Muddy Waters Debut US LP on Chess Records
"Muddy Waters Sings "Big Bill""
Remastered Beautifully Inside "You Shook Me..." US 2CD Hip-O Select Set
"...Take The Bitter With
The Sweet..."
Remastered by one of Universal's
top Audio restoration engineers – ERICK LABSON – this hard-copy digital-double
will allow fans of Chicago Delta Blues legend Morgan McKinleyfield to sequence
thirteen of his Chess 45s between 1959 and 1963. And more importantly to us, both of his start-out Mono LPs on Chess Records – the live genius of "Muddy
Waters At Newport" from December 1960 and his rare debut album of covers
for Big Bill Broonzy - "Muddy Waters Sings "Big Bill"" from
June of 1960. To the CD details first...
The third volume in American
label Hip-O Select's three-part reissue series - "You Shook Me: The Chess
Masters Volume 3, 1958 to 1963" was USA released December 2012 on Hip-O
Select/Geffen/Chess/Universal B10017581-02 (Barcode 602537164653) as a 2CD
Anthology of Remasters.
Disc 1 has 26 tracks at 71:16
minutes - Disc 2 has 23 tracks at 73:03 minutes. Here are the track-by-track
details - [16/1] is Track 16 on Disc 1 - [1/2] is Track 1 on Disc 2 etc.
1. "Muddy Waters Sings
"Big Bill""
Chess LP 1444 (released June
1960 in Mono)
Side 1:
1. Tell Me Baby [16/1]
2. Southbound Train [9/1]
3. When I Get To Thinking [17/1]
4. Just A Dream (On My Mind)
[10/1]
5. Double Trouble [18/1]
Side 2:
1. I Feel So Good [11/1]
2. I Done Got Wise [15/1] [aka
"Baby, I Done Got Wise"]
3. Mopper's Blues [6/1]
4. Lonesome Road Blues [5/1]
5. Hey, Hey [12/1]
2. "Muddy Waters At
Newport"
Chess LP 1449 (released
December 1960 in Mono, 2001 expanded CD remaster)
Side 1:
1. I Got My Brand On You (Live)
[1/2]
2. I'm Your Hoochie Koochie Man
(Live) [2/2] [aka "(I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man"]
3. Baby, Please Don't Go (Live)
[3/2]
4. Soon Forgotten (Live) [4/2]
5. Tiger In Your Tank (Live)
[5/2] [aka "(I Wanna Put A) Tiger In Your Tank"]
Side 2:
1. I Feel So Good (Live) [6/2]
2. Got My Mojo Working (Live)
[7/2]
3. Got My Mojo Working, Part 2
(Live) [8/2]
4. Goodbye Newport Blues (Live)
[9/2]
[Note: "Goodbye Newport
Blues" features OTIS SPANN on Lead Vocals and Piano]
The 3-way card digipak has a
textured feel and is a lot less elaborate than its Volume 2 predecessor (book
form 2CD set). And while the 28-page booklet has pretty colour photos and July
2012 liner notes by MARY KATHERINE ALDIN - it feels way too slight for such an
important release and artist of this stature (gorgeous picture though of Muddy
with Big Bill Broonzy on Page 5). Having said that the set's been compiled by
great names like ANDY McKAIE and remastered/restored by one of Universal's top
engineers - ERICK LABSON - a man with well over 1,300 tape transfer credits to
his name (including most of the huge Chess Records catalogue). It sounds
wonderful - clean, full of presence and not too trebled for the sake of it.
The 10-track debut LP
"Muddy Waters Sings "Big Bill"" was recorded over two
sessions – June 1959 for six - Lonesome Road Blues, Mopper's Blues, Southbound
Train, Just A Dream (On My Mind), I Feel So Good and Hey, Hey - with July/August
1959 for the remaining four – Baby, I Done Got Wise [credited on the sleeve as
I Done Got Wise], Tell Me Baby, When I Get To Thinking and Double Trouble.
While
seven songs were exclusive to the LP – three had been debuted as 45-singles – "I
Feel So Good" on Chess 1748 in 1960 with "When I Get To Thinking" as its flipside
and "Tell Me Baby", which was the B-side of "Recipe For Love" on Chess 1739 in 1959 ("Recipe..." is Track 14 on Disc 1).
The band featured JAMES
COTTON on Harmonica (all songs except Tell Me Baby), PAT HARE on Lead Guitar as
well as Acoustic Guitar on Tell Me Baby, OTIS SPANN on Piano except Tell Me
Baby, ANDREW STEPHENSON on Bass with FRANCIS CLAY and WILLIE SMITH on Drums.
Morgan opens his long-player
account with a fantastic sounding "Tell Me Baby" – Pat Hare plucking
his acoustic guitar in the left speaker while a huge drum whacks the right.
Muddy warbles his pain documenting hour-by-hour mistreating by his woman who
(naturally) studies evil all the time. Otis Spann Piano gets introduced
alongside James Cotton Harmonica for the work-so-hard "Southbound Train"
– and even in Mono the presence Labson has gotten out of these recordings in
truly fantastic (got your ticket right there in your hand).
We flick back to the July
1959 session for a tell-your-daddy about your jiving and carrying on with every
hood in town "When I Get To Thinking" – a subtle shuffling Chicago
Blues that rhymes paycheck with breaking her neck (literally). Clear as a bell
James Cotton Harmonica punches your speaker for "Just A Dream (On My Mind)" while
Double Trouble slows everything down to a moaning Harmonica and Piano Blues as
it ends Side 1 (Muddy has troubles and nothing to ease his worried mind).
Side 2 opens with another
jaunty winner in "I Feel So Good" (easy to see why it was chosen as a 45), Muddy all happy because he got a letter from
his baby in the US mail and the man feels like balling a jack (who wouldn't).
The album now offers up the only Morgan McKinleyfield original on the LP – credited as "I Done
Got Wise" – a tale of our boy needing to get wise to her tricks. The audio leaps
fantastically for "Mopper's Blues" – a great jaunting Rhythm 'n' Blues shuffler. The
same goes for "Lonesome Road Blues" – the first song cut at that June 1959
session with the trio of Pat Hare on Guitar, Cotton on Harmonica and Spann on
Piano dominating the beautifully recorded soundstage. Muddy Waters ends his
debut album with a bopper – muscular audio for the repeated chorus of "Hey, Hey"
where he tells his baby that he loves her but he still ain't gonna be her dog.
Nice one...
For sure the huge songs he
would be associated with are not quite here – but don't let that put you off –
the magic, the mood, the playing and that stunning audio here will knock your socks
off. And right now in March 2022, I can only think of a young Mick Jagger and
Keith Richards meeting on an English suburban train in the early 60ts with
Muddy Waters and Little Walter Chess LPs under their arms and the sheer genius
of that reflected in every part of this gorgeous 2CD set...
Hip-O Select Chess Masters Series of CD compilations for MUDDY WATERS
1. "Rollin' Stone: The
Golden Anniversary Collection"
June 2000 USA 2CD set on MCA/Chess/UMG 088 112 301-2 (Barcode: 008811230128)
(The 50-tracks of this 2CD
set cover 1947 to 1952 on the Aristocrat and Chess labels in chronological
order and although it doesn't have a Hip-O Select reference or call itself Volume 1 – it effectively acts as Part 1 in this ongoing series)
2. "Hoochie Coochie Man
- The Complete Chess Masters Volume 2, 1952-1958"
December 2004 USA 2CD Book
Pack on Hip-O Select/Chess B0002758-02 (No Barcode)
3. "You Shook Me - The
Chess Masters Vol. 3, 1958-1963"
December 2012 USA 2CD set on Hip-O Select/Geffen/Chess/Universal
B10017581-02 (Barcode 602537164653)
