Customer Reviews

It Serves You Right to Suffer

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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...

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.

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.

John Lee Hooker-It Serves You Right To Suffer ****1/2

The fact that you can get many of these tracks on compilations with some of Hookers best work is far from an argument against the album. Together the tracks found on It Serves You Right To Suffer play as such a strong and concise effort it serves as one of the greatest blues albums of all time.

'Bottle Up & Go' 'Decoration Day' his working of 'Money' and the albums title track serve as some of the very best of Hookers long and fantastic career.

His playing throughout is inspired and crisp, among some of his best. His style is more prominent through this release than just about any other he would ever put out, and it shows why he became so influential in the guitar and blues realms.

It Serves You Right To Suffer is among the very best Hooker albums ever released. His power can be heard here better than any other of his albums, so buy a best of if you want but your missing the point when you avoid the album.

This is a great John Lee Hooker and probably one of the best blues albums period. The sound quality on this album is top notch (this is not true with all John Lee Hooker material or blues in general). This also includes some of Hooker's best songs, including "It Serves You Right to Suffer" and "Sugar Mama".

The real deal of this album is that Hooker is trying to mainstream himself here. This is not from the classic Hooker period (but it is a classic album). This album came out in the 60's after the start of the British Invasion and this is Hooker's attempt to make a mainstream album for those who were into British Invasion groups. This becomes evident during Hooker's version of "Money". Typically the blues artists that tried to make a mainstream/ pop album lost a lot of what makes them great but what is so amazing about this album is that Hooker makes a mainstream album and sounds like Hooker. One of Hooker's top five albums ever. You need to buy this.

Don't let the price fool you, this is not some bargain bin compilation, this was an official release from John Lee Hooker, and a great one. This disc is one of his strongest efforts from the 1965-1974 period. There isn't a weak song on here. "Shake It Baby" is one of my favorite John Lee songs and has an awesome high scream from him towards the middle. "Decoration Day" is another classic as is the title track. This CD captures all the moods of John Lee Hooker, the slow and brooding, the uptempo boogie, and everything in between. I would have spent three times as much on this great disc, but for $7 this is a STEAL.

This cd is usually found in the cut out bins where it does not belong, this cd smokes anything he has done in the last ten years with all of the multi contributing artist to his 90's work. This cd recorded in 1965 is better than anything Clapton,Page or Stevie Ray ever dreamed of. If you want to find any blues close to this caliber, you are going to have go and buy T Bone Walker's Stormy Monday (live) from 1971 with Paul Pena on guitar or som John Hammond. The only other artist that is alive and writes such brooding blues inflected tunes is Tom Waits.

The recording on old music like this stinks. Well... actually, maybe it doesn't.

The entire drum kit as well as horns are isolated to the right channel
Bass guitar isolated to the left.
Noise floor is insanely high.

My Magnepan 20.1 speakers and McInstosh gear can still extract a life size center of John and his guitar but you can forget about anything resembling coherent sound stage of the full band.

This CD reminds me of the old classic movies that relied on the acting performance of the players before the special effects ability of today.

The itch to analyze recordings like this, and the quality of the gear presenting it, simply melts away. You find yourself involved in the performance forgetting the entire world of audiophilia.

There's no need to analyze. The recording is so imperfect and flawed there's simply no reason to. It's beautiful.

The music. They lyrics. The talent and real soul. It's the performance that carries this entire CD.

Incredible.

5 stars easy.

This is the real deal. John Lee Hooker with some of his strongest blues and at a rock bottom price. YOu can't beat it with a stick!

For any Blues fan John Lee Hooker is an all too familiar name and this reissue disc shows any who would question his Legend status why he holds the title. Every song is superb, classic Hooker. You'll find yourself playing the album straight through again and again. The best songs here are "Shake It Baby", "Country Boy", "You're Wrong" and the title track "It Serves You Right To Suffer".

A must have album for Blues fans new or old.