Bay Area Blues

It’s been about 7 weeks since I got back from my road trip along the Blues Highway in the Mississippi Delta. I do think the trip left a bit of an imprint on me — just as I think travel does for all people. As regards this particular trip I feel like I’m more aware of the influence of the blues in much of the music I listen to, and I have a slightly better understanding of the cast of characters who have moved the art form along.

Enter John Lee Hooker. He was born in 1912 in Tutwiler, Mississippi, not far from Route 61 (the Blues Highway) which I drove on my road trip. John Lee Hooker was an incredibly influential Delta Blues artist, and his name kept turning up in the various blues museums I was visiting. He played an electric guitar like nobody’s business. And he popularized the song “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer” long before George Thorogood made it popular all over again on his 1977 debut album.

And here’s something else about JLH: you saw him playing in the original Blues Brothers movie, as himself on the streets of Chicago in 1980. It’s worth watching that clip again, just to get into the mood:

I mention all this because the other day I literally stumbled upon John Lee Hooker’s resting place:

I had taken a ride to the Bay Area to visit with my old college roommate, Bruce. And, for reasons that still aren’t entirely clear, Bruce decided that we should visit The Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland. The COTC is a massive Moorish/Gothic columbarium that was designed by the famed architect Julia Morgan in 1928. (You’ll remember that Morgan designed Hearst Castle, among other iconic structures.) It would be easy to get lost in this place, with its multiple floors, twisting hallways, large airy rooms, and endless decoration. But it’s fascinating and over-the-top with its overwrought decoration.

Anyway, to get back to John Lee Hooker: In his later years Hooker lived in California, with houses in Los Angeles and the Bay Area. He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He died in 2001 at age 88 (though there’s some dispute about his exact age; he was the son of a sharecropper in the early 20th century, and recordkeeping wasn’t that great at the time). He was in his house in Los Altos when he died, and evidently made the short journey to this final resting spot here in Oakland.

I’d urge you listen to a few songs by John Lee Hooker, and maybe even to visit the Chapel of the Chimes. And if you do, please help Bruce find his way out….