JOHN LEE HOOKER wrote his biggest hit because he just couldn’t get to work on time. After scoring a residency at the Apex Bar in Detroit in the early 1940s, he developed a habit of showing up well after his first set was supposed to begin, and the bartender – a woman named either Willow or Willa – would regularly cock her finger like a gun, point at him, and scold the bluesman: “Boom boom, you’re late again.” Eventually he realised there might be a song in that rhythmic declaration, and Hooker began playing around withhis biggest hits and arguably his most enduring composition.
