"Electric Mud" by MUDDY WATERS – October 1968 US LP on Cadet Concept Records (January 1969 UK on Chess Records) in Stereo featuring Phil Upchurch, Roland Faulkner and Pete Cosey on Guitars, Gene Barge on Saxophone and Production, Charles Stepney on Organ and Production, Louis Satterfield on Bass and Morris Jennings on Drums (November 1996 US, January 1997 and March 1999 UK, and April 2001 UK/EU CD Reissues on MCA/Chess Records – The Chess Legendary Masters Series – Erick Labson Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry...

US Original LP on Cadet Concept from October 1968 in a gatefold sleeve with insert

UK Original LP on Chess from January 1969 in a Single Laminate Sleeve 

US 1996 CD Reissue and Remaster Using Original US Artwork

UK/EU CD Reissue from 1997 (reissued 1999, 2001) with Alternate Artwork

"...Where You Gonna Run To?..."

A Marmite Blues album from Muddy Waters! Who would have thought it? Or even bought a copy of the ornery bugger when it was first unleashed on an unsuspecting and fractured America in October 1968? Despite "Electric Mud" being a genuine example of a love it or hate it record, many actually bought the plain covered gatefold LP in the autumn of 1968. And almost five decades later – the album is now virtually defied by many in the Hip Hop community - digging its out there nature, fuzzed-up guitars and whack-sample drums. Blues purists would however probably laugh as the thought-police quite rightly disemboweled your unworthy opinion – you saying that "Electric Mud" is wicked man and should be judged on its own merits.

But before we get into the wonder-world of Psych Blues - let's talk about CD digital reissues because there are four on my last count when it comes to this astonishing and divisive album and some have artwork that doesn't reflect the original, different countries with same barcodes etc. Here goes...

First up came the November 1996 American CD variant (36:57 minutes) on MCA/Chess CHD-9364 (Barcode 076732936429) that sports the 'white' worded artwork of the original October 1968 LP on Cadet Records LPS 314 in Stereo. The foldout inlay contained within stretches to six leafs (12 pages double-sided) and shows the weird 8-page insert that came with the original American gatefold vinyl copies - a series of black and white Ron Borowski photos of McKinley Morganfield at the hairdressers getting his beehive pompadour seen too - complete with hairnet and glass-bubble hairdryer shots and a final standing outside the beauty parlor photo. Quite why someone thought that was a great idea escapes me.

The British issue of that American based CD came in February 1997 (itself reissued in March 1999) on MCA/Chess MCD 09364 or Chess 329 364-2 (it has both catalogue numbers on the spine and labels) and was part of 'The Chess Legendary Masters Series' group of CD reissues. These variants came in card digipaks but not only did "Electric Mud" have different artwork, confusingly it had the same Barcode as the American 1996 issue. So when you order using the Barcode, check which issue you're getting. This British variant talked of 32-Bit Digital remasters but it’s the 1996 transfer done by Erick Labson in America. That Remaster was also used for…

Variant number three, an April 2001 UK/EU CD Reissue on MCA/Chess 1125422 (Barcode 008811255428) that appears to have been reissued to promote the massive 15-Disc Box Set "The Chess Story" and the Arum Publishing Book about Chess Records called "Spinning Blues Into Gold". That variant uses the altered artwork too.

Box number four is an October 2011 pairing by England's Beat Goes On Records on BGOCD 1011 (Barcode 5017261210111) that puts his 1969 follow-up album on Cadet "After The Rain" on the same disc as "Electric Mud". That version has a 2011 Andrew Thompson Remaster.

So if you want the original artwork on its own – you need the 1996 US issue – if you're OK with reconfigurations or doubling up – then any of the other three will do. To the music...

1. I Just Want To Make Love To You [Side 1]

2. I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man

3. Let's Spend The Night Together

4. She's All Right

5. I'm A Man (Mannish Boy) [Side 2]

6. Herbert Harper's Free Press News

7. Tom Cat

8. The Same Thing

Tracks 1 to 8 are his fifth studio album "Electric Mud" - released October 1968 in the USA on Cadet Concept Records LPS-314 and January 1969 in the UK on Chess Records CRLS 4542 in slightly altered artwork – both issues in STEREO. Produced by MARSHALL CHESS, CHARLES STEPNEY and GENE BARGE - it peaked at No. 127 on the US LP charts (didn't chart UK)

MUDDY WATERS – Vocals

PHIL UPCHURCH, PETE COSEY and ROLAND FAULKNER – Guitars

GENE BARGE –Tenor Saxophone

CHARLES STEPNEY – Organ

LOUIS SATTERFIELD – Bass

MORRIS JENNINGS – Drums

Purists as you can imagine went nuts - seeing the new direction as a Dylan goes Electric mutinous traitor moment (oh dear). But as Leonard Chess explained in the MARK HUMPHREY penned liner notes, both he and his artist were forged in their times. The album was recorded in May of 1968 - just after globally publicized street fights had rocked France and one month after the assassination of Martin Luther King in Memphis, Tennessee that then shut down 125 American cities with racial rioting. Change and danger was everywhere. And against a backdrop of Timothy Leary dropping acid in his white robes while people read the "Tibetan Book Of The Dead" - Jimi Hendrix played Muddy Waters songs in his live sets while the man who had made them famous went broke.

But Leonard Chess of Cadet Records (the 'concept' label of Chess) was savvy enough to know that white kids were rediscovering the Blues via Cream and Hendrix – re-imported also by The Rolling Stones, The Kinks and The Yardbirds and so on. So surely they would be ripe to rediscover the old hands digging the new hybrid Blues Rock sound or even having the sheer kahunas to go further into the emerging area of Psychedelia.

So Leonard got his brother Marshall Chess, Arranger and Rotary Connection leading light Charles Stepney, along with Engineer and Saxophonist Gene Barge, to record Morgan at Tel Mar Studios in Chicago with hip session-types like guitarist Phil Upchurch, future Mile Davis fuzz-axeman Pete Cosey and drummer for Donny Hathaway and Curtis Mayfield’s Superfly - Morris Jennings. They re-jiggered Willie Dixon standards made famous by Muddy and others like "I Just Want To Make Love To You", "The Same Thing" and "I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man" - but in a Psych Blues way that would excite an accepting new audience. They gave the nod to British Lads who worshipped Blues and R 'n' B by covering "Let's Spend The Night Together" and its rumoured that Hendrix would play "Herbert Harper's Free Press News" for inspiration.

It's also common knowledge from later interviews that MW thought the album was a deposit on the pavement – but despite his personal opinions and the fury of purists who claimed he was watering down his legacy - the reach for that new crowd worked. Leonard Chess recalls that "Electric Mud" shifted somewhere between 150,000 to 200,000 units in late 1968 into early 1969 which was unheard of for a Blues album at the time. So despite his decades of living legend status, "Electric Mud" became Muddy's first album to dent the Rock LP charts – albeit at a lowly No. 127 (stayed on chart for eight weeks).

Fuzz guitar, wah-wah pedals and huge drums come screaming out of the speakers as Muddy roars "I Just Want To Make Love To You" - the Remaster so damn good as the guitar goes wild. You can so hear Hendrix and Buddy Miles on the Funk-Rock of "I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man" - everybody knows I'm here - cat-meowing guitar - great. Sounding like Cream with a new Fuzztone delivery - "Let's Spend The Night Together" is actually radical in its reworking of the Stones classic - Muddy's voice in fab form (feel so strong). Those opening Bass notes and Cymbals on Morgan's own "She's Alright" are frightening - fabulous remaster of a heavy-heavy guitar blasting chugger.

You have to love those cock-a-doodle doo backwards guitar notes that open the craziest version he ever did of "Mannish Boy" - Stepney giving it some bottom-end funk on his piano accompaniment. None other the I-came-from-another-Universe guitarist Jimi Hendrix is said to have played the "Herbert Harper's Free Press News" track to inspire - and on this remaster that emphasizes genuinely wild guitar work from Cosey - you can so hear why. And what a stunning back beat - the rhythm section locked in and kicking. Sounding like a Soft Machine rehearsal, "Tom Cat" worms its horn-funky way into your room like a belly dancer enjoying those mushroom entrees just a little too much. "Electric Mud" finishes on "The Same Thing" - a slow Blues about attraction turned into a Mike Bloomfield guitar funk.

For sure there are those who will say this is a 'big-legged-woman' Muddy Waters album you should ignore, but they is squares man. This is a different version of the Mannish Boy - Little John The Cock-A-Roo gets trippy and fuzzed-up - mad, bad and dangerous to know. And isn't that what Muddy Waters the man...