Seton Hall University - Galleon Yearbook (South Orange, NJ)

Page 20 text:

JOHN LEE HOOKER by Dorothy Monomy A black hat and leather jacket flashed in the lights as John Lee Hooker took his place. He sat down, picked up his guitar and grinned. He sang the blues with a wide variety of intonations and a seriousness that is unequaled among most contemporary singers. Hooker played hard and sang rough-his voice ranged from low grating growls to soft moans. His songs reflected the old, slow moving blues and earlie boogie music. The words are reminiscent of his hard life and difficult rise to fame. His style of performing built up an intense emotional pressure with a minimum of words and simple, melodic rhythmic motifs. By the end of this relatively short concert, John Lee had the audience on its feet clapping and boogie-in ' with the Hook. Hooker is legendary for he is an itinerant soul. A body who strayed from the Gulf of Mexico, from Corpus Christi to Brownsville, to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and plenty of area in between. Born in Clarksdale, Mississippi he was first taught by his grandfather to pick out harmony on strips of inner tube nailed in different tensions to the barn door. John Lee Hooker is not analytic about his music except to say, Any way you take them the blues are sure not dying. They ' re a steady roller; but you can ' t study up on them to sing them. You got to study up on people. I can be laying on the bed and something will come to me of what I ' ve seen. I ' ll get up get my guitar and I ' ll make a blues telling what I feel. The blues are what you know. And John Lee Hooker knows a lot about hard living. 16