Original Song
"Boom Boom" is an uptempo stop-time blues song, notated in 4/4 time in the key of C. The verses of the song do not follow a typical twelve-bar blues pattern, though it reverts to a standard twelve-bar pattern for the extended instrumental break in the middle of Hooker's recording. According to Hooker, he wrote the song during an extended engagement at the Apex Bar in Detroit. "I would never be on time; I always would be late comin' in. And she kept saying, 'Boom boom—you late again'. Every night: 'Boom, boom—you late again'. I said 'Hmm, that's a song!'"
Hooker had a unique sense of timing, which demanded "big-eared sidemen". Backing John Lee Hooker (vocal and guitar) are members of the Funk Brothers (Joe Hunter (piano), James Jamerson (bass), and Benny Benjamin (drums)); plus Larry Veeder (guitar), Hank Cosby (tenor saxophone), and Andrew "Mike" Terry (baritone saxophone).
The song became a hit, reaching #16 in the Billboard R&B chart where it spent eight weeks in 1962. "Boom Boom" also made an appearance on the US Billboard Hot 100 (1962 at #60), one of only two Hooker singles to do so. Thirty years later, after being featured in a Lee Jeans commercial in 1992, the song reached #16 in the UK Singles Chart. Hooker recorded several later versions, including a reworking of the song as "Bang Bang Bang Bang" from his Live at Soledad Prison album and as a South Side Chicago street musician in the film The Blues Brothers, but the song itself is not included in the film soundtrack.
Read more about this topic: Boom Boom (John Lee Hooker Song)
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