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...
