Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues: Muddy Waters

by Muddy Waters

Overview

One of the major figures of modern American music, Muddy Waters revolutionized the blues and helped to shape the main stem of classic rock 'n' roll. Waters learned country blues growing up in Mississippi during the 1930s and early '40s. Relocating to Chicago, he eventually got himself an electric guitar and put a loud and lively band behind him -- the rest is history. Some of the most powerful of the groundbreaking performances that Waters and his early ensembles recorded can be heard on this well-chosen collection, which includes ”I Can’t Be Satisfied,” “Long Distance Call,” “Got My Mojo Working,” and "( I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man.” Among the celebrated bluesmen supporting Waters’s magnificent vocals and slide guitar are harmonica giant Little Walter, guitarist Jimmy Rodgers, and pianist Otis Spann. The rockers who were influenced by these and other Waters classics -- from the Rolling Stones to Bonnie Raitt, on through today’s blues-informed performers -- are simply innumerable. The set concludes with a later Waters gem, the aptly titled “The Blues Had a Baby and They Named It Rock ‘n’ Roll.”

Product Details

Release Date:	09/09/2003
Label:	Chess
UPC:	0008811325428
catalogNumber:	000048202

Tracks

1. Country Blues, Number One
2. Burying Ground Blues
3. I Can't Be Satisfied
4. Rollin' & Tumblin', Pt.1
5. Rollin' Stone
6. Louisiana Blues
7. Long Distance Call
8. (I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man
9. I Just Want to Make Love to You
10. Mannish Boy
11. Trouble No More
12. Rock Me
13. Got My Mojo Working
14. You Shook Me
15. You Can't Lose What You Ain't Never Had
16. The Blues Had a Baby and They Named It Rock & Roll

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Muddy Waters   Primary Artist,Guitar,Vocals
James Cotton   Harmonica
Earl Hooker   Guitar
Big Walter Horton   Harmonica
Little Walter   Harmonica
A.C. Reed   Tenor Saxophone
Junior Wells   Harmonica
Bob Margolin   Guitar
Fred Below   Drums
Charles Calmese   Bass
Francis Clay   Drums
Ernest "Big" Crawford   Bass
Elgin Evans   Drums
Leroy Foster   Guitar
Pat Hare   Guitar
Ransom Knowling   Bass
Lafayette Leake   Piano
S.P. Leary   Drums
Bob Little   Drums
Pinetop Perkins   Piano
Jimmy Rogers   Guitar
Willie "Big Eyes" Smith   Drums
Otis Spann   Piano
Johnny "Big Moose" Walker   Organ
James "Pee Wee" Madison   Guitar
Willie Dixon Band   Bass
James Clark   Piano

Technical Credits

Willie Dixon   Composer
J.B. Lenoir   Composer
Brownie McGhee   Composer
Leonard Chess   Producer
Phil Chess   Producer
Ulrich Felsburg   Executive Producer
Mel London   Composer
Ellas McDaniel   Composer
Andy McKaie   Producer
McKinley Morganfield   Composer
Muddy Waters   Composer
Vartan   Art Direction
Willie Dixon Band   Producer
Martin Scorsese   Liner Notes,Executive Producer
Margaret Bodde   Producer
Robert Gordon   Liner Notes
Pat Lawrence   Executive Producer
Paul "PDA" Allen   Executive Producer
Richard Hutton   Producer
Jody Patton   Executive Producer
Preston Foster   Composer

Editorial Reviews

As part of the compilation series issued in conjunction with the major television series documentary The Blues, this is a collection of 16 of Waters' more notable performances. Though they span his entire career, actually all but three of them are taken from his prime years for Chess Records between the late '40s and mid-'60s. The two-disc The Anthology: 1947-1972 remains the best Waters best-of (and there have been a number of them) if you want to spend some more money, but this is pretty good if you can be satisfied with a single-disc collection. Many listeners would rate "I Can't Be Satisfied," "Rollin' & Tumblin'," "Rollin' Stone," "Long Distance Call," "(I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man," "I Just Want to Make Love to You," "Mannish Boy," "Trouble No More," "Got My Mojo Working," and "You Shook Me" (all of which are here) as not just indisputably among Muddy's best songs, but also as among the most essential electric blues done by anyone. That doesn't mean that there aren't great tracks that didn't make the cut ("Walkin' Thru the Park," "You Need Love," and "I'm Ready," for starters), but at least those are readily available elsewhere if you do decide you crave more than what's here. As Waters compilations go, this does have the mild advantage of taking in a few items before and after his Chess days, those being one of his acoustic early-'40s Library of Congress recordings ("Country Blues, Number One"), a 1946 track from his Columbia session ("Burying Ground Blues"), and a number from his Johnny Winter-produced 1976 Hard Again album ("The Blues Had a Baby and They Named It Rock & Roll").

All Music Guide - Richie Unterberger