Audio CD review:
Muddy Waters - His Best: 1947 to 1955

Muddy Waters - His Best: 1947 to 1955

Band: Muddy Waters Title: His Best: 1947 to 1955 Rating: Release Date: 25 March, 1997 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: I Can't Be Satisfied 2: I Feel Like Going Home 3: Train Fare Blues 4: Rollin' And Tumblin', Part 1 5: Rollin' Stone 6: Louisiana Blues 7: Long Distance Call 8: Honey Bee 9: She Moves Me 10: Still A Fool 11: Standing Around Crying 12: Baby Please Don't Go 13: I Want You To Love Me 14: I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man 15: I Just Want To Make Love To You 16: I'm Ready 17: Young Fashioned Ways 18: Mannish Boy 19: Sugar Sweet 20: Trouble No More

Editoral Review Documenting Waters's most creatively and commercially successful years at Aristocrat/Chess, this CD begins with his formative years and ends with Waters at his peak. One of the best recordings in Chess Records' 50th Anniverary series is the first of two bookend Muddy Waters collections, His Best 1947-55. So you're in for a lot of terrific bottleneck slide guitar work as well as electric Chicago blues. What's to criticize? Superb remasterings of "I Can't Be Satisfied," "Rollin' and Tumblin'," "I'm Ready," and "Mannish Boy" are simply beyond reproach. With simple bass accompaniment from Ernest "Big" Crawford, Waters's bottleneck tracks are spare, haunting and, quite frankly, perfect country blues. And listening to Waters, Little Walter, Willie Dixon, and Jimmy Rogers piece together (and perfect very quickly) the classic Chicago sound is pure blues epiphany. At the very least, this collection shows you why Waters's rollicking stop-time classics like "Mannish Boy" and "I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man" have sparked endless imitations over the years--and why nobody has played them better since. --Ken Hohman .. You can see a complete list of all Muddy Waters discography, or go back to the Muddy Waters tabs