The Best of Muddy Waters

by

Muddy Waters

Edit

This is a reissue of the late 1950s lp collecting Muddy's best early sides, 10 from 1947-51, 2 from 1954. It's the way people heard Muddy's classic stuff in the 1960s.

All these tracks plus 8 more are on His Best, 1947-1955. All of those extra tracks are great in their own right. But there is more undiluted power in this configuration, and a better cover. 12 songs--a perfect album.

About the sound: all these tracks (or almost all) come from 78s and 45s that reflect the way this music was originally heard. There are some clicks and pops and even some distortion. But if you compare tracks like Honey Bee you hear power in Muddy's voice and sting in the guitar that aren't in the more recent issue (haven't heard the Chess box). The more recent issue has clearly used some noise reduction and compression, and while it's not bad enough to ruin the music, some of the life and edge has been burnished off of this truly elemental music.

While this is a nice sampler of Waters on a single CD, it

does not represent a comprehensive overview of his career,

which requires a more thorough compilation, such as a box

set. Another problem with this collection is it contains

tracks that were transferred from analog tape, so the

quality of the recording after all these years isn't

going to be that great. Here's the track listing for

this album by Chess Records, with the original composer

in parentheses:

1. I Just Want To Make Love To You 2:49 (Willie Dixon)

2. Long Distance Call 2:38 (McKinley Morganfield)

3. Louisiana Blues 2:49 (McKinley Morganfield)

4. Honey Bee 3:20 (McKinley Morganfield)

5. Rollin' Stone (McKinley Morganfield)

6. I'm Ready 3:01 (Willie Dixon)

7. Hoochie Coochie 2:49 (Willie Dixon)

8. She Moves Me 2:54 (McKinley Morganfield)

9. I Want You To Love Me 3:01 (McKinley Morganfield)

10. Standing Around Crying 3:19 (McKinley Morganfield)

11. Still A Fool 3:14 (McKinley Morganfield)

12. I Can't Be Satisfied 2:41 (McKinley Morganfield)

In addition to the Chess 50th Anniversary Series, which

covers 1947-1955, and 1956-1964, there is another series

which precedes this that may complement the Chess albums

carried by Amazon. The distributor is Allegro Corp,

and the label is Document Records. The catalog number for

the first disc is DOC5146, and the title for the album

is Muddy Waters (McKinley Morganfield) First Recordings

1941-1946 In Chronological Order. This disc contains the

following tracks:

1. Country Blues

2. I Be's Troubled

3. Ramblin' Kid Blues

4. Rosalie

5. Joe Turner Blues

6. Pearly May Blues

7. Take A Walk With Me

8. Burr Clover Blues

9. I Be Bound To Write To You

10. You Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone

11. You Got To Take Sick And Die Some Of These Days

12. Why Don't You Live So God Can Use You

13. Country Blues (No.2)

14. Mean Red Spider

15. I'm Gonna Cut You Head

16. Atomic Bomb Blues

17. Tommorow Will Be Too Late

18. Jitterbug Blues

19. Hard Day Blues

20. Buryin' Ground Blues

21. Come To Me Baby

22. You Can't Make The Grade

23. Rollin' And Tumblin' Pt.1

24. Rollin' And Tumblin' Pt.2

The second disc is Muddy Waters 1945-1950 and the

catalog number is CLC5029, and the distributor is

Allegro Corp, but unfortunately I haven't been

able to find information about the track listing

for this particular album. If you're unable to find

this album, you might just opt for the first Allegro

album and splurge on Anthology, which covers Waters

from 1947-1972. Muddy Waters was arguably one of the

most influential blues musicians of the original

British Invasion era, if not the most influential.