100 Greatest Songs of the 60′ #86 John Lee Hooker – Boom Boom

Released: 1963

John Lee Hooker knew his way around a catch phrase, and according to music writer and his biographer Charles Shaar Murray, the favourite was “When I die, they’ll bury the blues with me. But the blues will never die.” 

Summing up his career is impossible; a veteran well before his million selling platter Boogie Chillen became of the genre’s first crossover hits in 1948, the maverick recorded for many of it’s touchstone labels, played electrically, accoustically and arguably did more to enable the movement’s late 20th century renaissance and any other musician on the planet.

Hooker recorded Boom Boom with the Funk Brothers, and it’s appeal lies in a playfulness and sense of welcome; this was John’s house, but you could pull up a stool and listen, grateful to be in the presence of such casual brilliance. He died in 2001, unlike many of his contemporaries rich and revered. They buried the blues with him – and it sure never died.