The son of a sharecropper in Mississippi, John Lee Hooker was chosen to be the one to electrify the Delta blues. Not many musicians get to be born at the root of the tree, and still fewer are determined to grow into new forms. Yet for all his forward-thinking, Hooker's music was a tapestry upon which his heritage could be seen and experienced: talking blues (a form with strict rhythm and loose melody, where lyrics are delivered in a near-rap meter), hill country blues (a more rhythmic and percussive form) and the newer boogie and boogie-woogie forms, which Hooker pioneered by increasing pace in his playing style.
Upon moving to Detroit in 1943, Hooker devoted himself to the electric guitar and pushed the sounds of Mississippi into an urban space. A precursor to rock and roll, it was artists like Hooker that inspired the musical revolution of the 50s and 60s. Here, for this 1970 performance in Paris, he is joined by the masterful harmonica player Carey Bell, with Joe Harper on bass, Lester Dorsie on drums and Jimmy Dawkins supporting on electric guitar. Ranked 35 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 best guitarists, Hooker leads the line and is a class act from the first track to the last.
