Crawling King Snake

"Crawling King Snake" draws from earlier blues material associated especially with Tony Hollins and Big Joe Williams, but John Lee Hooker entirely reinvented it during a 1949 Detroit session. Stripping away the chaotic band arrangements, Hooker created a masterpiece of solitary, creeping dread. Playing completely alone, he dropped his voice into a low, menacing murmur while playing a hypnotic, single-chord electric guitar figure. The track was incredibly slow and heavily reliant on the booming, rhythmic stomp of Hooker's foot, creating a dark, atmospheric groove that The Doors famously borrowed heavily for their 1971 album, L.A. Woman.