John Lee Hooker - Disc of the day

John Lee Hooker
It Serves You Right To Suffer

(Impulse! 1966)

Blues legend in the home of jazz.

Lord, I hate the blues! Actually, let me clarify: Lord, I hate blues CDs and blues scholars! Rifling through the CD racks of HMV I’m regularly reduced to a state of weary desperation, thanks to the drab rows of shoddily-repackaged studio albums and ten-track ‘Best Of’s with fuzzily photoshopped purple covers. Then, when I do find an album that looks interesting, some drab egghead in a dusty tome tells me that it’s not a patch on his “authentic” country blues groanings cut for Earwax Records in 1932. As a result, I’ve made some terrible blues purchases over the years but this is one I got right. Cut with producer Bob Thiele for the jazz label Impulse! (although the liner notes seem to think it’s a compilation!), it finds Hooker supported by a guitar/drums/bass trio who add a cool, chugging drive to his lonesome boogies and an eerie, lulling warmth to those mythic, elliptical laments. But what do I know? What is the Hooker/electric blues album that beats them all? I really want to know! Your nominations below…

Andrew Male

Posted by Danny_Eccleston at 6:00 AM GMT 01/03/2008

Further Listening

John Lee Hooker – I’m John Lee Hooker (Charly, 1998)

Cleo Page – Leaving Mississippi (Vine, 2007)

Junior Wells – Hoodoo Man Blues (Delmark, 1999)

SUGGEST YOUR OWN DISC OF THE DAY ON OUR MESSAGE BOARD HERE, OR, MORE PRIVATELY, HERE!

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'Endless Boogie' is a classic from JL's early 70's period. Low down boogies, alchemical jams, and the Hookers's magnificent voice. Truimphant stuff.

Posted by Ange Tsibogiannis at 9:36 AM GMT 01/03/2008 Report Abuse

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'Endless Boogie' is a classic from JL's early 70's period. Low down boogies, alchemical jams, and Hooker's magnificent voice. Truimphant stuff.

Posted by Ange Tsibogiannis at 9:36 AM GMT 01/03/2008 Report Abuse

Reply to this post