THE blues are dead? Try telling John Lee Hooker that. Great blues guitarists don't come any more legendary or influential (or indeed older) than John Lee Hooker. Eighty in August, Hooker has been an influence on many phases of popular music from the late 1940s onwards. From his first hit single, Boogie Chillen, in 1949 to his recently released album, Don't Look Back (Virgin America/Pointblank), Hooker's blues stylings have just about covered every facet from traditional country blues to R&B, with the occasional sidestep into rock `n' roll for good measure. He is justifiably one of America's greatest blues and folk blues artists, and while his facility to connect with such a wide variety of musical art forms has been criticised by purists as opportunist and by music critics as uneven, there is nevertheless a multitude of fans who only care about the music.
"The critic is a critic, you know," John Lee Hooker tells me.
"That's how they make their money. I suppose some people might think I do bad work, but the public or my fans don't. The fans don't pay no attention to what critics say or write. They read it and they laugh at it. They say: `I love John Lee Hooker, and I don't care what the critic writes'. That's only right and proper.
Born in Clarksdale, Mississippi, but eventually relocating to Detroit, via Memphis and Cincinnati, Hooker learned his easily identifiable guitar sound from his step father, Will Moore, who told him that if he learned this ostensibly unique style (described by Hooker as "percussive, with stomping chords slashed out") then no one else would be able to play it properly. This style was definitely the way to go, Moore informed Hooker, adding that the young guitar gunslinger would grow old and have it all to himself. That piece of parental advice turned out to be true. Nobody plays like John Lee Hooker.
A venerable blues survivor Hooker has played through the decades, influencing British acts such as The Rolling Stones, The Animals, John Mayall, and The Groundhogs, as well as American outfit Canned Heat, and a panoply of solo artists ranging from Carlos Santana to Bonnie Raitt. It was the latter who stated five years ago that Hooker's guitar sound was one of the most erotic things she had ever heard, ironically a female voice instinctually clarifying the main appeal of a music that is very much associated with men (and is played virtually exclusively by men, too).
LISTENING to Don't Look Back, one can only agree with Raitt's judgment. There is a surge of blues based sexual longing coursing through the record's II tracks, and while Hooker tends to repetitively stab words way beyond the endurance of even the most sympathetic listener, his guitar playing is exciting, exemplary and beautiful. Fellow epiphany hunter, Van Morrison, co produced and sang on four of the album's tracks, including Morrison's own The Healing Game. Despite his advancing years, does Hooker still like the often arduous recording process?
"Sometimes, but only when I'm in the mood. Van Morrison's a good man - he can sing the blues. We love each other! Good friends. He's connected into the music the same way I am. He, can sing the blues, ballads, R&B - he can do it all. Very talented man. I prefer working with people I like. You can get things done that way, through having similar ideas. It's like teamwork, people like Van and Carlos Santana. I like working with them and the like working with me."
It has been rumoured that, even approaching his 80th birthday, Hooker is still quite a ladies' man, and that he shares a similarly loving technique with women as he does with his guitar playing. "That's true heh heh," replies Hooker, clearly tackled. "I love women. I got me a beautiful woman in Melbourne, Australia. She preeeeeetty good. She come to see the old man, stay about a month or two and go back. Yea, I'm a ladies man. That keeps me goin, heh, heh. It keeps the little boy goin'. I can get it out good, run, trot, jump up and down. She, a young woman. Yea, I'm a ladies man. You sure got that right. Women and music - two of the best things in the world. They differ, though. If the woman don't like my music, then she has to go. My music comes first."
The blues are dead? No, they've just got more than their fair share of spirit, that's all.
