Muddy Waters, Mose Allison, John Lee Hooker: Philharmonic Hall, New York NY
Live Review by Dan Nooger, The Village Voice, 11 January 1973
UNMASKED FLAVORS ...
John Lee Hooker: Free Beer And Chicken (ABC)
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 7 December 1974
ANYBODY WHO'S ever listened to a fair amount of John Lee Hooker will have realised that recording him with a band is a task on ...
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 3 May 1975
If you're a living blues master, are you better off dead? ...
Woke Up This Mornin', Blues Gone Down The Drain
Report and Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 4 December 1976
The Blues is getting old, and young black kids ain't taking over where the old-timers are leaving off. BRIAN CASE talks on the subject with ...
Interview: John Lee Hooker, October 1977, at the Main Point, Bryn Mawr, Pa.
Interview by Peter Stone Brown, unpublished, October 1977
JOHN LEE HOOKER was one of my all-time favourite blues singers. This interview was done between shows in the basement of the Main Point, a ...
Talkin' Blues: John Lee Hooker/B.B. King/Bobby 'Blue' Bland
Retrospective and Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 5 June 1982
THE BLUES speaks haltingly at first, haltingly and quietly in a darkened room. The curtains are drawn to shut out whatever passes for daylight during ...
John Lee Hooker: King of the Boogie
Interview by Dave Zimmer, Buzz, November 1985
JOHN LEE Hooker is a prideful man. When he looks back over his lengthy blues career – more than five decades old now – he ...
John Lee Hooker: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Jon Wilde, Melody Maker, 16 July 1988
EVERYONE SHOULD have three favourite bluesmen. It should be made compulsory. Like not wearing clothes in Central London. Or scraping the sides of Porches with ...
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, The Daily Texan, 26 January 1989
Legendary John Lee Hooker to bring Delta blues, classic tunes to Antone’s ...
John Lee Hooker: Nothin' shakes a true blue legend
Interview by David Sinclair, The Times, 27 October 1989
David Sinclair talks to rugged, illiterate bluesman John Lee Hooker, at 69 sounding like a man who breakfasts on iron filings. ...
John Lee Hooker: The Voodoo Guru
Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, Q, February 1990
ON 74TH & BROADWAY, the Gotham fog freezes your lungs with every breath, but inside the Beacon Theatre, Van Morrison has just spent something under ...
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, Q, October 1991
TALK ABOUT COOL: it's as if John Lee Hooker is so relaxed he can afford to be late for his own album. ...
Interview by Mark Cooper, Q, April 1992
MONDAY IS TRADITIONALLY a slow night in the music calendar, especially the first Monday in January in clubs like the Sweetwater, a small but chic ...
The Blues Brothers: John Lee Hooker and Keith Richards – It's a Two-way Thing
Profile and Interview by Nick Coleman, Time Out, October 1992
BOOM BOOM boom boom – gonna shoot you right down… The blues is always the blues, even when it's advertising copy. Right off your feet. ...
John Lee Hooker: Boom Boom (Pointblank/Charisma) ***½
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 29 April 1993
JOHN LEE HOOKER is the last ofthe classic Mississippi Delta blues guitarists, the unaccompanied bards who could generate more energy sitting on a low stool ...
Canned Heat: Still On The Road Again
Retrospective and Interview by Paul Gabriel, DISCoveries, August 1994
"I BELIEVE WE had the biggest response, of any group [at Woodstock]," says Adolfo "Fito" de la Parra, Canned Heat's drummer, who appeared with them ...
John Lee Hooker: Chill Out (Point Blank VPB 22)
Review by Mark Cooper, Q, March 1995
John Lee Hooker: an Old Testament prophet for modern times. ...
The Sound of Teardrops: John Lee Hooker
Profile and Interview by Ted Drozdowski, The Boston Phoenix, 5 January 1998
HOW DEEP IS John Lee Hooker's blues? "You can't go no deeper than me and my guitar," he says. "I open my mouth, and it's ...
Interview by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 28 May 1998
THE ORIGINAL Mack Daddy, John Lee Hooker represents the funkiest lowdown essence of the blues. Born in the Mississippi Delta in 1917, Hooker was a ...
Buddy Guy/John Lee Hooker: Temecula, Ca.
Live Review by Bill Wasserzieher, Blues Revue, June 1998
TO GET TO Temecula, Calif., head southeast from Los Angeles, traverse a ring of mountains, skirt a lake and then stop, mercifully, before Arizona. ...
John Lee Hooker: Goodbye Boogie Man
Obituary by Cleothus Hardcastle, Rock's Backpages, 23 June 2001
"Woke up this morning..." ...
John Lee Hooker: The Boogie Man
Obituary by Charles Shaar Murray, MOJO, August 2001
JOHN LEE HOOKER DIED peacefully in his sleep on June 21, 2001, two months and one day short of what would have been his 84th ...
John Lee Hooker: An Appreciation
Memoir by Peter Stone Brown, Gadfly, Summer 2001
JOHN LEE HOOKER'S death is tragic not so much for the loss of one of the greatest blues artists, but because there are so few ...
Mississippi John Hurt: Live/John Lee Hooker: Live at Newport (both Vanguard)
Review by Peter Stone Brown, Gadfly, 2002
EARLY IN 1963, two blues collectors, Tom Hoskins and Richard Spottswood, pulled into a town in Mississippi that wasn't on the map, called Avalon. ...
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