John Lee Hooker - Crawling King Snake

I know that I've mentioned it once before on this blog, but John Lee Hooker is, bar none, the greatest blues musician I've had the pleasure of listening to.

Boogie Chillun' and Big Pimpin'

I was reminded of this fact after watching the last of John Lee Hooker. That's My Story. I only caught the last hour or so of the show, but I still enjoyed every bit of it. I got a few interesting tidbits out of it.

First, that the song Maudie was written for his ex-wife Maude. I've listened to that song many times and never been able to put a face with the song, but after seeing the show, I know who Maude is, and what their story was. It's really interesting to make connections like that, and get background on his songs.

The second interesting piece of knowledge that I came away with was that David Bowie's first band was called The Crawling King Snakes. This is another one of John Lee Hooker's songs. It's no surprise that John Lee Hooker's music inspired David Bowie, because he inspired so many artists, like the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, and Led Zeppelin. It was a surprise because that particular song is one of my favorite songs, if not my favorite.

To anyone who comes across this, I hope you can procure yourself a little bit of his music. I'd recommend getting his older stuff though, it's more "bluesy". The newer stuff has a different sound.