Another blues great passes...

"Sad, sad day..." to paraphrase M.Water. At home we always referred to J-L as "granddad" ("let's spin some granddad and boogie...").

I've reached the dubious stage in life where I've been watching all of the great blues singers and jazz artists that I grew up listening to passing from the scene. On the one hand, it's sad, but how fortunate that we've lived in a time when their music was recorded for posterity. When jazz guitarist Charlie Byrd died last December, I grieved a bit because I took guitar lessons from Charlie when I was in high school, and I've always loved his music. John Lee's death has also bothered me, but for different reasons. He was probably the last of the truly great Mississippi delta blues stylists, and there is no one who will replace him.

I was deeply sadden when I heard about the recent death of John Lee Hooker. I have been listening to his music since I was a teenager. I was born in 1948 the same year he first recorded his first record "Boogie Chillen", it went to No. 1 on the Billboard charts in 1949. He had that unusal sound that you rarely ever hear, you could feel the hurt and pain in his voice when he sang. I went to my collection of John Lee Hooker cds and lps and for the first time I counted how many I had, a total of 104. Couldn't believe it. I will miss him dearly. I am reminded of a quote in Henry Miller's book "The Time of the Assassins" a study on the French poet Rimbaud when he says "He is like a nova which appears suddenly grows to terrifying brilliance, then plunges to earth" In John Lee's case he burned for 80 plus years.