There’s the Rub

The barbecue world has a “Boogie Chillen” problem.

Almost three decades ago, John Lee Hooker’s publisher sued ZZ Top for cribbing, in the band’s hit single “La Grange,” the “Boogie Chillen” guitar groove—a-how how—from Hooker’s 1948 blues song. But while ZZ Top got served the papers, the band wasn’t the only offender. The Rolling Stones nicked the riff via Slim Harpo for their cover of Harpo’s “Shake Your: “Where does one draw the line between apprenticeship, appropriation, and theft?”