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Hard Again

Muddy Waters - Hard Again Audio CD

A fair review of the Muddy Waters "Hard Again" 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: Hard Again
Rating:

Release Date: 2004-05-18
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Mannish Boy 2: Bus Driver 3: I Want to Be Loved 4: Jealous Hearted Man 5: I Can't Be Satisfied 6: Blues Had a Baby and They Named It Rock and Roll, Pt. 2 7: Deep Down in Florida 8: Crosseyed Cat 9: Little Girl 10: Walking Through the Park [#][*]

Classic
Twelve bars, no chord subtitutions: the definition of the genre. Hard Again is unadulturated Chicago Blues.

Johnny Winter produced this, and brought Muddy Waters into the age of modern amplifacation. "Mannish Boy," rocks so hard with such ressonence, the 1950s verison of the song seems immaciated. "Bus Driver" and "Little Girl" are also classic blues made better by decent recording equiptment.

I notice a difference in the bass playing--much of Water's 50s material used uprights-and there are subtle slides and runs that are not in pre-MaCartney playing.

But beyond this Hard Again is the straight blues we love and not enough modern players have learned.

For any musician or listener, this is essential.

Oh man, this is the electric blues!
I was stunned when I first dropped the needle on this record and the intro of "Mannish Boy" hit my ears and made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I bought this album as a kid, and it was my introduction to Muddy Waters. This is some powerful music, and Muddy Waters is most deserving of the term "blues legend". I wore out my old vinyl version of this album years ago, and just replaced it with this CD version. The clean mastering and clarity of this powerful music only makes me love it all the more.

I have since gone on to buy most of Muddy's catalog (on both vinyl and CD), and had the opportunity to see Muddy open up for Eric Clapton many years ago, shortly before he passed away. Muddy will always embody the true spirit of the electric blues guitar to me, and the album "Hard Again" will always be at the top of my ever-growing blues collection. The standout tracks on this album are the powerful "Mannish Boy", "The Blues Had a Baby and They Named it Rock and Roll" and "Little Girl". This was a comeback for Muddy while he was in his 60's, but he sounds as vital and powerful here as he ever did on any of his earlier works. Having Johnny Winter as part of his band for this only makes it all that much stronger.

If you like electric blues, pick up this CD. . . you won't be sorry.
.

Hard Is Right!
In a world dominated by plastic sounding music(Plastic People! Oh, baby now you're such a draaaaaag! Sorry about that, I couldn't resist), it's so refreshing to listen to a group that doesn't sound like it's playing music simply because it's their job. Not much new I can say about a classic, but I will say that it's very rare anymore to listen to a band and say to yourself, "Hey, these guys sound like they're having a real good time". Now while this was an attempt for Muddy to make a comeback, these guys sound like they love what they're doing so much that they couldn't care less if they sold one copy of the album, or even gave a hoot if they were being recorded at all! Muddy had a fantastic musical career long before this album, but in teaming up with Johnny Winter and his crew, he showed the world that Waters hadn't lost his edge but aged like a fine wine. Purchase!! Purchase NOW!!!!!!!.

HE'S THE M-A-N
Muddy Waters, lays it out from Mannish Boy to Little Girl. He's the man alright. That's what the blues is all about.

Blues you can dance to!
So, when I saw that a Muddy Waters compilation [Anthology] was listed in promotional list of 100 cds you must own, I bought it.
A long, long time ago, I listened to a flatmate's LP of this title and immediately liked two songs in particular: "Mannish Boy" and "I want to be loved". Trouble was, the music in Anthology was NOT like I remembered it in Hard Again. For that reason, I'd only give Anthology about two or three stars out of five.

So, I basically bought Hard Again on CD [the remastered version] to see if I had misrembered the sound of that cd. I hadn't. The sound is near flawless and has great presence. It is often bold and brassy. In "Anthology" the music is more sedate and not as present.

In this album, the music is the offspring of Blues and Rock, and it really is the blues as I now like it. Comparing "Anthology" to "Hard again" is like comparing Bob Dylan to Midnight Oil. Both are socially and politically conscious, but you can dance to Midnight Oil, which is why I always will prefer the Oils to the Bob. The tragedy of The Bob is that other acts always do the definitive versions of his songs. . . poppier or rockier.

"Hard Again" has spanking drums, a free-wheeling harmonica, electric guitar, bass, piano line-up, with perhaps a banjo and washer-board or some such on one song. It is also more up-tempo and energetic than the music in "Anthology".

"Mannish Boy" is still my favourite Waters' song, and this new version of the song is the king of them all y'all. It's boldy, brassy, swinging and with a big beat. It's a raucous party song.

Another song could be renamed "My ol' lady, she done run off with the bus driver blues". It includes an amusingly saucy line to the effect that his ol' lady would be 'riding' the bus driver tonight, or some such. The song features a very cool note picking guitar melody.

"I want to be loved" swings more in this cd than in "Anthology" and has that classic 50's style bass sound, which pops up in other songs in this cd. The song doesn't match my memory of it the first time I heard it [i. e. it's not as catchy as I remembered it, but maybe my tastes have changed].

"I can't be satisfied" is probably my second favourite song on this cd. It has a nice swing to it and some cool note picking on the guitar. Not sure if the "wa wa" effect on vocals is just Muddy or a glitch in the recording. . . not a major drawback if it's a glitch.

"The blues had a baby and they named it rock'n'roll" is good with some amusing lyrics. . . for instance "Queen Victoria said it-'you know the blues got soul'. Well the blues had a baby and they named him rock'n'roll".

"Deep down in Florida" marks a change of pace for Muddy-it's more sedate and has a heavy bass sound. Listening to "Anthology" you are struck by how nearly identical the music is in a few songs [the cliched Blues sound]. "Hard Again" doesn't fall into that trap. . . no recycled sounds.

"Crosseyed cat" is a whimsical song. . . not sure if the title is a slang term or innuendo of some sort. It does have another Blues trait though. . . repeating lyrics. This to me is less of a minus than recycling the same music for different songs.

"Walking through the park" is another track with the classic 50's style rock'n'roll bass sound. His woman in that song is not to be trifled with either. . . "My girl she may cut you. She may shoot you too". I'd feel safer with her in a walk through the park than with Muddy. . . at least I'd know she could handle herself if my big mouth got me into trouble with some unsavoury types.

I wont put up a review of "Anthology" as I am not particularly positive about it. But listening to it I wondered if my pick as the greatest rock band of all time, AC/DC, were influence by Muddy's Blues.
In tracks like "I'm ready", I think you can hear its echoes in AC/DC songs like "TNT", "Livewire" - I mean lyrical content wise. Muddy's song "You shook me" is perhaps more obviously echoed in AC/DC's classic [though by now flogged to death on Australian FM stations] song "You shook me all night long".

Since I'm not reviewing "Anthology" on its own, I'll just jot some of my notes on that cd here: I think one of my notes says that 5 or 6 songs have the same intro as "Louisana Blues". "Still a fool" has a cool sound with a good riff and cool gurgling/howling vocals. Track 23 [didn't jot down its title in my notes" Muddy's vocals are distinctly different-phlegmy, in fact.

Well, that's it for my review. I think Hard Again is the perfect marriage of Blues and Rock and would appeal to the rock crowd easily. Not sure how Blues "Purists" view this album, but to me it is Muddy Waters as I want him to sound.

P. S. I've also reviewed at this site Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra and Midnight Oil, amongst others [including punk cds and heavy metal cds].

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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.