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"…I Woke Up This Morning…Couldn't Even Get Out Of Bed…"
Released in early February 1993 in the USA - the 101 tracks on this 4CD box represented the first proper overview by MCA of the Chess Blues legacy since their acquisition of its entire catalogue way back in 1985. And even now (in 2026) with many subsequent compilations and box sets having followed - I estimate there are still at least 20 to 30 tracks exclusive to this superb box set.
Each CD on "Chess Blues" by VARIOUS ARTISTS has a themed label (listed below) - here's a basic breakdown of what's on MCA/Chess CHD4-9340 (Barcode 076732934029):
Disc 1, 1947-1952, 25 Tracks, Yellow Aristocrat Label (73:31 minutes):
1. Lollypop Mama- CLARENCE SAMUELS
2. Bilbo Is Dead - ANDREW TIBBS
3. Johnson Machine Gun - SUNNYLAND SLIM
4. Fly Right, Little Girl - SUNNYLAND SLIM
5. Little Anna Mae - MUDDY WATERS
6. I Can't Be Satisfied - MUDDY WATERS
7. My Sweet Lovin' Woman - ROBERT NIGHTHAWK
8. I Feel Like Going Home - MUDDY WATERS
9. She Ain't Nowhere - SUNNYLAND SLIM
10. Florida Hurricane - ST. LOUIS JIMMY
11. Memory Of Sonny Boy - FOREST CITY JOE
12. Tonky Boogie - FOREST SYKES
13. Cryin’ The Blues - LAURA RUCKER
14. My Head Can't Rest Anymore - BABY FACE LEROY
15. Big Town Playboy - JOHNNY JONES
16. Sweet Black Angel - ROBERT NIGHTHAWK
17. Rollin' Stone - MUDDY WATERS
18. Luedella - JIMMY ROGERS
19. Mother Earth - MEMPHIS SLIM
20. Dr. Ross' Boogie - DOCTOR ROSS
21. Joliet Blues - JOHNNY ROSS
22. Moanin' at Midnight - HOWLIN’ WOLF
23. All Night Long (Alternate Take) - MUDDY WATERS
24. Mr. Commissioner (Alternate Take) - ARBEE STIDHAM
25. Getting Old And Grey - HOWLIN’ WOLF
Disc 2, 1952-1954, 25 Tracks, Blue Chess Label (73:01 minutes):
1. Walkin' The Boogie (Alternate Take) - JOHN LEE HOOKER
2. Juke - LITTLE WALTER
3. Conjur Man - MEMPHIS MINNIE
4. Who's Gonna Be Your Sweet Man When I'm Gone - MUDDY WATERS
5. Broken Heart (Alternate Take) - MEMPHIS MINNIE
6. Truckin' Little Woman - WILLIE NIX
7. Funeral Hearse At My Door - ROCKY FULLER
8. Hard Time Gettin' Started - EDDIE BOYD
9. Don't Need No Horse - LITTLE WALTER
10. Eight Ball - GUS JENKINS
11. Fast Boogie - LITTLE WALTER
12. I'm Mad - WILLIE MABON
13. Ice Cream Man - JOHN BRIM
14. Whose Muddy Shoes - ELMORE JAMES
15. Got To Have It - WILLIE MABON
16. I Declare That Ain't Right - HENRY GRAY
17. Remember - ALBERTA ADAMS
18. [Untitled Instrumental] - HENRY GRAY
19. Blues With A Feeling - LITTLE WALTER
20. (I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man - MUDDY WATERS
21. Forty-Four - HOWLIN' WOLF
22. Got To Find My Baby (Alternate Take) - LITTLE WALTER
23. Evil - HOWLIN' WOLF
24. Reconsider Baby - LOWELL FULSON
25. Mama Talk To Your Daughter - J.B. LENIOR
Disc 3, 1954-1960, 26 Tracks, Plum Checker Label (73:08 minutes):
1. Mellow Down Easy - LITTLE WALTER
2. My Eyes (Keep Me In Trouble) - MUDDY WATERS
3. My Baby - LITTLE WALTER
4. You Got To Love Me - BILLY BOY ARNOLD
5. Walking The Blues - WILLIE DIXON
6. Don't Start Me To Talkin' - SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON II
7. Smokestack Lightning - HOWLIN’ WOLF
8. Twenty-Nine Ways To My Baby's Door - WILLIE DIXON
9. Right To Love You - PAUL GAYTON
10. Ain't Nobody's Business - JIMMY WITHERSPOON
11. I'm Leaving You - OTIS SPANN
12. Break Of Day - HOWLIN' WOLF
13. Please Don't Go - FLOYD DIXON
14. Keep It To Yourself - SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON II
15. Walking By Myself - JIMMY ROGERS
16. Got My Mojo Working - MUDDY WATERS
17. Fattening Frogs For Snakes (Alternate Take) - SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON II
18. Slow Leake - LaFAYETTE LEAKE
19. Sitting On Top Of The World - HOWLIN' WOLF
20. She Don't Know - J.B. LENIOR
21. Your Funeral And My Trial - SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON II
22. Key To The Highway - LITTLE WALTER
23. Double Trouble (Alternate Take) - MUDDY WATERS
24. Come On Home - EDDIE BOYD
25. The Goat - SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON II
26. So Many Roads, So Many Trains - OTIS RUSH
Disc 4, 1960-1967, 25 Tracks, Brown Argo Label (71:30 minutes):
1. First Time I Met The Blues - BUDDY GUY
2. Too Poor - DETROIT JUNIOR
3. Blue Shadows - LOWELL FULSON
4. The Shakedown - LLOYD GLENN
5. Sun Is Shining (Alternate Take) - ELMORE JAMES
6. Calling On My Darling - ALBERT KING
7. The Red Rooster - HOWLIN' WOLF
8. Nine Below Zero - SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON
9. Goin' Down Slow - HOWLIN' WOLF
10. Satisfied - LITTLE MILTON
11. Something's Got A Hold On Me - ETTA JAMES
12. Wrinkles - THE BIG THREE TRIO
13. Bring It On Home - SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON
14. Good Moanin' Blues - BIG WALTER HORTON
15. Killing Floor - HOWLIN' WOLF
16. What Kind Of Man Is That? - KOKO TAYLOR
17. We're Gonna Make It - LITTLE MILTON
18. Wang Dang Doodle - KOKO TAYLOR
19. Dirty Work Goin' On - LITTLE JOE BLUE
20. One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer - JOHN LEE HOOKER
21. Jinglin' Baby - EDDIE "GUITAR" BURNS
22. That's Why I Don't Mind - MUDDY WATERS
23. Keep It To Myself - BUDDY GUY
24. Sitting Here Alone - HOUND DOG TAYLOR
25. I'd Rather Go Blind - ETTA JAMES
"Chess Blues" was produced and co-compiled by ANDY McKAIE and features a wonderful 64-page booklet detailing track-by-track liner notes by MARY KATHERINE ALDIN of the LIVING BLUES Magazine (she handled the liner notes for many of the early Chess compilations). The text is peppered with classy black & whites photos of Chess giants like MUDDY WATERS, JOHN LEE HOOKER, LITTLE WALTER, HOWLIN' WOLF, WILLIE DIXON, SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON, CHUCK BERRY and ETTA JAMES. There are a few reproduced trade adverts and an opening comment by PHIL CHESS. Best of all though is the read - the paragraphs have great insights into the songs and revelatory information on long forgotten artists like LAURA RUCKER, ROBERT NIGHTHAWK and ARBEE STIDHAM. Just like Peter Grendysa's liner notes in the "Chess Rhythm & Roll" box that followed it, the booklet in this is a peach.
Remastered from Aristocrat and Chess master tapes by ERICK LABSON (over 1,200 credits to his name), the sound is great throughout (except a few tracks dubbed from disc - "Memory Of Sonny Boy" by FOREST CITY JOE from 1949 is one of them).
The music is far grittier than the "Rhythm & Roll" box where the Blues morphed into Rhythm 'n' Blues and then into Soul - but it's equally brilliant. Unreleased gems include the fabulous piano-boogie of "Cryin' The Blues" by LAURA RUCKER sounding like a blues'd up version of Nellie Lutcher (lyrics above) - and a truly electrifying stripped down alternate take of "All Night Long" by Muddy Waters (just Muddy on guitar and Little Walter on harmonica) where he wants his woman to "rock me...all night long...until my back has no bone…"
It's cool to see Doctor Ross, Paul Gayton, Memphis Minnie and Little Milton represented. And outside of the usual spattering of unreleased 'Alternate Takes' to entice collectors (big names like Elmore James, John Lee Hooker and Sonny Boy Williamson) - all the huge hits of the genre (covered by hundreds of bar-bands and big-star names down through the decades) are gathered here in one place and in great audio - Muddy's "I Just Can't Be Satisfied" and "Hoochie Coochie Man", Wolf's "Killing Floor" and "Moaning At Midnight", Mabon's "I'm Mad" (covered by Dr. Feelgood), Little Walter's "My Baby", Hooker's boozy "One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer", Sonny Boy Williamson's "Bring It On Home" (famously covered and rearranged to devastating effect by Zeppelin in 1969 on Led Zeppelin II) and Koko Taylor's fab R 'n' B early Sixties Soul crossover hit "Wang Dang Doodle". It ends with a nod towards the Sixties Blues Rock revolution with the Etta James original "I'd Rather Go Blind" which Britain's Chicken Shack made into an anthem. Oh - and a certain band named themselves after the Muddy Waters track "Rollin' Stone"….
Over 20 years after its release - listening to "Chess Blues" is still a fabulous experience - and although it's not nearly as rare as its follow-up set "Chess Rhythm & Roll" - it's just as desirable...
PS: See also 5 separate reviews - the 1994 4CD box set "Chess Rhythm & Roll" - the mammoth 15CD box set "The Chess Story 1947-1975" issued in 2000 and its 3 separate parts issued as stand-alone 5CD sets in 2003…
