John Lee Hooker and Ry Cooder playing blues together in shoreline Amphitheatre 10/10/1992. Ry Cooder slide guitar incredibly fits with John Lee singing and playing.
John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker was a notable American blues singer, guitarist and songwriter. His fame rose when he performed electric guitar adaptations of Delta Blues. He also has this inclination to insert early North Mississippi Hill country blues and talking blues into his music with a genius twist.
He is often compared in greatness to B. B. King, who was also born in Mississippi, just like John Lee Hooker. King’s contribution to Delta blues was a comprehensive guitar technique that harmonized blues with components of jazz, rhythm and blues and other popular music genres.
But John Lee Hooker created a style of his own, in contrast, by retaining a pure and traditional approach of the Delta blues. In the postwar, he achieved more success, doing a crossover, using vocals with solo guitar. This was the style of earlier Delta players which he adopted, used to the hilt in his hit record, Boogie Chillen, in 1948.
The later releases of John Lee Hooker like I’m in the Mood (1951), Boom Boom (1962) and The Healer (1989), incorporated soul and rock music.
When John Lee Hooker was starting out in his musical career, he performed and recorded with rock musicians. One of his earliest partnerships was with The Groundhogs, a British blues-rock band.
In 1970, he played adaptations of his songs with the group Canned Heat, an American blues and boogie rock band. The result was the joint album Hooker ‘n Heat.
At his best, only with his electric guitar strapped on him, Hooker describes his musical style:
The display of aggressive energy in fast boogies and also an ample show of intensity for stark and slow blues. A back to the basics guitarist – playing simple harmonies, pentatonic scales and also one-chord modal harmonic structures.
John Lee Hooker toured expansively beginning the 1950s and he also made appearances in movies like The Blues Brothers (1980) and The Color Purple (1985). He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 and had a huge influence on bands such as The Animals and The Rolling Stones.
John Lee Hooker recorded more than 100 albums. Among them was The Healer (1989) which had appearances by Carlos Santana and Bonnie Raitt. Other notable albums are The Best of Friends (1998) and Grammar Award winner Don’t Look Back (1997).
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”.
Ryland Peter “Ry” Cooder
(born March 15, 1947) is an American musician. He is known for his slide guitar work, his interest in roots music from the United States, and, more recently, his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries.
His solo work has been eclectic, encompassing folk, blues, Tex-Mex, soul, gospel, rock, and much else. He has collaborated with many musicians, notably including Captain Beefheart, Ali Farka Touré, Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, Neil Young, Randy Newman, David Lindley, The Chieftains, and The Doobie Brothers. He briefly formed a band named Little Village.
Below is another version of this song performed by both artists.
