New collection celebrates John Lee Hooker’s 100th birthday
This past Tuesday would have been the 100th birthday of John Lee Hooker. To celebrate the event, Craft Recordings has announced plans to release “King of the Boogie,” a careerspanning retrospective honoring the legendary bluesman.
Due out Sept. 29, the five-disc set delves deep into the catalog of Hooker, featuring not only his iconic hits, but also rarities, live recordings and several previously unreleased tracks. Housed in a 56-page book, the collection includes a wide selection of photos, taken throughout his life, plus new liner notes by writer and John Lee Hooker historian Jas Obrecht, as well as by longtime manager and friend, Mike Kappus.
Hooker was born 100 years ago near Clarksdale, Mississippi to a sharecropping family. Throughout the years, there has been some academic debate about his original birth year. However, the Hooker family maintains 1917 as the de facto date.
“As we all know there was no great push for accuracy back then in that portion of the community,” daughter Zakiya Hooker said in a statement. “But we just stick to what my father told us, which was what he was told by his mother.”
Hooker worked his way up north to Detroit to pursue his passion of music as a young man. By 1948, he had a hit on his hands with one of his earliest recordings, “Boogie Chillun’.” From there, Hooker would record over 100 albums throughout the course of his six-decade-long career, building a diverse collection of fans along the way from folk musicians and beatniks, to the stars of the British Invasion. The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton and Carlos Santana are among those who cite Hooker as a major influence.
“Everyone who knew John Lee Hooker loved him and felt privileged to be in his presence,” Kappus writes in the liner notes to ‘King of the Boogie.’ “While he influenced generations of musicians with his incomparable style, that impact on musicians stepped up to yet another level once they got to know and, universally, love him.”
In his later years, as Hooker found himself in one of the busiest, most productive eras of his career, getting inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Blues Hall of Fame and Memphis Music Hall of Fame. He was also honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and took home four Grammy Awards, plus a coveted Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000.
Tasked with narrowing down Hooker’s vast catalog into five discs, box set producer Mason Williams curated the collection to narrate the artist’s story.
“Even at 100 songs, this set is just a snapshot of John Lee Hooker’s incredible and influential career,” Williams says in a statement, “but one that takes you on the long journey he took from his early days in Detroit, to his time in Chicago recording for Vee-Jay Records and up through his later collaborations with Van Morrison, Bonnie Raitt and Santana, among others.”
‘King of the Boogie’ will be released as part of a year-long, multi-partner centennial celebration, honoring the music and influence of Hooker, and will be a companion piece to an exhibit of the same name, which kicked off Tuesday at the Grammy Museum Mississippi. The exhibit includes Hooker’s performance outfits, guitars, photos, awards and, of course, his music and will be on display through February of next year before traveling west to the Grammy Museum at L.A. Live.