The Hidden Genius of "Hook" by Blues Traveler
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Hey everybody! Thanks for watching this video on "The Hidden Genius of Hook by Blues Traveler". I've loved this song forever, but until recently, I didn't completely understand all the nuances of how crazy this track is. John Popper's songwriting is unreal here. "Hook" is a one of a kind song and I'm glad I'm finally talking about it, Pachelbel's Canon in D, catchy hooks in general, etc. Hope you liked it!
Hook / Blues Traveler / John Popper / Video Essay / Lyrics / Explained / Live / Music Video / Reaction / Hidden / Genius / Meaning / Best / Review / Peter Pan / Run Around / Four / Rant - เพลง
I think even you have missed the brilliance of John in the Rin Tin Tin and Anne Boleyn line. Anne was known for her corset and Rin Tin Tin, like all German Shepherds, for his very tapered waist. Much like the Peter Pan tie-in line to the second hook in "Hook", the double entendre of "Sucking it in" here is genius. God bless John Popper.
Wow. Just when you think the lyrics couldn’t be anymore brilliant. Thanks for pointing that out.
and what do you use to close a corset? hooks! well, some corsets, at least...
One could also make the connection to Pavlovian response in referencing Rin Tin Tin.
Also points back to referencing familiar names (heroes)
Also, missed the 'make a desperate move or else you'll win' bit. Not at all nonsensical. Very literal.
I love this song because it’s basically calling me a dumbass the entire time and I end up proving it right by waiting for the hook to come back over and over
Even this video misses the larger meaning. The song is genuine emotional, sincere and is speaking against the contrived nature of pop music. It is a lovely heartfelt parody.
i was security and assistant to john, he is truly as genius, and complex, as you’d imagine. i am really glad you explained this song to everyone!
He’s from princeton, so that doesn’t surprise me
🧢
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Very cool. I still remember hearing Run Around for first time. Being a decent harmonica player, my jaw was in the floor.
I listen to this over and over when I run across
The "Peter Pan turnaround" into the second chorus is legitimately one of my all-time favorite lyrical moments.
But the hook brings you back...
I remember the 1st time i read the lyrics of the song, i laughed so hard when i realized it was a criticism of popular music, and catchy nonsense hooks. I've been a fan of Popper for a while. Dude is brilliant.
Hook is like a perfect storm. There’s many layers woven in to it lyrically, musically and mentally. It’s no wonder they couldn’t duplicate it
I don't think they tried.
@@MarkyD94 Yeah I think the point of the song was saying they didn't want to replicate it. They wanted to prove that they could do it anytime they wanted and they laughed at all the sellouts as they cashed the checks.
I know this video really isn't about that, but I find it surprising there was no mention whatsoever of what John Popper is actually known for: his eccentric and virtuosic harmonica playing style. He pushed the instrument to its absolute limit like literally no one before him did (surprising from a 90s band) and, when that wasn't enough, pioneered harmonica equipment similar to guitar pedals and an iconic harmonica vest (that is briefly shown in that video) that would make the most famous harp players facepalm for not having thought of it.
Just in this song, "Hook", John rips an incredible harmonica solo that is almost perfectly precise by blowing in rapid succession through many single holes of the instrument. That section is not just hard, it's One by Metallica hard, it's something that takes a normal player years of practice to accomplish, but the dude does it flawlessly every time.
It's not that far of a stretch to consider John Popper the Jimi Hendrix of harmonica because there some stuff he pulls out with Blues Traveler that is just mind boggling. Just look up his rendition of the Star Spangled Banner to see that we're well past the Sonny Boy Williamson or the Little Walter of the Delta blues, this is someone that understands and controls his intrument literally to perfection.
I could tell you were a True Blues Traveler fan and so am I. God bless you well put. Happy holidays Merry Christmas to you
Well said. The really amazing instrumentalists are the ones that push the envelope so far that others just wonder how they even thought of it. Popper is absolutely one of the elite few to push an instrument into whole new areas/techniques.
@@falxonPSN As a harp player myself, studying him has simultaneously been one of the most rewarding and frustrating thing I've ever experienced in music
John Popper is the best blues harp player on earth, I'm confident in that statement. Also, I take issue with the comparison to One. There is no Metallica song that rises to the level of his skill. Guy upstaged Steve Vai with a harmonica.
John is a cousin of minw and I love that you love him and Blues Traveler. He is easily the GOAT of harmonica playing
John Popper is a godamn genius with godlike talent. Change my mind.
Make me.
@@jeff136 I rest my case.
Nope, the man is a GOAT. Kept performing music while recovering from a broken back!
The defense rests
....no
This reminds me of how Love Song by Sara Bareilles was written as a response to her label asking her to write a love song, but also works as an amazing song about love
So I've actually always bopped my head to this song and haven't been listening to the lyrics. How ironic!
YO never thought you'd cover blues traveler. been a hidden gem in my catalog for years. some of the most underapreciated musicians tbh.
As unappreciated and talented as Crash Test Dummies.
@@TheMythOfNormal Great sentence with capitalization, horrid without.
The song not only sounds good it is an absolute masterpiece in so many ways.
"I can make you feel but I can't make you think" Jehtro Tull
Thick as a brick
God, I love that song!
So true, society needs to look in the mirror
So weird. Never really paid much attention to this song. Then heard a clip the other day and now woke up with it in my head. Watched the video and wow. It hooked me. It is truly like a magical song. Fooled me
Popper: “Nooo it doesn’t matter what i say as long as I sing with inflection ”. Listeners: “hahah nice hook goes brrr”
Narcissism
I love the 2020 comment
@@moose_tracking2987 yes you are right this is a now very out dated meme
Such a bop
@@georgebad4229 ya i dont get what brrr means
I loved this song back when it came out and I got most of the meta aspect of it. It would make me laugh especially at parties to see people singing along and dancing to it. It almost felt subversive and like we were in on a secret. I personally found it refreshing because it was kind of "showing its drawers" so to speak.
Another great example is OUTKASTs Hey Ya
I actually did an assignment in a high school English class about this song and how subversive it was under the pop veneer.
Holy crap. I have been recently listening to Blues Traveler. I hadn't heard them in years, and I have been feeling nostalgic, so I have been jamming out to their music like I did when I was a kid. Hook has always been my favorite.
100 Years, or Forever Owed. The band's catalog is full of amazing gems.
Four was by far not my favorite album, but Hook has always remained a close preference of mine.
I so appreciate this video. I used to listen to this song as a kid, and I loved it because it was just so catchy and his voice is amazing. now as an adult I can truly appreciate it on a totally different level. This song is genius!
Same. I grew up listening to this track just enjoying it for the genius pop song that made it a smash hit. But i got to come back to it as an adult and now I can enjoy it on a whole new level. Brilliant.
Pop music 101 by Marianas Trench has some similarities. Like it’s obviously self aware and makes a mockery of the genre while also being a successful pop song. No harmonica though …
Great commentary!
There's also a subtle little "meta" detail in the original music video that might be worth mentioning.
The entire video is of a guy sitting on his couch and flipping through a bunch of channels trying to find something worthwhile to watch. At the end of the video, he finally gives up and starts reading a book.
The cool (or "meta") part is that, toward the end of the video (during the bridge of the song), he actually sees HIMSELF on TV. The guy on the couch is the same actor who played the "man behind the curtain" during the Runaround music video. He even reacts visibly when he sees himself. He gets a puzzled expression on his face as the "man behind the curtain" looks at the camera and closes the curtains.
I won't assign any meaning to this but it's food for thought considering how "meta" the rest of the video is.
thank you i'll be listening to this on repeat again now that you've reminded me
First CD I ever bought was Four. I never understood how they were not more popular.
They sold over 6 million copies of that album. How much more popular could they be?
They were talented and unique, but unfortunately kind of novel and niche as the video said. They had their moment -- and then the radio played those hits into the ground. So instead of being timeless, the songs ppl know of theirs are stuck in the years they became popular and overplayed. BT is in good company with this.
Music styles and genres from the 90s just like music from the 80s moved rather quickly. Blues traveler along with these two bands and others we're about two years 95-96 of course blues traveler, hootie , barenaked Ladies. All over the radio for a couple years shifted again. The same type of thing happened 10 years before. So they were plenty popular. During that 2 years
@@WhatsCookingTime Blues Traveler was an accidental radio hit. Really don't think they ever expected to have continued radio success given the musical space they were working in. That's quite different than Hootie and the Blowfish, who were perfect for mass consumption.
Got ya beat, buddy - I bought it on cassette tape! CD's did not yet have a market - as they were way to expensive, along with the machinery to play them.
John Popper is the goddamn GOAT. The man kept performing while recovering from a broken back!
As someone who is a cousin of John Popper’s, I will make sure that he sees this.
Please tell us the results!
@@DogcrotchHell he’s been busy so he is just checking it out now. I think he’ll probably love it
What did he say?
@@yuothineyesasian he said he was going to watch it. I haven’t heard back yet
@@Yankeeapple13 any further update?
I discovered BT as a 15 yo kid in 1994. By 96 I was pretty much a punk. Blues Traveler led me down that path of showing me that there was more to music than pop and rap. I will be forever thankful to them for that.
(And no, I'm not insinuating the BT is punk. It's not even close. But once you figure out that other good music exists, it's a lot easier to search for it.
A close friend of mine, knowing I had a sweet spot for harmonica, gave me a tape with this “Four” album in it and told me to listen to it. This tape became one of my biking themes for the following four or five years on my bicycling trips to fish (speargun fishing) around Ciudad de la Habana and neighboring cities and towns… I used to listen this album again and again as I pedaled my way to underwater hunting spots, back and forth, up and down, tens of miles from home… Geez! I used to know were exactly I was along these trips of mine just by the song playing at that moment. The tape eventually wore off along with a number of burnt up Walk-Mans…
I finally could flee from Cuba and started a new life in Barcelona, Spain. No more underwater hunting for me. I tried to get a copy of Blues Travelers music, but nobody seemed to know about them, not even in the record stores dotting the Barcelonian “Barrio Gótico” and “Barrio Viejo” at the time.
I’ve finally got a legal copy (on CD then) a few years back here in Los Angeles, California…It was a gift from the same friend of mine who introduced me to Mr. Popper music so many years back in Ciudad de la Habana… Not that I need it, for Blues Traveler was already, as they are now, a well-known and praised band… Not hard at all to find any longer. But it was a meaningful gift for me anyway, like a full circle culmination token urging me to keep going.
Now, I'm still listening to “Hook”... Now with a smile in my eyes, a sweet sore in my heart…. And wonders in my soul…
Some songs are much more than just a song, they are like travel tickets to take you to places of the mind.
Say word. ... karma. Karma is an underlying theme, I do believe. Wendy insists on sewing on Peter's shadow, and she begins on the sole of his feet. The soul of his feats..ever revisiting the nursery, seemingly going round and round in the same play,, ever and over like a dog chasing his tail, all the while squeezing the life out of his heart and lungs..the magic keeps him afloat, the refusal to learn and grow keeps the wheels of Karma turning, forcing oneself to live the same dream over, and over, and over, and over, and over. All the things you've been..tinkerbell is the energy that brings your curiosity to life and makes it soar, so excited to fly, not caring that you left your shadows behind, ever returning to find the tricky thing knowing you cannot be whole without it. Sewing and weaving, Wendy insisted on it..her voice the same as Alice..Peter liked the hope that she held within her heart, and insisted she must fly with him. Hook..the arch nemesis..the ever present representation of the fear of growing old and cold..if the fates would allow, Peter would due away with all that nonsense..how joyless that deamon of a hook would cause you to become in carrying with you the spark of hope in addition to all that you have been, and all you might become..the clock is laughing in your face as you try to stay young, while the world turns. Peter likes tigar Lilly and the shamons teachings..he is drawn to it more so then any other way, as it seems only in that place he can become peacefully grounded, and truly learn. Wendy looks down apon this, as she is determined to keep Peter in his shadow. After all..that would ensure that he will keep coming back
I never paid to much attention when this song was a hit. To me it was just another pop song. However about 7 to 10 years ago I read an article at AV Club about Hook and my mind was blown. To this day I've been trying to explain to other people how genius this song is but now I just have to send them a link to this video.
Thanks for the great video. A few years ago my wife explained to me what this song was really about and I was hooked. The most brilliant pop song EVER WRITTEN
You nailed this. Perfect explanation.
Im 36 and FOUND this cassette in the park and loved them since 1995
When i was young, I proved his point by liking the song for the music that goes over, now I love the song for its lyrics
I love blues traveler I’ve seen them play live many times, they’re better live than on their records.
Very well done! I was a DJ when that song came out and it was always funny how much people liked a song making fun of them because they would like it. They told the entire industry how lame it was and the execs nodded and smiled because they didn't get it.
I remember when I first heard this track. I was hooked on Blues Traveler for life. Coolest show was an intimate ball room right before Straight on Till Morning was released in Atlantic City NJ. They played the whole thing front to back amazing. Second coolest was a Thanksgiving Day show, they handed out t shirts that asked are you smoked, baked or fried? Love them forever.
I am SO happy you talk about this song. No one ever does
Rin Tin Tin was a a famous stray Dog turned movie star in the early 20th century. And Anne Boyelyn was the second wife of Henry VIII, who was beheaded. One is a story of a the lowest welp becoming Hollywood royalty with a lineage that continues to this day, and the other is a literal Queen who was put down like a dog that couldn't breed properly. They are foils of eachother, and both had unexpected outcomes to their lives and legacies. The dog has a legacy to this day, and the once queen doesn't. He's saying "suck it up. Life isn't fair, but you have to play your hand and bet big when you get the chance." Hance "make a desperate move or else you'll win." Someone else also mentioned the corsets that women wore during Henry VIII's time, which then makes "suck it in" also a pun. Also, a dog "sucks in" air when it is tracking a scent, which Rin Tin Tin often did "sniffing out trouble," as a progenitor to Lassy. It seems like you may have dismissed the most genius line of the song as nonsense. Which, ironically it isn't. Which makes John Popper even more genius, because he hid so much meaning in one of the lines that zips by unnoticed, even by people who analyze this sort if stuff.
This song is very paradoxical. The song is making a statement by saying that they’re not saying anything.
Its makes no sense because it actually makes a statement so it kinda defeats the purpose.
It's a common type of satire. The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices.
This was a really common message in other forms of entertainment at the time. For instance, Seinfeld was a really popular TV series and had already aired their "show about nothing" seasons.
going to listen to this song again... thanks!
i love pachabels canon so much..it takes me to a magical place every time i hear it...everyone on this planet needs to hear it
it's amazing that what the song is about and how i interpreted it growing up are completely opposite. I always thought he was saying "the heart brings you back" like following your dreams type of thing. And that is soo true! And even in a song, the hook is the heart of the song which always keeps you coming back for more.
Even this video misses the larger meaning. The song is genuine emotional, sincere and is speaking against the contrived nature of pop music. It is a lovely heartfelt parody.
The great thing about the song is that it is the center of their album (Four) which was clearly intended to be a commercial success. Popper is basically saying "Yeah, we can make popular songs, that's easy." He's telling the Band's existing fans not to worry, they know what they're doing. And they clearly did - see the almost immediate release of their next album "Straight on Till Morning" which got back to their 'roots'.
Only found this song recently and I love it, the hook keeps bringing me back. Great vid!
NOFX: Please Play This Song On The Radio, a little more obvious, but still taking the piss.
Please make longer version of these types of videos!!! Man I love the way you put out infos! Am definitely your top 5 subscribers
Do a video called “The Underrated Genius of *New Mistake* by Jellyfish”
They don't make music of this caliber anymore. This song in particular is truly spectacular.
This is such an amazing video. Thank you for this!! 👍 🤘
This may be my favorite TH-cam video ever. It's perfect.
I feel like I knew all of this, deeply, when I heard it for the first time. . . and THAT is (also) why I kept coming back.
Is it about love? No.
Is it about a life experience? No.
But it sounds great.
Thank you for doing this video!
I’ve been listening to that song for a long time and I didn’t know what the lyrics meant until now. I really bamboozled myself and feel like such an idiot
Absolutely amazing break down of this song thank you!!
For what it's worth, I didn't know about the stanzas, but I did know what "the hook brings you back" meant when I heard it on the radio as a kid.
Thought is always what makes my favorite songs... And this is next level...
Love that song! Always makes me smile when I sing along
I love this song! So hype for this video
I never really paid attention to the lyrics or meaning but still like the song. Thanks for the explanation.
This was one of the most interesting & well presented videos I've watched in a long time. You get my "like" sir, and here's a sub for good measure.
Wow! Thank you for explaining this for us!👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
Thanks for a very interesting and astute analysis of a song I never bothered thinking about . . . . and I remember them as a neighborhood band playing at Nightingales or in an apartment a couple of em shared with a friend of mine.
Tuesday nights at Mondo Cane too!!
Brilliant analysis.
Great job explaining this song 👍
Awesome video!
I always connected Rin Tin Tin and Anne Boleyn back to the "I'll refer to heroes from long ago" line.
There's gotta be something else there I think. Esp since Peter pan already accomplished that
Dude....this was a frkn awesome review! I remember people calling Blues Traveler poppy trash back in the day....great showcase of the underrated Popper genius!
Great vid!
Love that song love your break down. Not going to lie the Captain Hook connection is one I laughingly never made before, thanks for that
Wow no way I've been singing this songs praises since I was a kid people always hype run around but this one is so creative and it's nice to see it get some recognition
Great video, appreciate you
Love this video! So well articulated and current subjects. I'm curious if you have heard the music by Gillian Welch? "Everything is free" is a modern classic that is still relevant thanks to the cover by Father John Misty.
I really got a prayer to pray, Thats really all this was. When Im feeling stuck, in need of a buck, I dont rely on luck, because the hook brings you back.
Which is I believe him saying that it's a guarantee to make money if you do that.
Good video, thank you for making it! I think anytime we analyze song lyrics like these as outsiders there will always be some personal interpretation involved. When I listened to the Peter Pan reference for example, to me I felt like John was talking about the experience of being a musician and never really "growing up" and getting a "real job" etc. It made me think of Michael Jackson's connection to Peter Pan and his Neverland ranch. When he sang later in the song about all the catchy little tunes and ditties, busting balloons and burning cities to the ground I thought of it as being sick of living a transient musician lifestyle but also being trapped in it. Who knows what John's actual intent was, but your video makes me interested in searching out any interviews he's done about the lyrics to "Hook." Regardless, I think it's clearly the best song on that album and one of the best songs ever written.
this is kinda similar to how in hey ya! the listeners are being called out for just listening to the song because it sounds good with the line “Y'all don't want to hear me, you just want to dance”
Or Tubthumping by Chumbawumba that was written for the same reason
These songs all do so well but they are making fun of the very concept they are portraying
Yup
Love the song and this video
John Popper’s arrest in 2007:
“He was the passenger in his own vehicle, which was stopped for speeding, and was found to be in the possession of a small amount of marijuana and weapons. Popper was released the same night. The vehicle had a stash of hidden compartments which contained four rifles, nine handguns, a switchblade knife, a Taser, a set of brass knuckles, and night vision goggles.”
Legend.
I like to think he was going 150 soloing on his harmonica while taking fat tokes off a ridiculously oversized joint.
@@yuothineyesasian That sounds like a hook to me :P
Man, nv in 2007 was expensive. Dude was ballin!
It still feels so good
Holy crap! Captain Hook, brought Peter back! Dude. If you couldn’t tell, I’m binge watching your channel. Epic
That was amazing. Nuff said.
NO WAY I went from watching your videos to this song LAST NIGHT!! What a coincidence
This is one of them songs that I just heard on the radio as a knucklehead kid. And Re- found as an adult. And it blew my mind!
I got so excited when I saw this video
Rush hit the same nail on the head a decade earlier with Spirit of Radio, when Geddy sings "One likes to believe in the freedom of music, but glittering prizes and endless compromises shatter the illusion of integrity."
Neil Peart was a genius.
Had front row center once in Dallas Geddy sang one likes to believe in the freedom of baseball 😅
I know and get the lyrics and it is why I love it. The part where he talks of burning all your cities to the ground is just so awesomely contradictory to the feel of the song.
You cant write a better song than "Hook", and they released it after their hit single "Run Around". Perfect timing. It's the concept of "In Bloom" by Nirvana, but much more direct and lyrically full. He sings so fast in the last verse you need a lyric video to catch everything accurately. It kinda blew my mind when I got all the words clearly. Instant rock legends.
Try doing that last verse on Karioki night at the local bar. It's a bitch.
Amazing!
Woww Hook line and sinker boom 🤯
I always thought that he said "The HEART brings you back". I'm a bit disappointed......
It doesn't matter what he says...
Excellent!
Love this song and all of it’s meanings
I used to work in the Yukon in the Canadian North and went to sleep at night with either Blues Traveler or Van Halen..
We were so far in the Bush it took hours to get to a paved road..
No Radio no TV and no phone.
74 days straight In the Bush listening to BT to keep me halfway
Sane.. we were talking to the trees..
And sometImes the trees were talking back..
Thank You Blues Traveler!!!
I've always loved this song and for all the ironic reasons discussed here. Just a crazy clever song!!
Wow! that's mind blowing.
LOL! WELL DONE! Thank you for that excellent assessment of the Hook song and how awesome it and John is!! There's just one thing you left out (or maybe you didn't it could just be that I missed it, forgot it or just want to write this here. That is "And we LOVE him for it!!" Yes we do! Or I do anyway! I always struggled with the whole pop song forrmula and the biz and it's dictates of crap on a stick to sell to the public. Although we all need cash to live on so it still needs to exist. But it's frustrating that almost everyone is oblivious to it. Thus "Ignorance is Bliss"!"
I am a man, and, therefore, don't pay a lot of attention to lyrics, but the insane cadence of John's delivery made me try to get a few words of this song.
What I understood made me feel vaguely insulted, but I never got the full effect of his abuse....until now.
Thank you for shoving this bit of reality up my...
Love the Popper, love the Hook, Love Pachelbel!!!
Popper is a very smart dude, thanx for your video ; )
this song is a perfect palette for you to project upon as well... I always took the song to mean your hook is your vice... that thing you know means nothing but brings you back every time... me personally I'm just fascinated in mind boggled that he can play the harmonica like that or that anyone could play a harmonica like that playing scales on a harmonica....
The hook really does bring me back ❤️ so does all of this
Loved it
The greatest thing is when Blues Traveler songs this LIVE, and people are just bopping along, not getting it...