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His Best: 1956 to 1964

Muddy Waters - His Best: 1956 to 1964 Audio CD

A fair review of the Muddy Waters "His Best: 1956 to 1964" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Muddy Waters reviews here, or go back to the Muddy Waters tabs.

Band: Muddy Waters
Title: His Best: 1956 to 1964
Rating:

Release Date: 1997-05-20
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: All Aboard 2: Forty Days and Forty Nights 3: Just to Be With You 4: Don't Go No Farther 5: Diamonds at Your Feet 6: I Love the Life I Live, I Live the Life I Love 7: Rock Me 8: Got My Mojo Working 9: She's Nineteen Years Old 10: Close to You 11: Walkin' Thru the Park 12: She's into Something 13: I Feel So Good 14: You Shook Me 15: You Need Love 16: My Love Strikes Like Lightning 17: My Home Is in the Delta 18: Good Morning Little Schoolgirl 19: Same Thing 20: You Can't Lose What You Ain't Never Had

MUDDY Was CLEARLY King!
Playing now in nightclubs, the acoustic rural sound gave way to a booming urban beat. In moving to Chicago from the Mississippi Delta region in 1943, MUDDY WATERS (McKinley Morganfield) essentially remolded the musical language known as The Blues. As a writer once cleverly quipped : by plugging in his guitar, Muddy Waters invented electricity.

'HIS BEST 1956 - 1964' captures the explosive, impassioned sonic Blues that Muddy developed, and which was such an influence on so many bluesmen who emulated him in his wake. Muddy was to Chicago Blues what Elvis was to Rock 'N' Roll - in a word: KING! These tracks feature the Blues King being backed by some of the legendary names of the genre : WILLIE DIXON (bass), JIMMY ROGERS (guitar), BUDDY GUY (guitar), JAMES COTTON (harp), A. C. REED (sax), OTIS SPANN (piano), the underrated S. P. LEARY (drums), and perhaps the most revered Blues instrumentalist of his generation, the harp master, LITTLE WALTER.

These songs cook, rock, menace, sneer (wink and grin). This is raw, foot-stomping stuff, the REAL Blues, the genuine article. Get this, get Howlin' Wolf's Chess sides, and the Complete Recordings of Robert Johnson and you'll discover from where the thieves, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant stole their first two albums!

Blues masterpieces such as most of the tracks presented here (like the rollicking 'ALL ABOARD' to Muddy's signature roof-raising, 'GOT MY MOJO WORKING') are so dynamic, and contain such evocative imagery that one could build a movie around them. And wouldn't you know it? That's just what I did about 15 years ago. The Blues almost became an independent character in an unproduced screenplay I wrote. Flipping through her old vinyl records, the terminally geeky Billy Withers says to the hip, sassy, Jazz & Blues street-singer, Billie Clayton, "Howlin' Wolf, Lightnin' Hopkins, Big Bill Broonzy, Muddy Waters? They sound like they're from the World Wrestling Federation. " She replies, "They're all great bluesmen. " Ah, but ain't it the truth?! And later, Muddy's, 'YOU CAN'T LOSE WHAT YOU AIN'T NEVER HAD' becomes the catalyst for the defining moment in my movie when Clayton refrains from murdering her unborn child.

And yet my favorite track is 'THE SAME THING. ' With its lyrics punctuated by Spann's brief piano bursts, this moody, carnally-charged ballad shows how the Blues, in "proper" circles, came by the disparaging moniker, "the devil's music. "

WHAT MAKE MEN GO CRAZY WHEN A WOMAN WEAR HER DRESS SO TIGHT?
MUST BE THE SAME OL' THING THAT MAKES A TOMCAT FIGHT ALL NIGHT.

WHY DO ALL OF THESE MEN TRY TO RUN A BIG-LEG WOMAN DOWN?
MUST BE THE SAME OL' THING THAT MAKES A BULLDOG HUG A HOUND.

OH, THAT SAME THING!
TELL ME WHO'S TO BLAME? THE WHOLE WORLD'S FIGHTIN' ABOUT THAT SAME THING.

WHAT MAKE YOU FEEL SO GOOD WHEN YOUR BABY GET HER EVENING GOWN?
MUST BE THE SAME OL' THING THAT MADE A PREACHER LAY HIS BIBLE DOWN.
OH, THAT SAME THING!

By all means, dive into MUDDY WATERS. Get 'HIS BEST 1956 - 1964' and see what kind of movie it inspires you to write. Or perhaps you'll just want to turn it up loud and let it rock you "all night long"; rock you like your "back ain't got no bone!"
.

You gotta have it!
I don't play in blues bands. If the first part of this series gives you the transition from delta slide acoustic to electric blues versions of the same thing, and some of the most graphic and personal recordings of the blues ever done, besides standards no cultured person can be without, this CD is a record of the birth and perfection of the electric blues band, and a classic version of that band with some of the greatest soloists of the blues working for Muddy. In fact, the most band music I play is in old timey string bands, but still this record speaks to me about the meaning of a tight band, the way great soloists can work with a great master, and the way a great creator created what we now call the Chicago Blues (which was actually the third or fourth wave of Chicago based blues).
Of course, like the previous CD in this series, the songs are so much fun, speak so much truth, and are such a strong part of the real culture, not just of the blues, but of the entire world, that you should have it. I think this series is all right to have, because with Muddy, you need to have it all, at least up to about 1962 or 1963 when he started making toooooooooooooooo many albums and making rip off albums for the "folk blues audience," although the album with that title is a superb one.
If you don't know, Muddy Waters is still one of the great artists of the 20th Century in any genre. You are loving somet hing precious about the world if you don't have his classic recordings.

Great overview of Muddy's late-50s-mid-60s material

This is not a complete career retrospective, obviously, but if you don't want to invest in the elaborate three-disc "Chess Box", the two "His Best" CDs are a very fine alternative. A must-have companion volume to "His Best: 1947-1955", this CD brings together almost all of Muddy Waters' finest songs from 1956-64, including superb electric blues classics like "Forty Days And Forty Nights", "Got My Mojo Working", "The Same Thing", and the swinging, swaggering "I Love The Life I Live, I Live The Life I Love". The only "problem" is that the superbly well compiled double-disc "Anthology 1947-72" features 50 songs and costs a dollar or two less than this CD and "His Best: 1947-1955" put together, which makes it a slightly better purchase.
4 1/2 stars. You can't argue with what's here.

Not as good and gritty as 1947-55, but still excellent
The singer was now far removed from the rowdy environments, grueling day labor and lack of genuine opportunity that inspired most blues songs. By the late fifties, Muddy Waters was as rich and famous as an African-American performing a distinctly African-American form of music could be in the late fifties. Thus, this compilation, collecting Waters' best cuts from the late fifties and early sixties, is significantly less gritty than its companion piece, His Best 1947 to 1955. A loss of rawness and gutsy-ness, however, should not be confused with a loss of ability, passion and relevance (or at least not a complete loss of ability, passion and relevance). Waters is still the powerful vocalist, clever wordsmith and dynamite guitar player he was when he released "She Moves Me" and "Mannish Boy. " Although it is not the unyielding succession of great material that is 1947 to 1955, 1956 to 1964 is home to more than a few undeniable blues classics, "You Can't Lose What You Ain't Never Had," "Forty Days and Forty Nights," "Rock Me," and "Got My Mojo Workin'" among them.

Two musical changes signify Waters' change in status. First of all, Waters relied less on touch-talking like that found in pervious hits such as "Rollin' Stone" and "Hoochie Coochie Man" and more on love and relationship-related lyrics. Such songs range from breezy and gentle ("Just to Be With You," "Rock Me") to fast and celebratory ("Close to You," "You Need Love") to cool and upbeat ("She's Into Something," "Diamonds at Your Feet") to painfully mournful ("You Can't Lose What You Ain't Never Had," "Forty Days and Forty Nights) but are always filled with passion and gusto and continually give the impression that Waters always gave 100%. Second of all, as the words are less intense, the music is given a greater chance to breathe. These tracks feature greater emphasis on instrumentation, which is absolutely no drawback, when instrumentation is supplied by the likes of James Cotton, Jimmy Rogers, Earl Hooker, Little Walter and Buddy Guy. The tracks on which this change is most pleasantly apparent include "All Aboard," featuring an unforgettable dual between harmonica players, Cotton and Little Walter; "Good Mourning Little School Girl" in which the backing band joins together in euphoric companionship and the astounding "Got My Mojo Workin'," in which every performer seems to be racing against another. For moments such as these, His Best 1956 to 1964, despite being a downgrade in roughness and consistentcy from His Best 1947 to 1955, is another important addition to any blues collection.

Prefer the Earlier Years
The song content is sometimes gimmicky here; I suspect he was thinking about his audience too much. While Muddy Waters is always a quantum leap above most other blues men, I prefer the earlier compilation: "His Best 1947-1956". There are even some songs I have to skip entirely.

Still a great CD to own for these songs: A fantastically swinging "All Aborad" with great harmonica playing again by Little Walter, "Forty Days & Forty Nights", a very serious "Rock Me" and my favorite - "You Shook Me".

Perhaps more than the earlier compilation, these songs show a range of structure that's wide and high.

You can see a complete list of all Muddy Waters discography, or go back to the Muddy Waters tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.