“I used to play at this place called the Apex Bar in Detroit. There was a young lady there named Luilla. She was a bartender there. I would come in there at night and I’d never be on time. Every night the band would beat me there. Sometimes they’d be on the bandstand playing by the time I got there. I’d always be late and whenever I’d come in she’d point at me and say, “Boom boom, you’re late again.” And she kept saying that. It dawned on me that that was a good name for a song. Then one night she said, “Boom boom, I’m gonna shoot you down.” She gave me a song but she didn’t know it.”John Lee Hooker (213)

“That’s a true song about a flood that happened in Tupelo when I was a kid of about seven or eight years old. It completely destroyed the town. People never forgot it. So when I grew up and got famous, I wrote about it and it brought back memories to a lot of people.”John Lee Hooker (213)