Track Listing

1. Shake It Baby
2. Country Boy
3. Bottle Up and Go
4. You're Wrong
5. Sugar Mama
6. Decoration Day
7. Money (That's What I Want)
8. It Serves You Right to Suffer

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #58605 in Music
• Released on: 1999-07-27
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

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

Customer Reviews

You want to get this now. You will get this now.

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...

Fine band-backed Hook
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. The Hook's singular sense of timing meant that his track record as far as working with bands was concerned was rather spotty, but this thight little three-man combo get it right all the way through.

The sound is excellent as well, courtesy of a splendid remastering job, and unlike Hooker's guest star-plagued latter-day recordings, "It Serves You Right To Suffer" has all the grit and all the feeling. The band stays put in the pocket, never overplaying, never trying to anticipate chord changes that never come, 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 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. Highly recommended.

One of the best blues records you will ever hear- I think
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.