John Lee Hooker - It Serve You Right to Suffer

Titles

1. Shake It Baby

2. Country Boy

3. Bottle Up And Go

4. You're Wrong

5. Sugar Mama

6. Decoration Day

7. Money

8. It Serve You Right to Suffer

John Lee Hooker was a blues phenomenon throughout his life. Born in Mississippi, Hooker moved to Chicago after World War II and became a star of the blues scene there. Unfortunately, he had a miserable sense of the right time to record and an even worse nose for choosing the bands he played with. In that light, his one recording for Impuls in 1966 was a real stroke of professionalism.

The Impuls label's session band did the only right thing for this recording, letting the old master play without getting in the way himself. The band consists of William Wills on trombone, Joe Galbreath on guitar, Milt Hinton on bass and David "Panama" Francis on drums. Musically, earthy blues with enormously powerful rhythm is on offer and sonically this is one of the best John Lee Hooker albums.

This recording is from a series of reissues by the legendary Impulse label.