John Lee Hooker: Missed and Mourned

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Sad news from the NYTimes tonight and especially starkly-so since Rae and Sofia and others were talking of him earlier just this last night in the Chat Room of this site!

Quote:

June 22, 2001
Blues Guitarist John Lee Hooker Dies at 83
By JON PARELES
ohn Lee Hooker, the bluesman whose stark, one-chord boogies were some of the feistiest and most desolate songs of the 20th century, died yesterday in his sleep at his home in Los Altos, Calif., said his agent, Mike Kappus. He was 83.

Mr. Hooker's music stayed close to its Mississippi Delta roots. Usually playing an electric guitar with a menacing hint of distortion, he picked barbed, syncopated guitar riffs that went on to become cornerstones of rock. Electrified for tough urban crowds, they harked back to the rural South and to West Africa. "I don't play a lot of fancy guitar," he once told an interviewer. "The kind of guitar I want to play is mean, mean, mean licks."

Sad sad sad!

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Well, it had to happen sometime. 83 ain't so bad.

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Yes, eoe, but it's still very sad . . . I mean, age does not really make it feel any better once someone leaves this earth, ya know what I mean?

Maybe you are very young, chronologically speaking, but think of the fact that each death one learns of means someone very much like yourself - ya know: another human being - is gone. When it's someone in your family or set of friends, isn't it just as painful no matter what the age?

And so, when someone I don't even personally know but who I have enjoyed so very much leaves us, it still hurts . . . even if he left @ 83 Crying or Very sad

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Oh no! That's the first I've seen of this. Sad

Sad.

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Yes, you could look at it that way. His death being a sad thing. And I'm sure to many, his loved ones in particular, it is. But when we look at the contributions he made and finally received acknowledgement for, it's difficult to mourn his passing as much as celebrate his life. At least, in my opinion.
I'm not so very young sweet. Hence the opinion. My comfort in the deaths of loved ones is knowing that they lived a long, full, eventful life. What sad for me is when life is cut short. I buried a 52 year old cousin earlier this year. Now that, to me, is sad. Crying or Very sad

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I can guarantee you folks that Mr. Hooker would want his life to be celebrated.

The man sung his heart and soul out for a lot of years and only saw financial recognition during his end years.

Of all the famous people I've met over the years, Mr. Hooker was the kindest, most gentle and humorous. He will always hold a place in my heart. He would be the one I'd want to spend a day with ~ given the opportunity.

I purchased an external cd-rw driver for my computer yesterday ~ I will spend all of my spare time downloading his music.

I can still hear his laugh, see his smile.....and I know that he's smiling because people are remembering him fondly.
Very Happy

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You met him, huh? Cool.

eoe, point well taken. And very sorry about your cousin. Sad

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OH, Rae.

I thought of you and Cobalt and our conversation last night when I saw the thread.

What a wonderful memory you have.

A toast to a rare, talented man!

Are we some Blues lovin' wimmin? RIP JLH. Cool

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i had the most honorable chance to sit and talk and try to drink with john lee at a small table in the speakeasy lounge in cambridge back in the early 70's on a number of occasions. he was one of the warmest, open and down to earth people i've ever met.

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Well, how do you like that? What's the odds of having two members here who met him? That's IS cool.

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thought I would just leave this alone, but have to jump back in...I do celebrate his life, really, I do...would love to be at a wake such as that...I still can't help feeling the loss...

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Wow, John Lee's been gone two years now......amazing.

At least we got his music. Boogie Chillun'

His popularity and monetary success at the end of his carreer/life was justice personified.

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Living in London, I was introduced to the Blues in the 60s by the young Brit rock/blues bands such as The Yardbirds, The Animals and people like Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck. Hooker's songs such as Boom Boom, Stella Mae, Dimples were often in many a set list. The Blues of John Lee Hooker led me to people such as Robert Johnson, Willie Dixon, BB King and many, many more. All of them were/are great writers & musicians.

John Lee Hooker remains my main man. as he travels that Dusty Road. America should revere this man, he's the tap root that encouraged rock & roll to grow and bloom and find a wide audience.

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John Lee Hooker: Missed and Mourned

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