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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
****1/2. Better sound, better mixes, November 19, 2004
This review is from: Muddy Mississippi Waters (Dig) (Audio CD)
The original seven-track Muddy 'Mississippi' Waters Live" album was a nice, but ultimately inessential record.
However, this 2003 deluxe edition (similar in design to the deluxe edition of the Allman Brothers Band's "Live At Fillmore East") restores the truncated mixes of the originally released songs, it adds another disc of previously unreleased material, and both discs have been digitally remastered. The drums and the bass may have been left a little too much in the background at times, but the vocals, the guitars, the harmonica and the piano are superbly crisp and clear, notably better than on the original CD release.
Disc one has been fleshed out a little bit...the original mixes have been scrapped in favour of new and usually better ones, something which is particularly audible on the leadoff track, "Mannish Boy", which is two minutes longer than on the 1979 LP (and the original CD issue) due to the inclusion of a verse sung by Johnny Winter.
Other highlights include the slow groove of "Streamline Woman", and a swaggering nine-minute "Deep Down In Florida", and Muddy's take on Sonny Boy Williamson's "Nine Below Zero" is terrific; less tense and punchy than Sonny Boy's, but solidly swinging on harpist Jerry Portnoy's wonderful riffing and a swaggering backbeat by drummer Willie "Big Eyes" Smith.
The tight and muscular band includes Johnny Winter on several songs, but even with four guitarists the musicians manage not to step on each others toes too much, or engage in meaningless flailing...with the possible exception of Waters himself, actually. I hate to say it, and I don't deny that Muddy used to be a really good slide guitarist before the 1970 traffic accident that almost killed him, but some of these lenghty "solos" are pretty much just noise. Ugly, screeching sounds. Ugh!
Still, that is a minor complaint, and it is just about the only one I can come up with. Well, maybe we've heard "Baby Please Don't Go" a few too many times, and Muddy himself sounds less than excited about it as well.
Anyway, disc one is quite strong, but disc two will certainly hold the most interest for longtime fans, of course, since this material, which was recorded at the same series of August, 1978 shows as the songs on disc one, has not previously seen the light of day.
Opening with a lenghty soliloqui by Muddy Waters, and a "Stormy Monday Blues" which doesn't quite match T-Bone's original, it features a swinging "Trouble No More", an interesting "Champagne And Reefer", and the irresistable piano-driven "Corrine, Corrina".
This rendition of "Hoochie Coochie Man" has a lot of power as well, and the mix is one of the best on the entire album, finally bringing the bass and the drums to the forefront. And the rarely heard "She Moves Me", an early track from the Aristocrat days, is a nice inclusion, as is the slow, intense "Mad Love (I Want You To Love Me)", and Joe "Pinetop" Perkins' nimble performance of Clarence "Pinetop" Smith's classic "Pinetop Boogie Woogie".
You'd think that a nine-minute "Kansas City" would likely overstay its welcome, but it doesn't, mostly thanks to the wonderful band and a couple of great guitar solos. And the album finally winds down with the great, up-tempo swing of "Everything's Gonna Be Alright" (sung in part by Luther "Guitar Jr." Johnson), and a fast, aggressive "Got My Mojo Working" with a nice, meaty harmonica solo and some superb drumming.
This double-disc reissue includes an essay by Muddy-guitarist Bob Margolin, as well as Muddy Waters encouraging the audience to "smoke a little reefer, people", and it would be a nice addition to any Muddy-fan's collection. It is not necessarily better than some of the other excellent live recordings left behind by Muddy Waters (like "The Lost Tapes", "Mojo", "Chicago 1979" and of course the Newport album), mainly because it doesn't really add anything new to Muddy's vast legacy...almost all of these tracks have been issued before in equally fine live versions (musically, at least).
But 4 1/2 stars anyway, because it's just so good! Even if there are other, less highly touted live recordings of the legendary Muddy Waters band which are just as good, or, in some cases, just a little bit better.
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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
great 1st disc, incredible 2nd!!!, September 19, 2003
This review is from: Muddy Mississippi Waters (Dig) (Audio CD)
When this first came out, it was deservedly recognized with grammy nominations. The set featuring Johnny Winters is so good, you hardly notice the distraction Winters represented. "Mannish Boy," "She's 19," and "Deep Down in Florida" are remarkable workouts. Winters has an annoying slide guitar in his own catalogue, but here, trying to squeeze in among Muddy's sidemen, he's kept in check. He did a great job on the production and remastering, and the set has a presence it did not have digitally at first. There is a comment among the reviewers that prefers the vinyl, but I'd say this remaster is better.
However, it's the second disc that makes this essential listening. Stripped of the record label presence, and allowed to do their thing, this is a more accurate reading of just how incendiary Muddy Waters and his band were on any given night. Be it the loose boogie of "Pinetop's Boogie" or the white hot tear down of "Mojo", this set just blazes, smokes and leaves the first disc in the dust. That's true of most of that vinatge of Chicago bluesmen: the whiteboys should have stayed at the bar. They tended to slow things down and dilute the feral power. "Champagne and Reefer" and "Hoochie Coochie Man" fry the audience on both sides. This is a terrific club set and well worth the price all by itself.
Muddy Waters was so importnat to post WW2 music that you ought to seek out any of his recordings. But it was live that set him apart from everyone else. Both of these discs illustrate that categorically.
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
DESERVES A 6TH STAR, October 31, 2003
This review is from: Muddy Mississippi Waters (Dig) (Audio CD)
How do you improve upon a 5 star Grammy winning live album from a blues legend? Remaster the original album (with a longer version of Mannish Boy), add another disc with almost an hour of unreleased music not used the first time around, and a 22 page booklet containing essays by Robert Gordon and Bob Margolin as well as photos of Muddy through the years. This Legacy double disc set deserves a 6th star. Muddy's best just got better.
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