|
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s
Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or
view the MP3 Album.
Special Offers and Product Promotions
- Get $1 in Amazon MP3 credit with qualifying purchase. Limited to one promotional credit per customer. Here's how (restrictions apply)
Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Originally released on Impulse in 1966, It Serves You Right to Suffer may not contain John Lee Hooker's better-known material, but it does serve up eight tracks of topnotch blues, complete with the boogie groove that Hooker does so well. The digital remastering for this CD is a blessing; the recording sounds almost as clean as one made today. That prevents the listener from being distracted from this album's many delights: the uptempo, low-key "Shake It Baby"; the relaxed but rhythmically tight "Country Boy"; the danceable "Bottle Up & Go"; and the slow, sexy shuffle of "Sugar Mama." Especially worth hearing, however, is the title track, which strikes a perfect tension between musicality and mood. --Genevieve Williams
Product Description
One definitely thinks of jazz when one sees the Impulse label-but the Hook turned a possible mismatch into a triumph with this 1965 Impulse recording. Teamed with jazz session men, he delivers a deeply felt version of the cover song (a future staple of his set) plus Country Boy; Bottle Up and Go; Sugar Mama , and more. CD debut!
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
33 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You want to get this now. You will get this now.,
By Campbell Roark "tri-zeta" (from under the floorboards and through the woods...) - See all my reviews
This review is from: It Serves You Right to Suffer (Audio CD)
First of all, c'mon- the price is right! A mere 5 bones for a remastered J. Lee Hooker studio release? Pick up 2 other blues CDs that you've been thinking about getting and toss this one in too, just so's you get the free shipping! There! It's payed for itself. I guarantee you will play the hell out of this. A great gift for young ones who you want to inculcate with the blues aesthetic! And who could resist a CD titled, "It serves you right to suffer?" That's just the bluesiest damn title the world has seen! The playing and sound are top-notch Hooker, in his mid 1960's prime. Yes, you can get some of these tracks on 'Best Of' comps- but still, the gestalt of the album is a thing to behold: this is one set that can't be reduced to its parts. It's the sum here that matters- and what you get is one of the finest blues releases out there (again, for 5 frikkin dollars!)... The hook's Lanky, brooding boogie shuffle- ably backed by some guys who know their place and don't step out of line... Seriously- if you ended up here- it's cuz you dig that John Lee Hooker sound. Maybe you averted your eyes (like I did) back when he was hawkin Pepsi in the mid-90's in those awful commercials... Well, friends, this is the antidote to crud like that. Get this and crank it up- music for all times and events! This is Simply the blues. The title cut and Decoration Day tie for my fave. All in all- about half an hour of goodness. That's six minutes of blues goodness per buck. We're talking value here, people! And if you don't get it- well, then it serves you right...
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best blues records you will ever hear- I think,
This review is from: It Serves You Right to Suffer (Audio CD)
John is great by himself or with a band. This is the perfect example of him with a band. Some of the greatest backing musicians who in no way intrude but only compliment Hooker's style of either driving rythms or slow dinning hypnotizing slow blues. Hooker does only 8 songs at about 32 minutes but all classics. This isn't like when hooker teams up with rockers who maybe were great at what they did but didn't do what Hooker himself did. This is a few musicians who understand Hooker's work and play off him and with him, rather than over him. Shake it baby is Rockin' Blues like Hooker could always do without losing the straight blues soul. Country boy is long story tellin' blues and Bottle up and go is as said in the liner notes- Delta Dance music. You're wrong is pure Hooker style- Rythmic Blues, not Rythm and Blues- Blues with lots of solid rythm. THere is a difference. Sugar Mama, A classic because it takes the old theme that hooker arranged new so long before that and changed it around. Instead of praising the sugar sweet woman- He tells her the praise has gone to her head and he's got a new sugar mama, that's John Lee. Decoration day is one of those blues that rolls around slow on the same chord until it almost drives you crazy. It is an old blues song that is one of the most dark and sad traditional songs. About a woman who tells her man before she dies, to decorate her grave on every Memorial or Decoration day. I think that is basically it anyway. Then a solid Take on Berry Gordy's Money which several bluesmen seem to like and perform. Hooker does it with the same group plus old friend and trombone player for the Basie Band -Dicky Wells doing a just right accompaniment. Then it serves you right to suffer in the same way as Decoration day, is some advice to forget about the past. All in all it is the best example of John with a band backing him. Perfect record I think. In everything he does I think he is one of the most believable bluesmen. He means it when he says it and he's there when he sings it and plays it. I have played this record straight through more than most any other blues record I have.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fine band-backed Hook,
By Docendo Discimus (Vita scholae) - See all my reviews
This review is from: It Serves You Right to Suffer (Audio CD)
It's not that you can't find the best of these songs on any of the numerous John Lee Hooker-compilations, but this album is just such a great, cohesive listen.
Maybe it's just me, but sometimes the music just works better in its original setting. The sound is quite excellent as well, courtesy of a good remastering job, and unlike most of Hooker's laurel-resting and guest star-heavy latter-day recordings, "It Serves You Right To Suffer" has all the grit and all the feeling of a "real" John Lee Hooker-record. The band is tight and sympathetic, discreet without being invisible (or inaudible, I suppose it should be called), and these renditions of John Lee Hooker-classics like the title track, the lazy, slowed-down shuffle rendition of "Bottle Of And Go", and "Country Boy" are top-notch. Even his somewhat uncharacteristic take on Berry Gordy's "Money (That's What I Want)" is really good, and while a couple more up-tempo songs would have been nice, there is absolutely nothing wrong with what is here. One of Hooker's finest original LPs, alongside "I'm John Lee Hooker" and "Burnin'". 4 1/4 stars or there about. Highly recommended.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
