John Lee Hooker
“Boom Boom”
First and foremost, it breaks my heart that Chili’s used this song in their commercial. I cringe every time it comes on. That said, we can’t disavow everything awesome in the world whenever popular culture catches up to it, unless you’re just totally cool.
John Lee Hooker created his own genre of blues. Some call it “growling blues;” I’ve also heard it called “talking blues.” I just call it John Lee Hooker.
Not only was Hooker the baddest man in town, but his music is very much like “putting on a coat” (see the link–I think this song is better than “Boom Boom” but less popular and harder to grasp) that vibrates your spinal column. B. B. King once said, “If you don’t like the blues, you’ve got a hole in your soul.” If you don’t like John Lee Hooker, you’ve got a spinal disc missing.
Hooker’s music is a guttural and gritty groaning that scares coyotes off the land and resurrects the dead. The only possible reaction to his music is to lay back and sustain a groaning, “Oghhh.” You’re the ice cream, Hooker’s the sun–guess who’s going to win that showdown?
Good luck.
