Product Description

Its hard to overestimate the impact of McKinley Morganfield on the Chicago post-war blues scene, and by extension on rocknroll itself. Having come from the heart of the Mississippi Delta (Rolling Fork), he spent the first 28 years of his life close to his birthplace, leaving for the Windy City in 1943. With this set of recordings, which covers the years 1952-1958, we continue the survey of the complete recorded works of Muddy Waters in chronological order. The first fifty tracks of his Aristocrat/Chess career appear on Muddy Waters, Rollin' Stone: The Golden Anniversary Collection (MCA/Chess 2301-2); the present set continues to follow his musical development, and showcases the second fifty sides, picking up where the previous collection ended and spanning an important seven year period in his career. Packaged in a bound booklet, replete with rare photographs and extensive liner notes, this set captures Muddy Waters at the height of his commercial success, and includes literally dozens of songs that influenced rock and blues performers right up to the present day.

Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Standing Around Crying
2. Gone to Main Street
3. Iodine in My Coffee
4. Flood
5. My Life Is Ruined (Landlady)
6. She's All Right
7. She's All Right [Alternate Take]
8. Sad, Sad Day
9. Turn Your Lamp Down Low (Baby Please Don't Go)
10. Baby Please Don't Go [Alternate Take]
11. Loving Man
12. Blow Wind Blow
13. Mad Love (I Want You to Love Me)
14. (I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man [Alternate Take]
15. (I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man
16. She's So Pretty
17. I Just Want to Make Love to You
18. Oh Yeh (Oh Yeah)
19. I'm Ready
20. Smokestack Lightning
21. I Don't Know Why
22. I'm a Natural Born Lover [#]
23. Ooh Wee
24. This Pain
25. Young Fashioned Ways

Disc 2:

1. Want to Be Loved
2. My Eyes (Keep Me in Trouble)
3. Mannish Boy
4. I Got to Find My Baby
5. Sugar Sweet
6. Trouble No More
7. Clouds in My Heart [#]
8. Forty Days and Forty Nights
9. All Aboard
10. Just to Be with You
11. Don't Go No Farther
12. Diamonds at Your Feet
13. I Love the Life I Live (I Live the Life I Love)
14. Rock Me
15. Look What You've Done
16. Got My Mojo Working
17. Good News
18. Evil
19. Come Home Baby, I Wish You Would
20. Let Me Hang Around
21. I Won't Go On
22. She's Got It
23. Born Lover
24. She's Nineteen Years Old
25. Close to You
26. She's Got It [Alternate Take][*]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16712 in Music
• Published on: 2004
• Released on: 2006-09-26
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Box set, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .53 pounds

Customer Reviews

a case where 5 stars doesn't feel like enough
I do have one complaint with this release from Hip-O Select, and it deals with the packaging. Although it LOOKS incredibly handsome on the surface, they have the discs fitting into these tight cardboard slots that are tailor-made to get the discs scratched up, and that's just ridiculous. In this day and age, these guys should really know better.

Still, I say hunker down and grab a couple spare jewel cases to put the two discs of this set in. Because they are truly incredible discs. Muddy was playing with a rhythm section by the time where this set begins--he was in absolute peak form, and innovating in ways that may go underappreciated nowadays but shouldn't be dismissed.

Due to the strict chronological sequencing and thoroughness of the set, there are cases where the same song appears twice in a row, but it's hardly a problem, because songs like the riffy "She's All Right" and the stomping "Baby Please Don't Go" are so great that you won't mind hearing them twice in a row, and the little differences between the two versions are intriguing.

A case can be made that Muddy Waters paved the way for rock & roll more than any other performer. Beyond that though, his music is simply timeless, and resonates in a way those who followed in his footsteps (i.e. the Rolling Stones) have been woefully unable to duplicate. Yes, Muddy's vocals are obviously the REAL DEAL. But also a key 'secret weapon' was Little Walter's brilliant, utterly natural and earthy harmonica playing--just listen for his absolutely hair-raising solo on "I Just Want To Make Love To You" to cite one example.

This wonderful two disc set piles up one soulful classic after another, whether it's the irresistibly swaggering "I'm Ready", "Don't Go No Farther", and "Rock Me", the mind-blowingly swinging-yet-gutsy "Trouble No More", or mournful slow blues numbers like "Standing Around Crying" or "Sad, Sad Day", just to name half a dozen more in addition to the ones mentioned previously.

A couple songs, particularly "Hoochie Coochie Man", have absolutely been done to death, both by Muddy's own endless re-recordings, not to mention all the other artists' covers, but that's a minor gripe.
Ultimately, this set is a treasure. Just buy it, it's beyond essential.

THIS is the best of Muddy Waters
Muddy had a long and brilliangt career, and much of what he recorded for Chess between 1947 and 1952 is seminal. Much of what he recorded for Chess between 1958 and 1975 is very good, some of it (Sings Big Bill Broonzy, Live at Newport, Folk Singer, Fathers & Sons) bordering on essential.

But the real deal is captured in this release. These are the recordings that define Chicago Blues. Great bands, great production, great songs, great singing. What more could you ask for? Little Walter does some of his best playing on these sides, and Dixon provides some of his best songs. All in all, this is Muddy's truly classic period, and this release captures all of it.

Essential.

The Great Muddy Waters!
Wonderful collection, from top to bottom! Muddy's blues is deceptively complicated. The riffs are few notes, but the soul in them is deeper than the Mississippi. Almost anyone can play the notes, but the number of people who can genuinely get the groove is few and far between. This is the real deal!